One of the facets commonly listed for the decline of West Indies cricket over the last three decades is the poor level of talent available and hence the low quality of what actually rises to the top tier to play Test cricket. On the surface it appears to be the major contributing factor and a relatively easy observation to make. However, two award winning writers who have analyzed the myth of talent and success have arrived at a different conclusion.
Former England number one ranked table tennis player, Matthew Syed explores the theme in his book, “Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success” (2010), as does Malcolm Gladwell in his bestseller, “Outliers” (2008). Syed noted, “We like to think that sport is a meritocracy – where achievement is driven by ability and hard work – but it is nothing of the sort.” In the latter, Gladwell stated, “The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves, but in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”
Syed, who at one point in time was the 25th ranked player in the world, cited the very extensive investigation into performance, which was conducted in 1991 by Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State University and two colleagues, as an example. The subjects of their research project were children violinists at Germany’s world renowned Music Academy of West Berlin, who were split into three groups. The first group comprised those children supposedly blessed with the gift of musical genes and considered to be super talented, the ones destined to become international soloists, the pinnacle in the musical world. The second group consisted of students deemed to be extremely good, not as accomplished as the soloists, but bound for careers with the top orchestras in the world. The last group was made up of the children studying to become music teachers.
The groups had been determined by the assessments of the professors and corroborated by objective measures such as performances in open competitions. After several rounds of interviews, Ericsson’s group discovered that the biographical histories of the musicians were strikingly similar; commenced practicing at around eight years old whence they began formal lessons, chose to pursue a musical career just before turning 15, had been exposed to an average of 4.1 music teachers and had studied an average of 1.8 musical instruments beyond the violin. However, the study revealed one stark difference between the three groups – the number of hours dedicated to serious practice. By the time they turned 20, the leading violinists had completed an average of 10,000 hours of practice, 2,000 more than the second group, and 6,000 more than the aspiring music teachers. The top achievers had devoted thousands of additional hours in their quest to become master performers.
The findings prompted the Ericsson group to note, “We deny that these differences [in skill level] are immutable; that is, due to innate talent. Instead we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long persistence of deliberate effort to improve performance.” The children seeking to attain the zenith of their profession were willing to practice longer, harder, and smarter. This dedication was complemented by the support mechanism of the right teachers, access to decent facilities and the coalition of factors – such as parental support – which leads to the top.
Naturally, this leads to the question, how long does it take to achieve world class status in a particular field? Extensive research suggests that from art to science to sport that ten years of dedicated practice or rehearsal or pursuit of an activity is required for the attainment of excellence. This equates to roughly 1,000 hours per annum according to Gladwell (who noted that it is difficult to sustain the quality of practice beyond such time), who equates the 10-year rule to the 10,000 hours dictum.
The road back up to the top of the zenith of the cricket world for the West Indies is long and arduous. Besides, identifying a core group at an early age, who are willing to dedicate the quality time, the necessary uniform support systems have to be in place throughout the Caribbean including, a standard coaching programme in the primary and secondary schools conducted by qualified coaches, the improvement of the quality of cricket pitches and the upliftment of the standard of play at the club level. Innate ability will only get one so far, dedicated practice involving hundreds of hours in the nets are a prerequisite for excellence. Are our young cricketers willing to do the work?
