BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Former West Indies fast bowler Kenny Benjamin says cricket in the Caribbean is suffering from players’ lack of loyalty and commitment, and intervention is required to save the sport.
The Antiguan called for coaches, mentors, teachers and parents to “teach these youngers, even before they get into national youth teams and so on, about commitment and loyalty”.
“We cannot just believe we want to make money from cricket and we’re not loyal to anyone or any particular thing. The mentality and the thinking show me why we are struggling,” he said on Mason & Guest radio show here on Tuesday night when asked what advice he would give to young Windies cricketers to improve their performances, particularly in the longer format of the game.
Benjamin’s comments also came against the background of controversial public outbursts by West Indies batting star Chris Gayle who unleashed a verbal attack on his former Windies teammate Ramnaresh Sarwan after being released from Caribbean Premier League (CPL) franchise team Jamaica Tallawahs.
In a three-part video on YouTube in which he referred to the Tallawahs assistant coach in unflattering terms, Gayle accused of conspiring with management of the franchise to get rid of him.
The 53-year-old Benjamin, who played 26 Tests and 26 One Day Internationals for the West Indies in his career, said disagreements among players back then were handled differently.
“A guy said something, you deal with it, you tell him off and you move on. It was more a fight between the territorial boards. Now West Indies Cricket Board is trying to become a professional organization, it seems to me it’s like it’s the players now where there is a separation. It seems to me like dog eat dog, every man for himself, everybody thinking in their own space,” he complained.
“And I think that is the challenge for us and we need to fix that, and we need to fix that at a very early age because once you go into international level with that mentality, that kind of mindset, it’s going to create some problems.”
Benjamin also had some suggestions for Cricket West Indies to improve the regional game.
“We need to make the regional franchise fully professional. They need to function that way and not just the regional level. They need to look at youth development, coaching education, all of these things have to be in play and have to be working as a well-oiled machinery,” he said.
“What we’re seeing at an international level is just the fruit that we’re bearing. So we really and truly have to start to get the franchises functioning properly, making sure that when these guys would have reached Under-19s, the whole mindset and the whole training, the mental aspect and everything would be ready for them to move on to the next level.”