Gordon comes out fighting

Ken Gordon: 'It is palpably unfair to be criticising the team and its captain in the middle of a series like this' © T&T Express

Changes are already being made to the West Indies cricket team prior to their tour of England in May, according to West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Ken Gordon.

"You better believe that they have started already", Gordon said when asked whether changes would be made to the team prior to the upcoming tour to England in the face of their dismal performance in the current World Cup tournament. He however declined to go into details.

And, asked to respond to a call being made in the Express editorial for the resignation of the WICB, Gordon said: "Well, that is par for the course. I can only say that if newspapers feel that is the best judgment they can make, who am I to tell them not to make it. But it just goes to exemplify the kind of very poor judgment of which I am speaking." He added, however, he would have "absolutely no hesitation in resigning, if I thought for one moment that it would assist the situation. He said that such a call "absolutely doesn't demoralise me, and it doesn't demoralise the board".

Gordon was fully in defence of the West Indies team and its captain Brian Lara, even while conceding that all was not well with the team and its performances in the current Cricket World Cup. In an interview at his hotel Suite in Grand Anse, it was a combative Gordon who hit back at critics of the team and its captain, including journalists and commentators in the regional media have been calling for Lara's resignation.

Nothing is wrong, Gordon said, with proper and full analysis of the team's performances "but when you make that almost like an agenda item, this attack, attack attack, it is not in anybody's best interest. Not at this time". Saying there was going to be ample time for such full scale, hard hitting analysis at the end of the series, Gordon said the force of the sustained criticisms at this time had the effect of demoralising the players.

He had not spoken with or seen the players in the previous two days, certainly not after their fourth straight defeat to South Africa at the National Stadium on Tuesday. But, he said it was "almost unnatural that it would not have some kind of effect," referring to what he described as the potentially demoralising commentary being carried on in parts of the regional media.

"It is palpably unfair to be criticising the team and its captain in the middle of a series like this, he said. There was going to be the time when "no holds should be barred in the analysis that is necessary. But for the moment, he said what was required was an exercise of "some care, judgment and timing."

Calls for Lara's resignation, he said, were premature and unjustified. "Let's face it. He was put there by the management, and I would be prepared to take whatever responsibility for it,when the time comes," he said, disputing the basis on which those calls were being made at the moment. Nothing fundamental about what Lara brings to the game had changed since he was reappointed captain, he added.

Granting that Lara had been committing "errors of judgment" during the series up this point, Gordon said, however he was going to make no criticism of those decisions at this time. "Do you want to see them get out for 50 runs in a game?" he asked rhetorically, in answer to a question that on the basis of the loss to South Africa the West Indies was not effectively out of the series. "They have to continue to play the best game they can," he said, adding that for too long now West Indies cricket had been propelled on the basis of raw talent and not much else. There was widespread hope across the region for the West Indies to be doing better than it is in this series and that was understandable, Gordon said.

Two years ago, there was not even hope. The team was at the very bottom of the heap

But, he said, that was largely unrealistic, since "two years ago, there was not even that hope. The team was at the very bottom of the heap." Some "sparks" were ignited in the interim to create that hope, But it ought to have been accepted that the team has not been enjoying its best days. "We all know that on its best day this team can beat anybody, but the reality is that the team is not enjoying its best days. We have come from very far. We had hoped to get back closer to the top but it has not happened," he said.

Reflecting on the time when the West Indies prevailed principally on the basis of that talent, he said the game had changed significantly. It changed, he said, "when the Australians went to the drawing board and decided to find away to beat these talented guys." They came up with a formula, he said, and it was copied, "by the Indians, by England, by everybody except the West Indies.

"We continue to send extraordinarily talented youngsters out there almost as sacrificial lambs," he said, adding that "there is absolutely no substitute for the kinds of development that comes with the academies" and the other elements which ought to go into the production of a truly professional unit.