What a week for West Indies cricket! Where to now?

This last week in the Caribbean has been somewhat chaotic, a helter-skelter journey, when the subject was international cricket and the senior West Indies cricket team. So much has happened in the week, yet it reminds one of a very heavy truck stuck in mud, with the rear wheels spinning in the slippery mud-filled hole; much noise and acceleration, but absolutely no movement whatsoever is effected.

Even before the players who were in New Zealand over the last six weeks had actually returned to the Caribbean, the Chairman of the Selectors for the West Indies Cricket Board, former Test wicket-keeper Michael Findlay, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, called for an all-out investigation to find out exactly why the players have been performing so badly generally, and more particularly, why was it that the performances on overseas tours especially were even worse than that.

Remember, New Zealand "white washed" the West Indies, badly, in every game played between the two teams in the last tour; the two Tests and five One Day Internationals. This follows the South African "white wash" in 1998/9; 5-0 in Tests and 6-1 in ODI's; and the Pakistani "white wash" of 1997/8; 3-0 in Tests.

Said Findlay: "From all reports, it is reasonable to conclude that the cause of the poor performances throughout the New Zealand tour was not necessarily only perhaps a lack of cricketing talent on the team, but more so the inconsistency in batting, bowling and fielding, (what else is there in cricket?) along with perhaps a lack of that special individual spirit which is required to mould a team into a strong and cohesive unit which is capable of unparalleled heights of excellence."

Quite!!

Findlay got his wish.

On Wednesday last, the entire West Indies tour party, all sixteen of the players, including Captain Brian Lara, in addition to the Tour Manager, Clive Lloyd and Tour Coach, (Sir) Vivian Richards, were summoned to a "debriefing session" with the Executive Committee of the West Indies Cricket Board in Barbados. This Committee was made up of the WICB's Chief Executive Officer, Steven Camacho (Guyana), Vice President Clarvis Joseph (Antigua & Barbuda), Financial Controller Richard Jodhan (Trinidad & Tobago) and Director Chetram Singh (Guyana). In addition, the team's sometimes Psychologist, Dr. Rudi Webster, was reported to have interviewed each player individually.

"The meeting has been called by the Executive Committee to hear from management and players alike just what went wrong in New Zealand," suggested Camacho.

Among subjects to have been discussed were reports that the team shunned practice sessions for some of the One Day Internationals and also the actual tour selection, as led by Lara, of the teams for the games in New Zealand; these selections conflicting badly with the wishes of the standard Selection Committee, Michael Findlay, Joey Carew (Trinidad & Tobago) and Joel Garner (Barbados), back in the Caribbean.

All attended except the tour's Manager, Clive Lloyd, who reported that he could not attend since he had already planned a previous engagement, and could not cancel it at such short notice.

Said Lloyd: "The present circumstances of West Indies cricket is of understandable concern to everyone involved in West Indian cricket." No kidding!!

Lloyd's managerial contract ended last October, but he was asked to continue on as Manager to the end of the tour to New Zealand. Coach Viv Richards was also on a temporary contract, to cover the New Zealand tour only. As of now, neither position has been filled.

This entire scenario is somewhat unprecedented, since it is the first time in living memory that every player was summoned to such a meeting after a series. Normally, reports are requested of and submitted by, and debriefings held for, the tour's Manager, Coach and Captain only.

Inquiring of the players, twenty four hours later, as to what really transpired at the meeting, some of the players, who would remain anonymous for obvious reasons, suggested that "the exercise was a complete waste of time, an exercise in futility."

In the meantime, there seems to be some reputed implosion in the WICB itself. Newspaper reports in the southern Caribbean suggest that both Camacho and the WICB's Secretary, Andrew Sealy, "will be shafted by powerful forces which will strip them of their powers in the West Indies Cricket Board Inc. and to give them just national positions." The newspaper reports went on to suggest "that legal advice is being sought" even though the matter has not yet reached the stage of any writs or court orders.

Also, almost every West Indian, certainly many former West Indian Test cricketers, have had their full say too.

Larry Gomes, the former Trinidad & Tobago and West Indies middle order batsman, who himself has applied for the position of Coach of the senior cricket team, in an article headlined " Woeful Windies Brings Gomes Out Of His Crease," had another recommendation.

Said Gomes: "There must be a 'pay as you play' incentive from the WICB. Losing, like winning, is contagious. Once we are winning again, morale will lift and the dressing room will be a better place. It does not help by us losing all the time. Cricket is 75% mental. That mental agility is badly needed now"

Michael Holding, the former Jamaica and West Indies fast bowler, lamented that "the overseas defeats reflect a lack of (team) spirit. There is simply not as much comraderie as there should be. Without that, there is no reversal, no turnaround, when things start to go badly on tour."

Roy Fredericks, the former Guyana and West Indies opening batsman, in response to the open on-going question of the captaincy of the West Indies cricket team, suggested that "we must keep Brian Lara as captain. There is nothing wrong with his captaincy. He is just one man and he alone cannot win Test matches for the West Indies. He needs considerable help. Lara is a much better candidate that the other choices involved, Jimmy Adams, Courtney Walsh, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and perhaps even Carl Hooper."

There are lamentations too coming from one of the West Indies true batting legends, Barbadian (Sir) Everton Weekes. He, along with Jamaica's Jackie Hendricks, Trinidad & Tobago's Bryan Davis, Barbados's David Holford, Leeward Islands' Richie Richardson, Jamaica's Reggie Scarlett, Trinidad & Tobago's Gus Logie and Camacho make up the West Indies Cricket Board's Cricket Advisory Committee.

"I go to meetings, discuss matters that concern West Indies cricket, and its betterment, with others who have played for the West Indies, and then find that our recommendations are overturned by those with no cricketing background at all. This is tremendously frustrating," said Sir Everton.

The Cricket Advisory Committee has threatened to resign en-bloc with frustration.

Even noted University of the West Indies Lecturer and Cricket Historian, Professor Hillary Beckles, had his say:

"We have serious problems, even without the added tremendously heavy burden of losing so badly on the field of play. In our recent erratic search for an effective response to all of the cricketing faults and problems, we have succeeded in destroying much of the best of what we have had. The alienation of Sir Gary (Sobers), the ineffective use of the two remaining "W's" (Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Everton Weekes), the destruction of Richie Richardson, the humiliation of Desmond Haynes, the premature ejection of Jeffrey Dujon, the frustration of Clive Lloyd, the terrible "spoiling" of Brian Lara, all against the background of the West Indies Cricket Board losing its respect and credibility, are indicators of a deeper intellectual crisis, and some "vagabondish" attitudes, and methods, which have gripped our cricket. Even if he does not qualify by the WICB's criteria to be the senior team's Coach, Sir Viv (Richards), for goodness sakes, should not be added to this list of ruin."

As is to react to the surge of dissent at the way things have gone for West Indies cricket recently, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which has been trying since 1972, without much success, but with great continuing rhetoric, to unite the Caribbean governments in everything positive, along with the University of the West Indies, has proposed a very urgent conference to be staged in May in Barbados, which, according to them, would be extremely pertinent to the fortunes of West Indies cricket.

According to this week's communiqué, "the current poor state of West Indies cricket is to be very high on the agenda of the conference. Another priority project is the region's hosting of the 2007 Cricket World Cup."

Yes, this last week was a wild one. The entire Caribbean now waits, cowed, embarrassed even, but expectant, for the next move, wherever, whatever and whenever that may be.

Enjoy!!