West Indies cricket is currently going through its worst period and a team which used to rule the cricketing world in 70s and 80s, now find it difficult to beat even the second grade teams of the international sport.
Since the retirement of the great Caribbean captain Clive Lloyd, West Indian cricket has gone through a continuous decline and now the situation is such that they have reached the rock bottom, and hopefully things can only start to move in the right direction from here on.
There is an opinion that youngsters in West Indies are more inclined towards other sports, especially Basketball, because of all the money and sponsorships involved in it. However, the matter of fact is that West Indies is not struggling at international level because of lack of good cricketers, it is the internal politics which has damaged the ‘gentlemen’s game’ in the beautiful Islands.
The most painful thing in the whole scenario is the fact that Caribbean Islands are not short of talent, and even in this dark age, they are able to produce quality cricketers. Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Devendra Bishoo and Kemar Roach are a few examples to strengthen the claim that there is still a lot of talent in the Caribbean which just needs to be streamlined.
Chris Gayle is without doubt the best batsman produced by West Indies in the last one-and-a-half decade and it is a pity he wasn't used to the best of his abilities by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). The left hander lost the captaincy last year when he, along with another senior player Dwayne Bravo, refused to sign the central contract with the WICB.
It led to another controversy as Darren Sammy was made the captain of the Caribbean team which was quite astonishing because the all-rounder from the Northern Windward Islands had never held his position in the West Indian playing eleven consistently.
After a dismal performance in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, West Indian coach Ottis Gibson blamed the senior players for their lack of application and that’s how he was able to retain his job with the team, and also saved Sammy’s captaincy. As a result, the senior players like Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were axed from the limited overs squad against Pakistan.
On top of that, the worst and the most ironic thing in the current circumstances is that the best Caribbean cricketers like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Jerome Taylor are busy playing the Indian Premier League when West Indies is being thrashed at the hands of Pakistan back home.
West Indies have brilliant players in all the departments of the game; batting, bowling and fielding. The likes of Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard can form a formidable batting unit. Whereas, a bowling lineup which includes Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul, Sulieman Benn and Devendra Bishoo can dismantle any batting lineup of the world.
A captain is supposed to lead his team from the front and no team, even at domestic level, can compete if it is led by a player who does not hold a permanent position in the team, because of his lack of skill and consistency.
The need of the hour for WICB is to get their act together and get rid of the politics within their system. The selection of players and captain should be purely on merit rather than the quota system of different Islands.
If the Caribbean cricket is managed properly, there is no reason why West Indies cannot become a huge force in international cricket once again with the sort of talent they possess.
