To win, much more than talent is needed

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Most cricket analysts watching the current Asian tour by the West Indies will agree that there is genuine evidence of growth in the squad.

The young middle-order batsman Mr Darren Bravo shows the makings of a truly outstanding player, leading some to suggest that comparisons to his great cousin Mr Brian Lara might not be misplaced. Others, Messrs Kieron Powell, Adrian Barath and Kraigg Braithwaite have reaffirmed previous indications of real promise.

Likewise, available evidence suggests that young bowlers such as wrist spinners Messrs Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach and the budding all-rounder Mr Andre Russell are on the improve.

And yet, for all of that growth and obvious talent, the current tour of India is showing that the West Indies still has a distance to go to consistently beat the best. Cricket watchers sense that in going down 0-2 to India in the three-Test series and 0-2 thus far in the five-match One Day International series, the problem for the West Indies has had more to do with basic inefficiency and thoughtlessness under pressure than with pure talent.

It brings us to a point made by Mr Lara in a recent interview that "infrastructure" at the physical and administrative level was holding back the progress of West Indies cricket.

Mr Lara argues that "we in the West Indies take very good talent and make it average, and people like Australia and England and India take average talent and make it very, very good ..."

Said he: "I think our infrastructure is terrible administratively, we have got it wrong on many occasions ...Our player-board relationship -- that has gone wrong for many years, gone sour, and we need to improve these things, fix it, set a base, get the infrastructure in, and then think about five, ten years down the line."

A key weakness in Caribbean cricket is the absence of physical infrastructure and expert coaching at all levels to properly prepare players for competition. The Sagicor High Performance Centre (HPC) will undoubtedly make a difference. Cricket watchers are looking eagerly to the new upcoming regional season when a number of HPC graduates -- including several exciting young fast bowlers -- will hopefully stamp their claims. But in the context of cricket region-wide, the HPC is just a drop in the bucket. There is obvious need for properly structured high performance centres in all territories and for an influx of resources and administrative support to revive lagging clubs, several of which are in death throes.

For that to happen, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its affiliates must put their own shaky houses in order. That has not happened. Instead, recommendations for reform, transformation and modernisation -- most notably from the governance committee led by former Jamaican Prime Minister Mr PJ Patterson -- have been substantively ignored at great cost.

Burdened by the failure to achieve genuine professionalism in the management of West Indies cricket, the regional administrators have found themselves caught up in foolish but destructive quarrels with players that have only served to make an already weak West Indies team weaker.

And yet, with all the negatives, there is light. The fact that despite dysfunctional administration, poor physical infrastructure, shortage of money and resources, and the absence of a professional league, the Caribbean continues to produce world-class players and to compete -- even in defeat -- with the best and richest teams in the world should provide food for thought.

We have to wonder: What could we not achieve in cricket as a region, if somehow, administratively and resource-wise we start to get it right?

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To win, much more than talent is needed