CWI let off the hook

THE EDITOR: The report from the three-man committee “hired” by Cricket West Indies (CWI) to investigate the world T20 debacle seems to have spared the CWI failure in the management of our cricket. In my mind the CWI was on a sticky wicket but seems to have successfully deflected blame from itself.

The only casualty for our humiliating performance remains poor Phil Simmons and his team – the fall guy(s) and probably the least to blame. The committee came up with 34 recommendations for improvement. Certainly an indictment on the performance of the CWI.

If I was the president of a board, any board, and 34 recommendations were made for improvement, this would certainly call for a change in the organisational structure. And that’s part of our problem – we do not take responsibility for our actions or inactions.

If I was the president of that board or a member/director I would certainly consider tendering my resignation. So if we can’t hold the CWI board responsible, then how could we hold the players responsible? So who is responsible for our demise?

The report said that the team was “underprepared,” unable to acclimatise to the cold conditions in Australia and labelled the absence of Shimron Hetmyer a “significant loss.” It recommended greater conversations between players and the CWI, proper planning between the two and coming to fair, agreeable conclusions.

The report also stated that the West Indies must play as much red-ball cricket as possible and that constructive discussions must be held with our “rising stars.” CWI president Ricky Skerritt, who successfully avoided all “bouncers,” said, “Our players need to play as much cricket as possible and CWI must somehow accommodate a local T20 league to spot and allow talent to be spotted…" blah blah.

Did we need a committee to make those obvious recommendations? The root of our problem is the lack of cricket, especially the longer format, to hone our skills for all formats, and a lack of commitment. Imagine this year the WI has only seven Test matches.

I totally disagree with the recommendation that we should play Test cricket with the higher ranked Test-playing nations. We must accept that we are in the bottom tier of all cricket and eat humble pie and focus on engaging countries like Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland, Namibia, etc, who would welcome the once famous world champions with open arms. Almost every sporting league has divisions/tiers. How could we get better by getting beat up by higher ranked teams?

The report said that Hetmyer was a significant loss. Shocking assessment. So Hetmyer is now the Messi of West Indies T20? What if he was injured? Then we should not have gone to the World Cup?

What are needed in West Indies cricket are hard and unpopular decisions, otherwise we will continue to wallow in our misery. The following are my recommendations:

* Cease playing 50-over limited cricket.

* Play longer-format games – as often as possible.

* Maintain focus on T20 since that is what the fans want.

* Limit players to one franchise T20 series.

* Ask the current President to step down. He has clearly failed.

I know the critics will say my recommendations would affect players’ income? But we have to understand that the West Indies cricket team is a brand that still has a lot of monetary value and collectively we have been reducing the value of the brand to the extent that it will have little value and future players would be seriously affected.

Brian Davis in his Newsday column On the Front Foot said “Windies cricket needs protection.” He pointed to our glory days when our tools for success were talent and commitment. He said, “The International Cricket Council (ICC), the authority on cricket worldwide, will eventually have to introduce rules to protect the game of cricket in countries wealthy or not."

He said when the IPL began, the BCCI stopped Indian players from playing franchise cricket outside of India, by paying them. Meanwhile, other cricketers are invited to play franchise cricket at the detriment of their home countries that cannot compete financially. Although there is a protective “no objection certificate" that has to be used to give approval for players to play franchise cricket, the WI authority refuses to deprive the cricketer of such a windfall, thus a serious problem is created.

There is an old saying, “Do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” The West Indies cricket goose is certainly looking cooked.

TERRENCE KALLOO

via e-mail