'Players of inferior quality get to play for long periods'
Gus Logie took over as coach of the West Indian team when it was already slipping into decline
Anand Vasu
15-Sep-2004
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Gus Logie took over as coach of the West Indian team when it was already slipping into decline. Try as he might, he has not been able to arrest the slide and reverse West Indies' fortunes. This is a far cry from the days when he played for West Indies - from 1982 to 1991 he played in 52 Tests, and never once finished on the losing side in a series. Speaking to journalists at the Rose Bowl, Logie spoke at length about the state of West Indian cricket.
On the current West Indian cricketers
To be honest, they are not necessarily ready to die for West Indies cricket. They don't have a specific aim in their life, and not necessarily only as cricketers. All other teams have one national flag, our team plays under the West Indies Cricket Board flag. All other teams have national anthems, we have a calypso song as our anthem. When the national anthem is on, you stand up and feel proud to be representing your country: we start dancing to the calypso tune. The team may be called the West Indies, but there is no such entity as the West Indies. Our players come from different countries, they have different sets of rules to follow, there is no oneness as such.
To be honest, they are not necessarily ready to die for West Indies cricket. They don't have a specific aim in their life, and not necessarily only as cricketers. All other teams have one national flag, our team plays under the West Indies Cricket Board flag. All other teams have national anthems, we have a calypso song as our anthem. When the national anthem is on, you stand up and feel proud to be representing your country: we start dancing to the calypso tune. The team may be called the West Indies, but there is no such entity as the West Indies. Our players come from different countries, they have different sets of rules to follow, there is no oneness as such.
On West Indies' success in the past
You might ask how things were different in our time when we played under the same flag and with the same song playing even then. But the fact is that we concentrated solely on cricket, we were too happy just playing quality cricket. In those days, even very good players weren't getting a chance to play international cricket, now players of inferior quality get to play for long periods.
You might ask how things were different in our time when we played under the same flag and with the same song playing even then. But the fact is that we concentrated solely on cricket, we were too happy just playing quality cricket. In those days, even very good players weren't getting a chance to play international cricket, now players of inferior quality get to play for long periods.
On whether the current players knew enough about West Indies' glorious past
They know the glorious past, they respect the past to some extent, but that's it. Some players do ask me, "Your team won two World Cups, what did you get?" There are many great West Indian players struggling to make ends meet. That's why some of them have left the Caribbean islands and settled down elsewhere. Look at Indian cricket - they won the World Cup final in 1983, and even after 20 years, they are still reaping the benefits of that victory.
They know the glorious past, they respect the past to some extent, but that's it. Some players do ask me, "Your team won two World Cups, what did you get?" There are many great West Indian players struggling to make ends meet. That's why some of them have left the Caribbean islands and settled down elsewhere. Look at Indian cricket - they won the World Cup final in 1983, and even after 20 years, they are still reaping the benefits of that victory.
On how the slide began
Actually, our debacle began from that defeat. It was a warning bell, but we didn't heed the warning. We thought one defeat didn't mean everything over, but since that loss, we haven't regained our glory days, ever. Till 1984, we never had a shortage of very good players. There was an assembly line, and even the truly great players couldn't afford to rest on their laurels because an equally good player was snapping at his heels. Those were the days when it wasn't necessary to develop players, they used to come naturally, and that is another reason for our problems of today. We relied heavily on natural talent, we didn't make the effort to groom young players. The cricket board didn't invest enough effort to develop or groom young players by giving them proper training.
Actually, our debacle began from that defeat. It was a warning bell, but we didn't heed the warning. We thought one defeat didn't mean everything over, but since that loss, we haven't regained our glory days, ever. Till 1984, we never had a shortage of very good players. There was an assembly line, and even the truly great players couldn't afford to rest on their laurels because an equally good player was snapping at his heels. Those were the days when it wasn't necessary to develop players, they used to come naturally, and that is another reason for our problems of today. We relied heavily on natural talent, we didn't make the effort to groom young players. The cricket board didn't invest enough effort to develop or groom young players by giving them proper training.
On how West Indies could turn the corner
There is no easy way out, it will take a long time. It is going to be extremely challenging for me to motivate these players. Our country is geographically close to the United States, so commercial factors might come into play. The board must safeguard the players' commercial interests. We have some good players like [Chris] Gayle and [Ramnaresh] Sarwan, but they should be allowed to focus on playing good cricket. Sometimes, I feel real bad for Brian Lara. After scoring brilliant hundreds, he can't even smile because his team is losing. It isn't any one person's fault. Instead of pointing fingers, we should concentrate on developing West Indian cricket - I feel one good series will go a long way towards creating the right atmosphere.
There is no easy way out, it will take a long time. It is going to be extremely challenging for me to motivate these players. Our country is geographically close to the United States, so commercial factors might come into play. The board must safeguard the players' commercial interests. We have some good players like [Chris] Gayle and [Ramnaresh] Sarwan, but they should be allowed to focus on playing good cricket. Sometimes, I feel real bad for Brian Lara. After scoring brilliant hundreds, he can't even smile because his team is losing. It isn't any one person's fault. Instead of pointing fingers, we should concentrate on developing West Indian cricket - I feel one good series will go a long way towards creating the right atmosphere.