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Cricket West Indies met with legends Brian Lara and Clive Lloyd to address the decline in West Indies cricket, seeking ICC financial support and improving facilities and training.
Cricket West Indies head coach Daren Sammy met with legends Brian Lara and Clive Lloyd (X/Windies)
The West Indies are currently “not on the same level playing field as other cricketing nations,” leading Cricket West Indies (CWI) to convene an emergency meeting. This gathering, which included legends such as Brian Lara, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and current head coach Daren Sammy, resulted in a preliminary roadmap aimed at revitalising West Indies cricket. However, participants noted that “it’s a long road, it’s not going to happen overnight.”
One immediate outcome from the meeting, as Clive Lloyd revealed, is a plan to request a “special dispensation” from the ICC, essentially asking for additional financial support to honour the West Indies’ rich cricketing legacy.
Although many ideas were discussed during the two-day session in Trinidad, CWI executives and cricketing greats such as Lloyd and Lara stressed that these ideas still require an internal process before any official announcements can be made. There was also a sense of apprehension due to the ongoing decline of West Indies cricket. “Hope to see them come to fruition,” said Lloyd. “Sincerely hope this doesn’t turn out to be a damp squib.”
CWI chief executive Chris Dehring stated, “We have identified a list of about a hundred things that we have to improve, but probably among the top five: facilities at every level for our cricketers; practice pitches across the region; the quality of our domestic tournaments, there’s definitely a skills deficiency at various levels that don’t get highlighted till they reach international levels and then you see the glaring deficiencies vis-a-vis our international counterparts, which again is systemic.”
Dehring added that batting coach Jimmy Adams had raised concerns, noting, “it’s very difficult to change habits when you are getting somebody who has made so many runs at regional level but clearly has deficiencies when it comes to international level. It’s very difficult to change in a couple of weeks.”
He also highlighted the challenges around strength and conditioning, noting that these concerns again underscore the inadequacy of facilities for young, emerging, and ‘A’ team players.
Among the solutions CWI is working towards is establishing “a proper high-performance centre in the region, a prototype that will then be modelled and replicated across other countries,” along with academy systems designed to ensure that “the West Indies way of playing cricket is both documented and taught from very early.”
The urgency of this overhaul was underscored by a recent performance in Test cricket at Sabina Park in Kingston, where the West Indies were dismissed for just 27 against Australia — the second-lowest score in Test history and the lowest since 1955. The meeting was announced shortly after that game. Since then, the West Indies have played ten white-ball matches, winning only two and losing eight.
What Did Brian Lara Say?
Brian Lara reflected on the broader situation, “It’s been that case for years, where we are not on the same level-playing field as other playing countries. Back in the days when skill was the prominent factor, we excelled; we were the best team in the world. But the game has evolved, and technology and analytics, and we now have to see a new way of finding ourselves back to being very competitive. I said not a level-playing field because a lot of the countries are far ahead in these sorts of areas. The skill factor of the game is still there, but not as prominent as it was in the past.”
“It’s a long road; it’s not going to happen tomorrow. It was not about the 27 runs. If it was 57 or 107, will we be feeling any better? I don’t think so. It was the fact that we’ve got something to address, and for us to get back on top, or to be a competitive nation in world cricket, we’ve got to address these situations and address them shortly, quickly, and hopefully we can reap the benefits in the years to come,” Lara added.
CWI’s director of cricket, Miles Bascombe, described the problems as “systemic” and “across our cricket system.” He emphasised the goal now is “identifying the challenges at every level of our production pipeline and how to put all of that together. To have a holistic solution and then we will engage all of the stakeholders necessary to help us along the way”.
(With inputs from IANS)
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
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