West Indies must move on indiscipline

A support staff of manager, head coach, assistant coach, trainer, strength conditioner, physiotherapist and analyst is now attached to the West Indies team. There are signs that it could do with the addition of an anger management expert.

A few incidents on the tour of New Zealand imply that some players are prone to flashes of rage, outbursts that can affect their own performance and reflect poorly on them and the team.

Daren Powell apologised to the New Zealand team after running through the crease on delivery and throwing the ball towards advancing batsman Brendon McCullum in the second Test in Napier.

Kieron Pollard was reprimanded by ICC match referee Javagal Srinath for breaking a dressing room glass door after he was wrongly given lbw by Mark Benson in Wednesday's third ODI in Wellington.

Later in that match, another blatant error by Benson, a member of the ICC's so-called elite panel of umpires, triggered a fiery response from Powell after Ross Taylor was reprieved on a clear leg-side deflection off the glove to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

Powell, already goaded by New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori earlier in the day for the careless manner of his dismissal, pounded his next delivery into the pitch. The ball sailed over batsman and keeper on its way to the boundary for five wides. It was a useful, and unearned, contribution to New Zealand chasing a small score of 128, a wasted show of pique by the bowler.

Benson's decision allowed Taylor to settle in and stroke three sixes in an unbeaten 51 off 50 balls as New Zealand won by seven wickets. Two of those sixes were off a below-par Fidel Edwards who, like Powell before him, conceded five more byes with a bouncer that flew well over Ramdin's head.

Pollard is not the first player to react as he did to his misfortune. One of the game's most infamous photographs is of Michael Holding, a great and widely admired cricketer, kicking out the stumps at the batsman's end after another umpiring blunder in the first Test of the turbulent 1980 series here.

Pollard has had a dismal tour, his first, and needs all the luck he can get before time runs out. Benson's failure to spot that the ball was deflected off a thick inside edge onto the pad was evident even before it was confirmed by television replays. Pollard's distress, even his rage, was understandable. His destruction of stadium property was not merely inexcusable, it was futile. So was Powell's in Napier and Wellington.

As in any sport, such individual bursts of indiscipline can quickly permeate a team and undermine its performance. Most move quickly to check it.

New Zealand, for instance, dropped their talented, but volatile, left-hand batsman Jesse Ryder for the fourth ODI at Eden Park after he missed a team meeting on Thursday morning and was unable to train in the afternoon after a late night of drinking.

Ryder was fined after a disciplinary hearing for missing both the meeting and training and replaced by Mathew Sinclair. It is the second time he has run into trouble and he admitted yesterday he is struggling to control a drinking problem.

In February, he cut his hand through a window trying to get into a toilet after a drinking session that lasted until 1.30 am on the eve of an ODI against England. He needed an operation on the injury and was sidelined until September.

Last September, Australia's Andrew Symonds was dropped and given counselling by the Australian board after he missed a team meeting to go fishing.

In each case, it was recognition of the potential of one individual incident to disrupt the equilibrium of the team.