Champions can save West Indies cricket

THE EDITOR: The Americans have a simple but true saying. It’s all about the money. This saying is surely soon going to affect the West Indies and all of international cricket in a very profound way.

This is because the only form of cricket that is filling the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) bread basket is T20. Therefore, this format as it exists is safe. This is not the case for Test cricket and ODIs. We must now expect changes to soon come to these two formats and prepare for them or the WI will share the same fate as dinosaurs.

Elite cricket leagues for the global Test and ODI games are inevitable. The ICC cannot say no to the revenue such leagues would generate for it. The WI must therefore move up the global rankings very quickly by any means legal.

All sport is derived from ancient tournaments of champions in which men either lived to be glorious or died. The leading cricket nations remember this. As a result of this they seek not just ordinary talented men and women as sporting representatives but proven champions.

A champion is someone who simply does not know how to lose and would pass on this mindset to the entire team, for example the great Sir Vivian Richards. He never lost a Test series.

At present, finding and selecting champions to lead the WI is being undermined by our also selecting people for reasons other than their being champions. The danger in this approach is that at the highest level of sports a team must find within itself the champion spirit, mindset and individual to crush the opponent’s champion spirit, mindset and individual.

A clear example of this is Jofra Archer’s demoralisation of the Australian champion Steve Smith with a bouncer blow to the back of his neck. It is left to be seen whether Archer and another English champion, Ben Stokes, can destroy the entire Australian cricket team’s champion spirit and mindest to win this installment of the Ashes.

The WI must now turn to its very own champions or face sure cricketing oblivion as the ICC must soon form elite international cricket leagues for Test and ODI cricket to maximise its income.

FITZROY OTHELLO

via e-mail

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"Champions can save West Indies cricket"

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