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| Mediocrity Breeds no Winners |
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Another series has come and gone and West Indies was unable to win even one single match. Thanks to the graveyard of a Warner Park pitch in St. Kitts, we were able to eke out a draw and saved ourselves the embarrassment of being the only team to secure white washes in three formats of the game is a single series. South Africa on foreign soil completely dominated and annihilated our home team and sadly, our future continues to look bleak. Just a few bright West Indian spots were seen during the entire series, yet nothing to single out anyone with any special praise.
It’s already sounding repetitive as series after series the once mighty West Indies team is whipped and shows scarce glimpses of cricketing ability and fortitude. A team of eleven players with no one making worthy consistent contributions is pathetic, and serious questions must be asked. The captaincy of Chris Gayle must be on the agenda for discussion even though finding a replacement for him might create more headaches than sticking with him. At this present moment, however, captaincy is not the main problem as statistics clearly indicate. Team selection also, has very little to do with our failures.
What transpired on day 3 and 4 of the last test match, in my opinion, is the root of many our woes. Both Sulieman Benn and Kemar Roach were involved in heated and animated confrontations with Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis, respectively. It takes two to make a quarrel and although the South African players cannot be condoned, our boys were obviously instigators on the field of play for those two confrontational incidents. One cannot forget also, that Mr. Benn was sent off the field of play during the second ODI for refusing to follow the instructions of captain Gayle.
Say what you may, if discipline and attitudes are not at acceptable levels with our players, their talents would never realize full potential. Up coming players are also negatively affected by such actions witnessed from current players. A team that has not been able to win a match out of the ten that were played has absolutely no reason to be verbally combative with a team that won 9 out of 10 matches and declaring twice in the only match that West Indies were not whipped.
There is much talk about the High Performance Centre that WICB have embarked upon with the hope of grooming the young and upcoming talents around the region. The name sounds catchy and probably would make a difference but it could very well be like the academy as tried before, without much success. Funding for such programs are usually of great concern and if players involved show that money is being well spent, the Performance Center can be the savior of West Indies cricket.
At this time it’s a bit early to speculate but West Indies cricket need prayers if there is to be any significant change. The players themselves need to get involved, seek wisdom and guidance from the creator and use their talents to the maximum. Until that is done, the game that we love so much will continue to lose support from the ardent Caribbean supporters. Mediocrity does not breed many winners and the signs are clear. |
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