Put emphasis on development

Tony Becca FROM THE BOUNDARY

The West Indies Cricket Board, last August, announced in one of its many strategic plans over the years, strategies which it hopes will return West Indies cricket to the good old days.

After a two-day powwow in Antigua, the board released a long list of things to do, and it included, among many other things, a dynamic television production of West Indies cricket, securing innovative sponsorship partnerships, and a better working relationship with the territorial boards.

Sometime afterwards, the board talked about staging new competitions such as a Calypso Cup and Beach cricket, and it talked about staging a Caribbean T20 tournament which, apparently, is on the way.

On another occasion, the board also talked about putting into place territorial contracts for 84 players across the six territories. It talked about a high performance centre, which is now in place, and right now, the board is interviewing people to join its staff.

to assist the board

According to CEO Ernest Hilaire, the new staff members will "assist the board as it continues to enhance and strengthen its institutional capacity", and they will be people who will help the board to "effectively meet the demands of a modern sports governing body operating at the international level".

Without a doubt, and without even thinking of the cost of doing all those things, without even thinking of where the money will be coming from, the plans, like all the others before them, seem good.

I cannot, however, help but feel that even if they come to pass, even if all the plans were to materialise, they cannot help West Indies cricket to return to its glory days.

In the glory days of West Indies cricket, the West Indies team was the best in the world, and it was the best simply because the West Indies in those days produced good and great players - batsmen who could bat for a long time, bowlers who made batsmen tremble, and fielders who, in supporting the bowlers, could field, throw, and catch.

Can dynamic television, innovative sponsorship, or a large non-cricketing staff produce great or even good cricketers? Although they are all important, I do not believe so.

Can a high-performance centre produce great or good cricketers? Although it can play a part, I do not believe so, and more so if the cricketers are starting from scratch when they enter the centre.

What West Indies really needs now is an emphasis on development - the kind of development that will see the fan base returning to the size of days gone by, that will see proper coaching in the schools and in the clubs, that will see players involved in their own development in their own time, that will see players coming through who can bat properly and sensibly, players who, without bowling loads of no-balls, can bowl properly and consistently well, players who can field, and on the other side of things, players who can lead, on and off the field.

West Indies cricket is in such a state that it not only needs good selectors, people who will simply select the best, and not people who select and hope and pray, but also people who can become good umpires.

West Indies needs to go back to the grassroots.

Somehow, however, the board, in its plans, has forgotten the schools and more so the clubs - and that is where the turn-around in West Indies cricket has to start, and especially so, in the clubs.

The clubs, however, need help. All of them, with no exception and especially so in Jamaica, are suffering financially. Their cricketers, from the young players through to the Test players, are non-paying members. The clubs get nothing when they become stars, and the clubs have bills to pay.

Apart from providing bats and balls, a good pitch and grounds, there is the cost of lunches and teas, umpires, scorers, light, and water.

The board, it appears, is convinced, for example, that the High Performance Centre at Cave Hill in Bridgetown will be the answer to the West Indies problem - and the board may be right.

There are people, however, who do not agree with the centre being the important part in the development process for the simple reason that one does not build a house from the roof down, but from the foundation up.

clubs more useful

The centre can be useful, and there is no doubt about that. The clubs, however, are more useful, and they are more useful because they are the centre of the game.

The club is the place where those who love the game are catered to, where young players develop their skills. Without the clubs, cricket in the West Indies will die, and there is no question about that.

The club structure is important, and it is important because it is where a young player, over the years and for many years, can learn from a coach, from an experienced player, from a retired past player, how the game is played and how to conduct himself.

It is at the club that the young player also learns about the history and the legacy of West Indies cricket.

The club, a well organised club, is also the place, the ideal place, for a player to learn not only the basic principles of the game, the techniques of batting, bowling, fielding, and captaincy, but also how to compete - how to field, how to catch the ball, how to get a single, and most importantly, how to run between the wickets.

The club, after the schools and before the territories, is also the place to instil certain disciplines in the young players - disciplines that will, for example, get rid of the general untidiness and indiscipline that are synonymous with present-day West Indies cricket.

In its bid to get West Indies cricket back to where it was once upon a time, the board needs to pay some attention, more attention, to cricket in the clubs, and it should also look at the recent 15-point plan presented by the players' association.

The Calypso Cup could be attractive, and so too beach cricket, and again there is no doubt about that. As far as spreading the game is concerned, probably as far as making money goes, the more, the merrier.

Apart from providing a helping hand for the clubs, however, if the board is serious about turning around West Indies cricket, it should, among other things, promote more cricket at the club level and at the first-class level.

The board should increase the number of matches per team in its regional four-day competition. It should really try and find the funding to make it a professional league, and as far as its affiliates are concerned, it should also see to it that in Jamaica, for example, the Super League is more than seven rounds.

Jamaica's cricket, which, with its recent success, has been like a one-eyed man in a blind man's country, cannot survive on a seven-week competitive two-day cricket each season, and neither can West Indies cricket if its league competition continues to last for only six matches (24 days) per team per season.

serious attention needed

West Indies cricket, when compared to the big boys, is so weak that it needs serious attention, and looking, for example, at the number of no-balls, at the running between the wickets, at the fielding, and at the way some of the batsmen get themselves out, and consistently at that, the focus should be at the early stage of a player's development.

West Indies cricket urgently needs a strong club system. It therefore needs viable clubs, and it needs the clubs because the club system is what fosters the love of the game, fully develops talent, and provides grooming.

There is no reason, for example, for the batting in the West Indies to be so poor that the West Indies team continues to collapse so dramatically and so often.

In the latest embarrassment, the West Indies, in the first Test match against South Africa, not only lost three wickets for five runs while dropping from seven without loss to 12 for three, but also surrendered six wickets for four runs in 28 deliveries while collapsing from 71 for three to 75 for nine.