WI club championship not the answer, Dr Shallow

Dr Kishore Shallow, the president of Cricket West Indies, means well, though he cannot quite put his finger on the solution to the problem of producing worthwhile cricketers.

One of the points he made at the Ramlagans Balmain United Literary Cricket Club annual awards function at the National Cricket Centre on August 24 was: “Despite the efforts and continued commitment of administrators and clubs and members and so on, the reality is that such reliance on these structures with limited resources is simply not sustainable.”

He has again raised the idea of a West Indies club championship, which he expects will encourage young men of ability to want to play the game, encouraged by the opportunity to travel through the islands for their clubs, motivated by similar opposition and entertaining those same clubs on their home turf.

To his progressive way of thinking, he also imagines that such a competition would motivate territorial clubs to produce top-class cricketers.

I sympathise with Dr Shallow, as it is a tremendous task to improve and develop cricket in the WI, because of a number of shortcomings.

But to the main problem, I humbly suggest, the answer is to play more first-class cricket.

Developing and improving cricket in the WI also requires a depth of knowledge that comes from those who have attained the highest standard (first-class cricket), plus applying what I refer to as a cricket intellect: understanding that cricket is an art and not a science.

The person who can observe a young bowler deliver the ball and at once can tell that he has natural ability; or see a player face a half-dozen deliveries and can tell right away that he has the knack to develop as a good batsman – that person has the aptitude to be a good coach.

The huge task that an administration faces is selecting those who are capable of identifying talented players to represent the territory in the first instance and the WI internationally.

Through the club championship to which the president is alluding, he wants to strengthen club structures and systems throughout the region. He believes by doing that, he would develop latent cricketing talent that will gradually benefit WI cricket.

I gather from the remarks of Dr Shallow that to be able to carry out this project, he will be asking for the financial help required from the governments of the Caricom territories involved.

The president believes that having a strong club structure and having the clubs oppose each other in the various territories of the WI will transform average club players into top West Indian performers.

I’m afraid it doesn’t happen like that. What will be the outcome of that exercise is a solid mediocre class, and nothing more.

For cricketers to develop into world-beaters as a team, they ought to have a tough league to play in, one in which the opposition is experienced, strong and positive eg county cricket and the Kerry Packer World Series, plus first-class cricket in Australia, India and New Zealand.

In the WI that is possible only if two-innings cricket is played among its territories, which will entail games that will pit the most powerful opposing teams against each other. The same financial assistance that could benefit the proposed club championship should be pursued and used to facilitate a first-class competition of two rounds of home-and-away matches.

I agree with the president on looking for improvement in WI cricket; but, unfortunately, that is not going to be achieved this way, because it will spread the talent too thin – watering the brandy, if you will.

I also agree that the club structures in all the territories need improving; however, that has to be done within the territories themselves. Some of the individual boards are weak, prejudiced, too political and lack the essence of cricket expertise.

Within each and every cricket-playing territory in the West Indies, there should be a list of management functions and how they should operate. Each representative at the CWI’s meetings must report on the status of their territory. They must show their club structure and how it’s working.

The annual first-class cricket competition must be adhered to; and if finance could be raised by contributions from governments, or sponsorship from business places, that will be for the betterment of WI cricket.