Letter to the Sports Editor…Is the WICB serious about cricket development or merely bluffing

Jun 18, 2015 Sports

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Dear Sports Editor,
World Cup 2015 has been over for some time now and we are in another phase of West Indies cricket.  WI Cricket fans seem to have already forgotten the embarrassment that was foisted on our beloved game during that unforgettable period, and the WICB President has quickly engaged the “distract mode” by making the following announcements:
1. A promise to attend to the pitch – an area of concern that has been constantly talked about for years with no positive action taken.
2. Enlistment of a head coach (in the person of Mr. Phil Simmons) after the World Cup when it would have been more useful to have had him or someone else for some time before that important Tournament.
3. Engaging Caricom to discuss matters that include Government’s role in WI cricket.  It is indeed shocking to find that Mr. Cameron only now recognizes that Governments have a role to play after he and his Directors devastated cricket in Guyana over the past four years citing Government’s intervention, when in fact Government only became involved as a result of major cricket administrators’ request for assistance and resolution from an illegal group that has hijacked cricket in Guyana. The WICB never met with Guyana’s Cricket Stakeholders to try and resolve the issues.
This seems to be just talk, the usual bluff game designed to keep the WI populace in check while the incompetent WICB continues to waste away the human and financial resources of Caribbean cricket.
For regardless of the quality of the head coaches appointed at the test level and the complete rehabilitation of all the pitches in the Caribbean, WI Cricket will not improve significantly until and unless there are serious pragmatic and structural changes in both the administration and technical aspects of our cricket from the school (grassroot) level upwards to the WICB.
It follows therefore that this umpteenth governance review would be a futile exercise unless it is meaningfully established as, given its past record; the WICB will not implement any recommendation that doesn’t suit its self-serving purpose.
Public acceptance of the decisions could be guaranteed by ensuring the following:
1. That the Governance Committee includes five members who are above reproach and are appropriately qualified in the areas of governance, law and finance with a working knowledge of WI Cricket administration being a key feature.
2. That no member of the current WICB should be on the Governance Committee, particularly since the terms of reference must include the need to investigate each territory of the WICB for compliance on the issues of free and fair elections, financial accountability and technical competence in their cricket administrative operations.  Members of that cabal shamelessly band together on issues, even though their decisions would adversely affect the very objective of their responsibility – the development of cricket in the region.
3. That the WICB must make available its books for forensic scrutiny thereby paving the way for progress in the anticipated turnaround of WICB cricket with specific reference to its accountability, financial and otherwise, and how this relates with member territories and funding sources.
Should the current WICB agree to this, then there is hope.  I am however of the belief that they will not for they are merely bluffing in order to acquire the forgiveness and acceptance of the cricketing public.  So let us test their sincerity one more time. Maybe Caricom could influence Governments to fund the Governance Committee exercise only if the shifty WICB directorate agrees to the terms suggested above. We have been down the road of WICB deception many times before.
Let’s hope and pray that this time they would agree in the best interest of WI cricket.
In reviewing what transpired throughout the South Africa Tour and the 2015 World Cup debacle, it is evident that maximum preparation is required to present the best combination of participants to compete at the international level and moreso in the premier cricketing spectacle – the World Cup. Players must be carefully selected and fully prepared for such engagements well in advance, since the image and quality of the West Indies Cricket would be on show to the entire world.
In my view, the WICB irresponsibly sent a group of players (not a team) to represent us on the world stage; that group was not a cohesive unit and seemed totally unaware of what was expected of them.  This was not fair to the fans, the image of WI cricket, the WI people and the players themselves.  It was obvious that the WI Cricket Administration was unsure of what they wished to achieve, except of course to punish certain players.
Key factors to note are:
1. The cricket group was selected amongst utter confusion after the Indian Tour debacle, instead of being identified sometime between six months to one (1) year before the tournament in order to facilitate acceptable preparation.
2. Some members of the group were not in agreement with the omission of certain top players.
3. The Captain selected was utterly inexperienced and had an equally inexperienced vice-captain whose record as captain of a Regional Team could not justify his appointment in preference to any of the other senior players in the squad.
4. The lack of an experienced head coach for the 2015 Cricket World Cup exposed the limitations of the coaching team that included Sir Richie Richardson, Sir Curtly Ambrose and Stuart William all from Antigua, none of whom are known to have coached either Antigua or the Leeward Islands cricket teams. Sir Curtly Ambrose tried his best to infuse energy and purpose into players but none just could not respond positively nor gel as a unit. Teamwork was absent and success impossible under those conditions. In hindsight, this was a plethora of glaring mistakes.
In light of the forgoing, it is my opinion that the WICB erred miserably in appointing Jason Holder and Marlon Samuels as captain and vice-captain respectively of the world cup team.  Appointing Managers, Captains, Coaches and other administrative staff is the functions of the WICB Directorate not the Selectors.  The buck stops at the Board and they should know better particularly when there were three (3) former captains in the squad.  The timing was wrong.  Indeed Jason Holder is a talented young player with great potential. But he must be handled properly lest he goes the way of the numerous other talented young players before him including Adrian Barath, Keiron Powell, Ryan Ramdass, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Dwayne Smith, Shane Shillingford, Ravi Rampaul, Brandon Bess, and even Darren Bravo among others. The enormous talents of these players have been greatly stymied in the discouraging environment created by the current WICB administrators.
West Indies cricket must be seen in the context of providing a sustained programme of development that ensures the production of a constant stream of players and officials defined, refined and satisfactorily equipped to at least compete with any of the current international teams.
In this regard the development programme in each of the six territories must include the following:
(a) A school cricket progamme
(b) Strengthening of the club cricket system that addresses both infrastructure and administration.
(c) Intensifying and upgrading the domestic cricket competitions within each territory.
(d) Revisiting the regional system by allowing for the Premier League T20 & 50-Over Tournaments to be played on the fully professional basis of the franchise system.  And also to allow for the six (6) regional teams to play their T20 and 50-Over Tournaments amongst themselves in order to provide for and prepare the local players who do not make the franchise teams to gain valuable exposure.  The four-day cricket could be played amongst the Territorial Boards in the usual manner where the Boards and not the Directors privately (as in the case of Guyana) run the cricket.
(e) The institution of the Cricket Academy must be fully implemented and functional as a development tool and not symbolic as the present one. Each territory must have an academy feeding into the regional center “the Academy of Excellence”.  Each academy must provide for training of players and officials including scorers, umpires etc.  It is indeed a shame that we presently do not have a single umpire on the international grid.  But, who cares?
(f) The coaching system needs to be urgently overhauled for more effectiveness.
While I have no problem with the appointment of Phil Simmons as head Coach of the WI Senior Team, I respectfully submit that unless there is a properly-designed coaching programme to produce the quality of cricketers we desire at the test level, Mr. Simmons will, like his predecessors, fail due to players arriving at the test level with a myriad of flaws, both technically and mentally.
I feel it would be better to establish a Coaching Committee comprising the head coach from each territory and headed by the current WICB Head Coach.  This Committee will ascertain from observations and from reports of former head coaches the deficiencies noted in players when they reach the test level.  This Coaching Committee will need to visit each territory and establish training methods to prepare the players from schools; clubs and national teams so that when they arrive at the test level most if not all of the faults would have been ironed out.  This Committee should be tasked with the responsibility of scouting for players (especially fast bowlers) and recommending coaches for West Indies Teams generally.  There must be a continuous process of evaluation within each of the six territories to ensure that the cricket production line is working optimally.
Finally, it is quite obvious that the current Cricket Director (Mr. Richard Pybus) cannot contribute meaningfully to our cricketing needs and is incapable of solving the many cricket problems.  Despite the shambolic state of cricket in Guyana, Mr. Pybus has never visited Guyana to discuss with all stakeholders the many contentious issues. Guyana is an important cog in the wheel of West Indian Cricket development but has been shabbily treated and deliberately ignored for the past four or five years.   As long as the WICB establishes a proper development programme within a structure and it is properly maintained we will have quality players coming through consistently.  Clive Lloyd could then relinquish his mediocre role as Chairman of the Selectors and take up a more appropriate and suitable role as Director of Cricket or President of the WICB to properly oversee the actual development process.
The WICB would then have the respect and admiration of the World at large with our players proudly operating in an atmosphere that is more conducive to their expected success with proper remuneration packages and mutually agreed contractual arrangements.
Frustrated but loyal fans, who regularly bash the unfortunate cricketers for poor performances on the field often times not realizing that it is the incompetence of an inefficient and uncaring WICB administration that is the real culprit, could once again enjoy with pride the resurgence of their beloved WI cricket team(s).
Claude Raphael
Former WICB Director

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