Former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd believes more first-class cricket is the key to developing West Indies cricket.
Lloyd shared these views while appearing on the Mason and Guest radio programme in Barbados recently.
According to the Guyanese icon, “We need to get our young players to play a little more first-class cricket and the point is we need to improve the standards of our first-class cricket because from there you are into a Test match and these guys now will be able to pick all your faults as quickly as possible.”
The two-time World Cup winning captain, looked at the opening position and highlighted that while Kieran Powell looked decent in the South Africa series, there is not much cricket in between Tests for him to gain form.
“If you looked at the second innings against South Africa, Powell handled the pace very very well, he didn’t look out of place but I mean the point is there is no cricket to follow up, he has to go back into the nets so that is the problem we have and there are no games in between for them to run into any particular form,” Lloyd stated.
He added, “Powell has been a good cricketer but the point is people will always call him to do well because he has been there and around for a while and they are not producing.”
Powell has played 43 Tests in his career and despite scoring three hundreds and seven half centuries, he averages just 26. Since his return to Test cricket this year after a near three-year hiatus, his five innings has produced just 74 runs with a best of 51.
“We will have to look for someone that will stay with the captain because he doesn’t matter how many balls he faced he is there and he is doing his job as an opener. We need to find someone around the Caribbean. We still have a lot of good cricketers around so we have to try people until we find that particular person,” Lloyd said.
Meanwhile, Lloyd observed that Kyle Mayers’ “bat is slanted that’s why the ball is running off to the edge,” and advised the player to try and correct the issue.
“You have to go into the nets and if you get that machine, they have to get behind the ball, and they are not getting behind the ball. I don’t know if they are not picking up the ball early,” he said.
The 76-year-old Lloyd added, “There are three things in batting that never change, sighting the ball, picking the line and length up and playing the shot accordingly, those three things will never change and I think we need to get the players in the nets. They are not playing any games in between and that is another thing that is needed. You play a Test match, you should be able to have a little four-day game somewhere so you could get back your timing and so on, so when you are just playing Test match you have nowhere to go and work and iron out all those faults.”
Mayers has played seven Tests since his debut back in February where he made 40 and 210 not out in his debut match. Since then he has scored 5, 6, 45, 52, 49, 55, 1, 12, 12, 34, 0 and 0.
