Windies coaches need positive thinking

BRYAN DAVIS

THE LEVEL of mediocrity generally displayed by West Indian players in the Caribbean Premier League, taking place at present in the West Indies, is a worrying sight.

It worries me because of the T20 World Cup that starts in Australia in a month’s time. Also, because WI are in the play-offs with the eight lesser teams in the tournament.

This tournament will also be played in Australia. WI are grouped with Zimbabwe, Ireland and Scotland. The other group’s teams are Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands and Namibia. The two top teams in each group will advance to the main tournament.

Already qualified for the main competition are Afghanistan, Australia, England and New Zealand in Group 1, with two qualifiers to be determined from the play-offs, while Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa and two more qualifiers will comprise the final 16.

As a Trini would say, “Well, boy, we reach!”

In the last 50-overs World Cup played in England in 2019, WI also had to fight through the rigours of psychological pressure to qualify.

The play-offs for that WC were in Zimbabwe. Only two teams had to be chosen from that tournament to qualify, and WI and Afghanistan placed first and second; thus, they both qualified. Nevertheless, in the final that had to be played, the Afghans whipped the Caribbean players to emerge first in the contest. In the main tournament in England, WI won one game and Afghanistan didn’t win any.

Now, three years later, for a T20 WC tournament, Afghanistan have qualified in the top eight teams in the world, while a once-proud, trendsetting, top-of the-world team and T20 WC champions twice, in 2012 and 2016, have to take a back seat and embarrassingly try to squeeze into a position with the “big boys.”

There are those who will tell you, “That is sport for you”; although no one would expect a powerhouse such as WI, that once ruled the world in cricket, could ever plunge to the depths of oblivion.

Bangladesh is another country that has qualified in the top eight in the world while its Caribbean counterparts are languishing on the bottom rungs of the ladder.

We must not forget the laughing-stock we were at the last T20 WC a year ago in the UAE, when we were bowled out for 55 in the first game of the tournament (by England) and eventually won only one game.

The only way forward and out of the quagmire in which WI have found themselves in the limited-overs formats is to formulate a winning attitude.

How can the present players improve their chances of winning? They must be inspired to the point where they feel they are capable and brilliant enough to take on the world’s best and beat them.

One needs skills to play sports. To develop that skill, one needs to understand the game in which one is participating. Therefore, in cricket, once a player has achieved the highest category in his homeland, it means he has the basics to play the game.

Nonetheless, that alone does not make that person a winner.

Players have to practise their skills for long hours under the watchful eyes of someone who is versed in knowledge and their reading of the game in order to reach optimum capacity. Furthermore, skills are mostly physical, so a winning mentality also has to be instilled.

The imparting of this wisdom in a manner that is generous in praise and short on criticism will help inspire the recipient of the information. It will assist the players to reinforce their ambition to be the best, their drive to be winners, plus, the relentless application to work very hard at the skills required, in order to improve their percentage of winning games.

Just practising, with no will to win, will never make a winner. They must learn that the team comes first and their individual contribution is what gets them there.

My personal opinion is that some international WI cricketers are a law unto themselves and the administration is not strict enough to control them. The WI coaches appear quite laidback, though the selectors are strong.

This is merely speculation on my part. If it’s not so, then the coaches are not up to the job, because their team is underperforming.

Meanwhile, WI are down in the pits, and a way has to be found to drag them back up.