WICB's Hilaire fires on all cylinders

Tony Becca, Contributor

It is not often that people close to West Indies cricket speak the truth. Most times, sometimes in an effort to protect the players, they come up with hollow excuses.

Time and again, following defeat after defeat, for example, we hear managers, coaches and captains, sometimes even board members, saying "it is just one of those things", "we have another match to come and we just have to pick ourselves up", "the guys tried their best", and "it is just unfortunate".

Things, however, seem to be changing.

Recently, captain Chris Gayle shouted "When you do crap, it's definitely crap and there is no excuse," and a few days ago, just over a week ago, Dr Ernest Hilaire, the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), spoke about what he considered the ills of West Indies cricket.

In doing so, Hilaire hit the problem right on the head, and it matters not what anyone has to say.

Hilaire noted that the region's cricketers are not prepared, that the players seem devoid of pride, that all the cricketers speak about is money, that all that matters is instant gratification, that sometimes when you speak to the cricketers you feel a sense of emptiness, that the whole notion of being a West Indian has no meaning at all, that as a region we are producing young men who cannot dream of excellence, and in many cases that is a fact.

More than that, Hilaire said that for the cricketers excellence is about the bling and the money they have, that they are products of the Caribbean society, that it is difficult to replace the present cricketers because half of the Under-19 team can barely read or write, and again, that is a fact.

The lack of ability to read and write must have been what forced coach Ottis Gibson to speak about the lack of "common sense" in the West Indies approach to batting.

Not world beaters

According to Hilaire, the West Indies is producing cricketers who are not capable of being world beaters, and cricketers who can win occasionally but not consistently, and again, in many cases, that is a fact.

In reminding that between 2000 and 2009 the West Indies had selected 59 new players, Hilaire also said that "We have put young men in the international arena to be slaughtered, demoralised, dejected, and the development path they ought to take never really takes place." And again, in many cases, that is a fact.

Finally, according to the report, Hilaire talked about insularity - about the type of behaviour that sometimes "decision making is tainted by our preference for our own", and again, in many cases, that is a fact.

One fact that Hilaire did not mention is the impact of club cricket on the game in the past, the gradual decline of the clubs and, therefore, the loss of the clubs' influence on the game - on the grooming, the development of the players, on and off the field.

I sincerely hope, however, that those in the corridors of power and those who influence those in the corridors, those who love the sport and who vote at every level of the sport, will start to act in defence of West Indies cricket.

Insularity, for example, is rife in West Indies cricket. I can give examples of selectors who refuse to eat in dining rooms at hotels and are abused verbally in public places around the West Indies, and based on my experience, it is so in every territory bar none.

The questions, however, and for the umpteenth time, are these: how should the board address the problems, and how long will it take to turn things around?

According to Hilaire, it will take at least three years.

According to Hilaire, almost half of the last Under-19 team could hardly read or write, and according to Gibson, in another move to be honest by those close to West Indies cricket, "Talent-wise, we're not far behind South Africa, thinking-wise, we're showing that we are very far behind."

Over 10 years ago, then board president Pat Rousseau suggested that no territory should select anyone for its Under-15 team unless that player was attending school.

The territories, some of them, shouted elitism, that was the end of that, and West Indies cricket is now paying the price.

There is so much to do, however, so much work to do to change the attitude to the game by cricketers in the West Indies and the approach to life of so many youngsters in the society that it will take longer, much longer.

Change your attitude

In an attempt to change the fortunes of West Indies cricket, the administrators, at all levels, must look into the mirror and change their attitude.

From the club level, through the territorial level, to the West Indies level, the administrators, through the selectors, must start selecting players who possess the attitude which will enable them to achieve.

That attitude must include belief in performance, pride in the kind of performance that will make them train and practise regularly in order to succeed, pride in self, in deportment, that will make them look into the mirror while on the field and while off the field, the education level that will enable them to think, especially so on their feet, and finally, the selectors must select those with a good record when it comes to discipline.

As far as the West Indies team is concerned, the West Indies selectors, if necessary, should liaise with the selectors in the territories when it comes to matters of discipline, behaviour, training, and practising, before selecting a player.

Indiscipline

There is no reason, for example, why Christopher Gayle, the West Indies captain, should have had to send a player, Sulieman Benn, off the field during the match in Dominica last Sunday, and although he was fined his match fee, there is no reason why Benn should not have been dropped from the squad for the following match.

Indiscipline is part of the West Indies problem, and although in the past it has turned a blind eye to indiscipline, the time has come for the board, in the interest of West Indies cricket, to change its ways.

Fine or no fine, the selectors should not have selected Benn to the squad for the fifth and final ODI against South Africa and for a Test match or two. In fact, the board should have told the selectors not to select Benn.

That is the sort of action which is necessary if West Indies cricket is to get back to the lofty position it held for many years, and more so for the 19 years up 1995 when it lost its crown and started a slide that, mainly because of what Hilaire has said, is proving difficult to stop.