Dear Editor,

The appointment of Gus Logie as head coach of Jamaican cricket is a very positive move in the right direction. Logie is the only coach since 1979 to have brought the West Indies senior cricket team any silverware — the 2004 ICC trophy.

However, on closer inspection of Gus Logie, we see he is from the all-conquering Windies sides of the late 70s and 80s that dominated world cricket. So it is in his DNA that Jamaican cricket should be successful, and that West Indies Cricket should return to the pinnacle where it belongs. But for Logie and West Indies cricket to succeed, we must embrace the fundamentals and professionalism of the 21st century game. Here are my suggestions:

* Revamp our grass roots and youth cricket across the region. We must have a philosophy on how we play that must be spread across the region.

* Invest in and develop our cricket coaches to be the best. Set best practice standards.

* Revitalise club cricket. This is where many test players are drawn from. We must have a clear and concise path from school cricket to Test cricket

* Prepare playing surfaces that will encourage stroke play and fast bowling. Empower our young players with history from the past and what it really means to represent the West Indies cricket team.

* Build a strong, knowledgeable management team, pulling from the best in the region; the same goes for administrators whose goal is to return West Indies Cricket to the best team in the world.

* Pull on past players’ experience. We are not very good at this and must learn that our past greats have something to offer.

* Set goals and win trophies. That is the objective; put simply: “We play to win the game.”

* Set a timetable to have us back among the best by the end of the decade.

“Impossible is nothing”

Eric W McClymont

emac777@gmail.com