We are so far behind......

April 10, 2007


Against my better judgment I watched as the West Indies team once again sputtered in front of the millions of viewers worldwide, glued to their television sets. As the farce unfolded I revisited my thoughts at the beginning of this tournament. I knew that our team paled in comparison to the juggernaut qualities of the brilliant Australians. The South Africans throughout the tournament demonstrated their ability to choke, and I hoped this would have been one of those times, except that I had forgotten their Bangladesh encounter. I equally too forgot that games at this level are won or lost before a ball is bowled based on the team selected. It was not surprising therefore, that the team presented for this encounter reflected the confused state of our cricket. It does not help that we have at the helm, a captain who either knows very little about the strategic management of the team and the game, or worse, is a gambler who is at sea as to the nature and state of the contest. Brian Lara without question is one of the best batsmen to have played this game. His ability as a captain though is nonexistent. This was always my view, a view that was completely solidified with today’s performance.
Today though was not the day that West Indies cricket died, that was some time ago. Today was the day we were embarrassed in front of the entire world by this core of prima-donnas and those who parade with them while wearing the title of team management. Today was the day when our players brought home to us all the need for development, the need for structure and more so, the need for us to begin again. It is a pity though that we have spent throughout the region some US$400 million to develop these lovely structures, but would never come together to make an investment in the development of the game in the region. It really is a pity, because today more than ever we demonstrated how far behind the rest of the world we are at our game.