Where does West Indian cricket go from here?

After publishing my article last week, I had a very pleasant surprise indeed. One of the true icons of Caribbean music, Dave Martins, legendary band leader of "The Tradewinds", saw it fit to not only send me an e-mail, but to complement me on perhaps broaching a subject that few seem to want to address; the fact that most of our present international cricketers are not really up to the levels necessary to be successful in the international arena. The leader of the Tradewinds asked one of the most pertinent questions, one most are "ducking", as regards West Indian cricket. "How the hell did we get to where we are now in international cricket?"

If I could put my hand on any one reason for our demise, I would patent it immediately and retire soon after as a very wealthy man. Incidentally, Dave Martins probably has done as much as anyone in the Caribbean to break down the stupid walls of insularity which continues to haunt us like a very virulent cancer. He was born in Guyana, but most of his music was based from Barbados, and played everywhere in the Caribbean and elsewhere internationally.

This contact, though, told me at least two things. Firstly, it is very obvious that the present and recent past of West Indian cricket is affecting, worrying even, people supposedly very far removed from the immediate surroundings of cricket. Everyone is being hurt with the present state of West Indies cricket. Secondly, the contact suggested that many, perhaps most, of our seven and a half million people, want some definite changes, positive changes, and they want it now, immediately if not sooner. Well, some of my suggestions might just be taking roots, finally. I suppose it is better to be late than never.

To compound the irony, I was invited to a radio talk show late last week in which I was asked by Michael Findlay, another guest and the Chairman of Selectors for the senior West Indies cricket team, as to what I would do NOW, to change things around quickly for the fortunes of West Indies cricket, on the field of play. That is actually the easy way out. To change the entire environment of cricket in the Caribbean would take much more than just a quick fix, but I will have a few suggestions on that too, in the future. Changing the "visible" part of our cricket, the team on the field of play, is probably just the tip of the iceberg, but will have to do for now. We have to start somewhere, and that start is necessary now!!

My answer to Michael Findlay was simply that I would take the most promising 30 players his committee would suggest that we have in present Caribbean cricket, from some of the youths at the Youth World Cup being played in Sri Lanka, to some of the players who have just returned from New Zealand, and subject them to a military cum aviation style of training. As a trained and fully qualified pilot, I always wondered why young, trainee pilots were always pushed to the limits, in such a short time for training, when they would probably be pilots for the rest of their lives. Military people do that even more vigorously. Boot-camp style training and cricket academy all in one.

That should be a good starting point for this quick fix. One could only hope that the 30 selected would really represent the best, or potentially the best, of our younger cricketers, and that this will not, yet again, become some extended exercise in insularity. Having just experienced, first hand, the Busta Cup game between Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, I could already recommend at least six players to be included.

The 30 cricketers must be bombarded with constant cricket, in all of its forms, for the next 30 days or so, to prepare them mentally, physically and ability-wise, for the task at hand. Since we are not having such players as Gordon Greenidge or Andy Roberts happen naturally anymore, we simply must manufacture them. They must eat, drink, sleep, talk, live cricket for that time, a very strict regime at all times. If they cannot cope, as has happened to many a pilot "washout", then they must simply be discarded. By the end, perhaps 20-25 will be left standing, so to speak. They will then go on to the next step.

Well, I am pleased to hear that, apparently, my suggestion to the Chairman of selectors will be taken up. How it will be implemented in the next month or so, immediately after, or even before the first class Busta Cup series is completed, is still to be decided, especially as Zimbabwe will be here in the first week of March next. At least some effort is being thought of, to bring the cricket to some improved level.

That is good for now, but there are so many things affecting our cricket. Here is a good example.

I honestly do not know how it happened, as I was away from the Caribbean from 1983 to 1993. However, there was, and continues to be, in my mind, one particularly distasteful aspect of our cricket, and it surely started occurring during those ten years or so; the actual reporting of the cricket in the Caribbean by the respective newspapers, radio stations and news agencies. To my mind, these news gathering agencies have been the greatest propagators of the insularity which not only affects our cricket, but our very Caribbean lives. Let me explain.

I played cricket for the West Indies from 1976-7 to 1983-4. Before that, I even played for the West Indies Youth Team in 1972. I cannot remember ever reading about myself, and being described as "Guyanese" anywhere. Since I was a West Indian player, I, along with all of the other players, were simply described as West Indians. At no time in my life did I ever read of "Barbadian" Collis King, or "Jamaican" Lawrence Rowe when they were playing for the West Indies. While some people may have suggested the differences in nationality, no one actually wrote it anywhere. That has now changed drastically.

Pick up any newspaper, anywhere in the Caribbean, on any day, and one would read of "Jamaican" Jimmy Adams taking a wonderful catch to dismiss a New Zealander, or "Trinidadian" Brian Lara playing a wonderful innings against the Australians, or "Antiguan" Ridley Jacobs hitting a six. When playing for the West Indies, these guys have gone to the higher level, hence insularity must be forced to disappear. The strange thing about this is that their nationalities only come into vogue if they do well. No-one seems to want to own them if they fail!!

We will not even approach, much less broach, the subject of our cricket's administrators and their supposedly insular attitudes and appointments, or our political governments everywhere in the Caribbean being unable to "see eye to eye" with each other. Simply, if we continue to be fed with this bilge of insularity, reading it always, hearing it always, then obviously we will start to learn it and worse yet, believe it. Indeed, it is so grown now that we need a means of removal, not cure.

This is only one example of what affects our cricket so very badly. Fortunately, at least this one example can be changed, if we really want it to be changed. Dave Martin's question is so relevant as we get further into the 21st century. "Before we can get where we want to go, we certainly need to know, understand and appreciate where we have been, and perhaps still are." Instead of being separated, and in some cases, fragmented, (the situation with NAFTA with regards to the Caribbean is a case in point), we in the Caribbean overall, and especially more than ever in our cricket; still the very last uniting force we have; must understand that the only force we can put up to beat anyone, in anything, under any spectrum, is a united force.

Taking a word from Brian Lara, "We must look at what those cricket teams around the world which are winning now are doing. In the past they copied us. Now, we have to follow suit, without losing pride." When is the last time anyone read anywhere that Shane Warne is from New South Wales, which includes Sydney, in Australia? For the Australians, and indeed for the rest of the world, he is simply "Australian." So let it be with us "West Indians."