Asks Dr Rudi Webster
MS Dhoni, the former captain of Team India, once told me that the principal difference between the good performer or the good organization and the others is the interval between mistakes. He explained that when a good coach, player or organization makes a mistake they learn from it and hardly ever repeat it, whereas lesser coaches or organizations make mistakes, learn little or nothing from them and keep repeating them at regular intervals. CWI fits into the latter category.
Richard Pybus was recently appointed by CWI as West Indies Head Coach. He is now on his third stint in West Indies cricket. To describe his previous contributions to our cricket as successful and productive would be an enormous stretch. As Director of Cricket, his so-called important and revolutionary initiatives did not bear the expected fruit, and one can argue that the standard of West Indies cricket declined during that time. He clearly did not understand the culture of the West Indian people or the culture and the psyche of the West Indian players. One can also argue that this misunderstanding contributed to an increase in polarization, conflict and insularity, three destructive cultural forces that Worrell and Lloyd eliminated in their quest for world supremacy in cricket.
Wasim Akram the great Pakistani player once told me: “For overseas coaches it is important for them to learn and understand the culture of their players. Otherwise their communication and effectiveness will suffer. If I were coaching a West Indian player I would first find out what West Indian culture was all about.”