Dear Editor,

Stuart law announced his resignation as coach of the West Indies team in 2018 and in January 2019 Richard Pybus was appointed the team’s new head coach on an interim basis until September of 2019.

In his first assignment, the West Indies defeated the highly ranked England 2-1 in the Test series. The English were ranked #1 in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and, given the West Indies’ recent ODI record, it came as a big surprise when they drew the ODI series 2-2. It was the turnaround cricket fans were long awaiting.

It’s now late March, Cricket West Indies presidential elections have been held, the results are in, and Whycliffe Dave Cameron has lost his presidency to Ricky Skerritt. It’s a move that brought joy to many across the Caribbean, including players, supporters, politicians, and administrators.

We now move on to April 2019, the man of the moment, Ricky Skerritt, has made sweeping changes in the coaching and selection structure of the West Indies team, to include replacing the coaching staff and the selection panel; this, right after corner-turning performances against the top-ranked English team and less than two months before the start of the biggest cricketing tournament, the World Cup.

What followed? West Indies lost to Bangladesh in the finals of the tri-nation series in Ireland. Not only did they lose the finals, but they lost all three matches played against Bangladesh — a team ranked #7. Remember this is right after drawing 2-2 with the #1 ranked England team.

The World Cup has now started and the West Indies, under the tutelage of their coaching staff, flattered to deceive. The gains showed earlier on in the year against England were non-existent. The team went in reverse and it’s easy to criticise the players, after all their performances were lacklustre. However, the cricketing analysts among us, on watching the games, will have seen the one-minded strategy on the team’s part — the over-reliance on the 39-year-old batting giant Chris Gayle. He fails to deliver, the team then struggles, and falls apart. The short-pitched bowling brought them success, but when it hasn’t, the bowling goes flat, and there was no plan B.

It is clear that team selection and team strategy were found wanting. Should the players cop the full blame for this? No! Team selection and strategy are the purview of the coaching staff and they should stand up and take responsibility. Would the former coaching staff, led by Richard Pybus, have made a difference if they weren’t hastily removed? We’ll never know.

Absurd is defined as wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate. Craziness is defined as mad, wild, erratic behaviour, and stupidity is defined as behaviour that shows a lack of good sense or judgement. Removing a winning coach, disrupting a confident set-up right before the start of a major cricketing tournament like the World Cup — is it absurdity, craziness or stupidity. Take your pick.

Kemar Bogle

knb800@yahoo.com