West Indies suffered yet another whitewash, this time at the hands of Pakistan in Abu Dhabi where they lost a three-match ODI series. This coming on the heels of what was the highest monetary reward in the history of the game.” Twenty million was dished out to the Stanford Superstars on November 1, involving 5 players who were involved in that historic match in Antigua. “Much has been shouted about the 20 Million Dollars match victory by the Stanford Superstars. Not much was heard about the woeful performance by England on that all important night. Emphasis on the 6 weeks training camp prior to that week-long Twenty 20 series against England has been touted as one of the answers to West Indies cricket problems. Alas! That theory seems to hold very little water as Pakistan romped over some of the very same players with a great deal of ease.” What makes it even more critical is that Pakistan has played very little international cricket this year. “Sir Allen Stanford’s involvement and investment in West Indies cricket has certainly caused great concerns from its inception.” Many looked at it with all positives and the gist behind the notion was to restore West Indies cricket to what we had in former years and to bring interest that was certainly lacking, back into the game.” At this moment many more have seen that the Stanford Twenty 20 format will certainly bring enormous entertainment to the general public while putting huge sums of money into some pockets. However, the standard of West Indies cricket will continue to slide as our young and upcoming players will gravitate more to the glory, glamour and huge financial payoffs that Stanford Twenty 20 offers. “It’s been well over a decade that our cricket started sliding and presently we rest comfortably at the bottom of the ICC rankings in both Tests and ODIs. Of course some newly accepted teams rank lower than number 8, but of the original teams Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, England and even Sri-Lanka who are fairly new to ICC, are all ahead of West Indies who dominated the game just over two decades ago.” Why we have fallen so fast in such a short space of time is worrying but the fact that we no longer possess that quality of players cannot be denied.” Now, the prospective players who should be ambitiously looking forward to representing the West Indies are being forced to make a difficult choice of entertaining cricket that pays extremely well and the traditional game lifts the West Indies.” Of course, one might be flexible enough to handle both but the reality of that taking place with upcoming cricketers is rather remote. “West Indies cricket is in serious trouble with little glimmer of hope, if any.” Rifts between WICB and WIPA have been ongoing for years, many other grievances have also been associated with and surrounding players, team spirit, team selection and more.” Interest in the game seems to have fallen to an unbelievable low. How many are aware up to date with the ongoing WICB sponsored Limited Overs Competition 2008? “The future looks bleak and with some of our players earning the biggest payday in cricket history, it is now left to be seen if Stanford Twenty 20 will lift our standards and bring us back into the limelight of cricket.
