By Neto Baptiste
Iconic former West Indies batsman and successful captain Sir Vivian Richards is questioning the method or lack thereof being employed by the “backroom staff” with the current West Indies squad as, according to the Antiguan, some players continue to struggle with the same issues that have plagued their game for some time now.
“What I think is one of the more interesting things about West Indies Cricket at present and this is a big question. Are we getting enough of the best information from the backroom team? That’s a big question because whatever information you get from [backroom staff] it should transfer onto the field and we are not seeing this at present,” he said.
“This ODI team is a talented team in terms of all-round ability, so something is not gelling at the moment and I believe we have to start asking some questions,” he added.
Sir Viv’s observation comes on the heels of yet another ODI series defeat for the regional squad as they lost to India by two wickets in the second match on Sunday to surrender the three-match series to the visitors. India had won the first ODI by just three runs.
Although commending the players for their effort, Sir Viv who scored a whopping 8540 runs in 121 Tests and another 6721 in 187 ODI matches, said there needs to be some soul searching by all involved.
“Sometimes you have to question yourself and not just the captain … and ask, ‘am I making an input in terms of what’s going on or am I giving enough?’ You have to sometimes try and find out about yourself because all that can help in the next match moving forward. To me, you just have to keep your chin up; losing is all part of the game but when it becomes overbearing, I guess that’s when it becomes very dismal,” he said.
As for the captaincy of recently appointed Nicholas Pooran, Sir Viv said that although you could chalk it up to a bad start, losing could become a habit if not remedied soon enough.
“You can have a bad start and it depends on how long that bad start continues but you can always pick yourself up. I still believe that and obviously these things go through your mind in terms of ‘what are the things we are doing that are not right and we’re not connecting?’ So, all of these things go through your mind but at the end of the day I still believe the young man has enough cricketing ability, plus what he knows he has got upstairs in terms of the cricket brain, so even though it looks dismal at present there is still an opportunity for him to turn it around and to catch up at some point,” the former captain said.
The third and final ODI will be contested on Wednesday in Trinidad with the first T20 International slated for July 29, also in Trinidad, before moving to St Kitts for the second and third T20 matches on August 1 and 2. The fourth and fifth T20 matches will be played on August 6 and 7 in Florida.