West Indies cricket ten years behind - Ganga

	Daren Ganga: "What we have been doing for training and in camps seven years ago, we are still doing today" © AFP Enlarge
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Daren Ganga, the Trinidad & Tobago captain, has termed West Indian cricket as being stuck a decade behind. Ganga has called for officials in the Caribbean region to professionalise the game in order to lift the side back to a competitive level in global cricket.

"I know that there is a new board [in T&T] and they are still settling down, but I would like to make a call to [for them] to assist local clubs and help them to become more professional," he said. "When clubs operate in an amateurish manner, the players cannot advance quickly. It was mentioned that Adrian Barath played for this club at age 14. Maybe, he would have been able to do it earlier if the circumstances were different."

Ganga, whose influence has been a major factor in bringing T&T from near-bottom to the top in regional cricket within a few years, said the West Indies Cricket Board had plenty of catching up to do. "What we have been doing for training and in camps seven years ago, we are still doing today,' he said. "There has been no change in our approach to preparation and this is keeping us way behind. We are at least ten years behind in terms of technology and this must change.

"I remember when Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, and myself went to Australia as young players on the West Indies team, we felt really bad, when we saw what guys like Michael Clarke and Shane Watson were exposed to," he said. "The training they were putting down was something we have never done before and we were amazed. What was even more amazing was the fact that Watson and Clarke had not even made the Australian national team up until that time."

West Indies cricket is on the verge of recovering from the contracts crisis which led to many senior players going on strike. A full-strength squad, however, was named for the tour of Australia.