Windies must salvage pride

THE West Indies cricket team takes on England shortly hoping that a new captain may able to pull them out of depths of despair which they find themselves in.

A disastrous World Cup on home soil has been a sort of final nail in the coffin. This was not surprising though, considering that the West Indies have performed miserably since the last decade and a half.
The retirement of premier batsman and team lynchpin Brian Lara has compounded the problem. Till Lara was there, the West Indies had the odd chance of playing well.
Lara the batsman will certainly be missed. Without the best batsman in the world, West Indies will find it hard to cope with the trying English conditions.
The onus is now on Ramnaresh Sarwan to try and bring back the glory days to West Indian cricket. A realist will say he has very little chance of doing that. But cricket can be a funny game.
Sarwan is a strong character who says he relishes the responsibility.  The main fight which Sarwan faces is the new culture within the West Indian cricket team.
The lack of discipline not only on the field but off it too, will be a major hurdle to cross. It has been alleged that the West Indies cricketers used to party late in the night during the World Cup and were never held accountable.
Then there is the laid back attitude of some of the players which can prove irritating. Lara, before he retired, had reportedly been angry with some of the players for this. He had said that the players afford to have a swagger if they have performances to match it.
He was also amazed at Marlon Samuels for wearing sunglasses at 9pm during the opening ceremony.
The fitness of the some of the current West Indian cricketers has also been questioned.
They ignore the importance of training and foolishly the West Indian board chose not to appoint a full time trainer.
On the field, the West Indians never seem to learn from their mistakes. The bowlers make the same errors, bowling too many wides and no balls, while the batsmen get out the same way frequently.
Sarwan has to root out these problems first. That will be the difficult part. Sarwan has the respect of his players but he will have to raise the bar on his own performances if he has to succeed.
Though he possesses talent, Sarwan has been far too inconsistent at the top level. It is hoped that the additional responsibility will bring out the best in Sarwan like it did for Clive Lloyd when he took over the captaincy.
Having played under Lara and being his deputy for a spell, Sarwan must have learnt a few lessons on what to do and what not to. Lara, for all his greatness as a batsman, was an unpredictable captain.
Sarwan has been known as an optimist who is ready for a gamble. That will prove a positive point as the West Indian team will need to take a few bold decisions instead of relying on Lady Luck alone to see them through.
There are no batsmen in the West Indian team at the moment who can even hold a candle to Lara. Senior players like Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Darren Ganga will have to step in and fill the breach.
The West Indian selectors have already sent a strong message by dropping the inconsistent Samuels and have opted for players like Runako Morton and Sylvester Joseph who are effective rather than attractive players.
All-rounder Darren Sammy also gets a recall. However, the West Indies have no spinner in their ranks.
This clearly illustrates that the consistent bad performances by the West Indian side and taken the interest away from cricket in the West Indies. Youth prefer to opt for the more lucrative basketball.
The first class system in the country is also in shambles and the whole cricket infrastructure needs to be restructured.
Furthermore, the constant bickering over contracts between the players and the board has created a very poor impression of the game in the country.
The world needs a strong West Indian team to break the stranglehold of Australia. This seems unlikely in the near future.
Somebody has to instill the pride of playing for the West Indies among its cricketers. The commitment shown by players like the three Ws, Sir Garfield Sobers, Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards to name just a few, must be there if the West Indians are to progress.
One hopes for cricket’s sake
that Sarwan will be the man to revive the lost glory of West
Indian cricket.

By BABU KALYANPUR
babu.kallianpur@tradearabia.net