C Lloyd: Great days ahead for West Indies cricket (30 Aug 1998)

30 August 1998

Great days ahead for West Indies cricket

By Clive Lloyd

West Indies Cricket is on an exciting and historic threshold. When our senior side, ably led by Brian Lara, lands on South African soil in November their purpose will be two-fold.

On the field, to dismiss detractors-and Hansie Cronje's men - who now hold diminished regard for the once mighty cricket warriors from the Caribbean. Secondly, and though less important in the minds of West Indian fans, no less significant, to place another layer of acceptance on South Africa's return to the international arena, in all senses, since the dirty days of apartheid.

While I appreciate the latter cause, forgive me for my preoccupation with the on field battle. My mission as manager is to return the West Indies team to the success enjoyed during the 1980's.

Winning cricket is essential for Caribbean people. It's our common bond. It rubs off on all our people. When we win, West Indians have a bouncier step. Their smiles widen and the mood across the region is generally more buoyant. Nowadays, our youth need inspirational role models. Here we can show them, through sport, that if you work hard rewards will come.

The objective has always been to impose the West Indian will on the "enemy", to define all problems in terms to our resources and to pursue a unified path until victory is achieved. Nothing is allowed to stand in the way and I suggest that the imperative of West Indian cricketing strategy constitutes the imperatives of successful nation-building for the West Indies.

I have always believed that growth is the most valuable resource of a nation. We may not all grow old but those who are alive today share some aspect of growth.

The lessons that youth and all of us can gain from sports were well known to the ancients, especially to the Greeks and Romans and formed an essential core of ancient civilisation. For the spectator, sports constitute an essential item of unification of attitudes and reactions. Sporting contacts transcend our little insularities and psychological insecurities and so become the makers of destiny. But I must remind one and all that unless we ply together we do not win and the important victories are not over countries but the victories over ourselves.

I think the five-Test series will be quite exciting and very challenging too. We haven't done so well overseas of late and we want to get back to the standards of years ago. Once all the players pull their weight we will be able to do the job, we have the potential. It's just a matter of getting it together as a unified force and giving the captain support.

Brian is a very determined and intuitive young man. He knows his game and he wants to succeed. He will not lay down and die. He understands the importance of us winning and his team-mates must do so too. We have to be professional and wear our hearts on our sleeves-be prepared to die for the cause, so to speak.

South Africans are very tough. There's no doubt about that. They catch well. They are very good fielders who cover a lot of ground and save a lot of runs.

All that will make the series quite interesting. They just lost a tight series in England 2-1 where anybody could have won the series up to the last half-hour of the fifth Test.

Fast bowlers Alan Donald and young Shaun Pollock are the mainstay of the side and they have strong back-up like Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener. Jonty Rhodes is now a much better batsman. In our favour, we too have a strong phalanx of fast bowlers. Between Courtney Walsh on the verge of becoming the leading West Indies Test wicket-taker-and Curtly Ambrose here are over 600 Test wickets and wide experience. Our batting needs work. We have a new opening pair who did well against England here and we hope they can continue this form in South Africa. The middle-order is capable but inconsistent and that must be corrected. Brian's return to form would be welcome and should give us the edge.

Being No. 1 is important if we attract youngsters to cricket, to host the World Cup and improve our grounds. Cricket is not simply sport anymore. It's big business which requires big money and if we win people will want to be associated with us. Hopefully, the private sector will step forward to assist because this will be an extremely expensive venture but certainly one well worth it to the Caribbean.

Questions addressed to Across the Board can be sent by mail to:

The West Indies Cricket Board,
St John Wood, Antigua

e-mail: WICB@candw.ag
Fax: (268) 460-5452

or

Saunders-Franklyn Associates Inc,
Suite No. 4, Wiidey Shopping Plaza,
St Michael, Barbados

e-mail: saunders@caribsurf.com
Fax: (246)437-5593

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)