By Neto Baptiste
Former West Indies players Sir Richie Richardson and Ridley Jacobs are expressing disappointment over recent performances by the regional outfit on the international scene, but share differences of opinion as to why the team has performed at a sub-standard level.
A former opening batsman and captain, Sir Richie believes that instead of focussing on the performance of current players, the issues must be tackled at the root.
“We are focussing on the wrong areas. We should not be focussing on the players because the players are the fruit of a system, and if the system is weak or the system is poor, then how can you produce excellent players? I think that’s where we need to focus on and stop focussing on the top players or the top 11, 12 or 13 players representing us. We can’t fix a house from the roof down, we have to go from the foundation,” he said.
Also a former Leeward Islands player, the Antiguan who has scored 5949 runs in 86 Tests and another 6228 in 224 ODI matches, said the reign of the regional squad had long been threatened but those in authority failed to heed the warnings
“The decline started many years ago but people weren’t listening to us. We were on the battle field and we knew what was going on, and we would feed back to the authorities what was happening, what the rest of the world was doing and if we didn’t do something we would be surpassed. But, of course, nobody listened to us. They said ‘stick to cricket because that is what you know’. We’ve never really paid enough attention to what we really needed to do to propel because we were on top of the world and we assumed and thought we would just continue to beat the rest of the world, but it doesn’t work like that,” he said.
Jacobs, a former wicketkeeper batsman, although agreeing with his former teammate that the warning signs were quite visible, believes however that with the advent of a professional league, players should be held more accountable for their performances and individual growth and development.
“I can remember when I used to play cricket I used to work as well and you have to manage your time between work and practice. But these days, the players are contracted so I think it’s kind of difficult when you look at the television and you’re seeing the type of performances you’re seeing time after time. Cricket is their job, they don’t have to do any other work and they are well paid, so they should be a lot better,” he said.
West Indies, in early July, failed to qualify for the ICC Men’s World Cup Qualifiers held in Zimbabwe.
The West Indies were champions of the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979, and runners-up in 1983. The 13th edition of the competition, to be held in India later this year, will be the first without the Caribbean team.
