MP Rudolph Greenidge: Give Windies a break

Sports Minister Rudolph Greenidge is begging fans not to further deflate the West Indies cricket team with harsh and extreme reaction amidst the team's weak performances on the Australia tour.

Australia, the world's top-rated Test team, crushed the West Indies 5-0 in the just-ended Test series, and Greenidge is not happy about some scathing attacks on the team's performance.

"As Caribbean people, we have to stop the cannibalism which I detect is going on. I urge the region to continue to see our cricketers as our most famous ambassadors," he said.

Greenidge also pointed to the Australian media being "unkind" to West Indies players and urged the regional media not to join that "bandwagon".

"Our journalists do not have to go for the over-kill.

"We have some very promising youngsters in our team. They have feelings like all of us. This is a time for caring. "They are our own. We must not make our cricketers feel rejected by their very own," he added.

Greenidge, who also has ministerial responsibility for Labour and Public Sector Reform, believes excess criticism will make West Indies cricket weaker not stronger.

"I am not saying that we should not criticise. All I am saying is that we must do it constructively," he said.

"Comments such as `none of dem ain't no good' and `all of them want burning', are totally out of place".

Greenidge said he understood the disappointment at the defeats, since the team was unable to achieve the outstanding results they had in previous years, but destroying the side through criticism was not the answer.

"Our cricket is not simply about those 11 players. Cricket is about us. If we destroy them, we destroy ourselves."