Hooper plans comeback

Carl Hooper is having a change of heart.

The enigmatic all-rounder, who suddenly announced his retirement from international cricket at the end of the home series against Australia last April, hinted in an interview here that he was eager to make a comeback to the West Indies team via a planned farewell season in Guyana next year.

"The way I finished was abrupt," he said. "I'd like to go back and have a farewell season, and thank the people of Guyana and the people of the West Indies for their support over 12 years."

If asked, he would consider making himself available for the Test and One-Day Internationals, he stated, "I wouldn't want to be taking the place of a younger, emerging player; but if that player isnt ready right now, that would make it easier to return."

In Australia with his Melbourne-born wife Connie for a season of club cricket, Hooper's priorities may have changed from cricket to family. But he remains just as passionate about seeing the West Indies re-emerge as world crickets ultimate power.

At 32, he believes hes still young enough to make a contribution. An early century with his Melbourne club, Carlton, was an indication of his good form.

An automatic selection for the West Indies since he played the first of his 80 Tests against India in Bombay in 1987, aged 21, Hooper said he had always been a team man and it had saddened him to see the current plight of West Indian cricket.

He believes champion batsman Brian Lara cannot be expected to single-handedly shoulder the responsibility for winning or losing.

"The captain is only as good as his team," he said." You can have a great captain, but if he has got poor players, there's no way he is going to pull it off."

He warned that the hole West Indian cricket had dug for itself would only deepen unless administrators re-focused their goals and formulated a revival blueprint.

Central in any long-lasting improvement, he believes, is the establishment of Test-class practice facilities at each of the major grounds.

Good money is being made by the various boards in international cricket, especially with a lot of television coming into it now, Hooper said. Countries like England and Australia have channelled a lot of money back into the youth system, with [the establishment of] academies and so on.

In the West Indies, though, the practice facilities even at first-class level remain poor, he added. There are no decent wickets outside any of the main grounds. Even the centre wickets over the years have been sub-standard.

The [1998] Test against England in Jamaica was called off. Its a poor reflection on the board and the people in charge.

Hula - as he is known to his new club team-mates in Melbourne - said the ill-health of his just-born baby boy Carl, Jnr., triggered his premature exit from international cricket in April, just weeks before the 1999 World Cup. He had also withdrawn from the 1996 Cup in India and Pakistan.

All of us at some time in our career will do silly things; and, at the end of the day you look back and say I shouldnt have done this or that, he acknowledged.

Hooper's final two Tests were against Australia in Barbados and Antigua in March and April. He had missed the first two Tests of the summer as Carl, Jnr., now nine months old, was ill in Adelaide.