by MIKE WORRELL

I BELIEVE that at the end of a game or tournament one has to reflect on what transpired. One has to look at the outcome and determine if the results met with the expectations that one had before the start of the exercise.

It is with this in mind that I review the Barbados team performance in the recently concluded Carib Beer Cup
and the Stanford Twenty20 competition.

In the Carib Cup series, Barbados won three of six games losing badly to Trinidad and Tobago by 250 runs
and their most embarrassing loss in my mind was to the Combined Campuses and Colleges.

Knocked out

In the Stanford Twenty20 the team had two below par wins against Dominica and Grenada before eventually being knocked out by their nemesis this season Trinidad and Tobago. What was most disturbing to me was that too many
of the players seemed unfit and the batsmen appeared to be at sea whenever a slow bowler was used.

I have already stated my concerns with reference to the selected captains of these teams so I will not repeat myself on that score. On the positive side were the performances of Suleman Benn, Ryan Hinds and Dale Richards.

But what was also most disturbing was the exodus of Pedro Collins and Tino Best to take up contracts at Surrey County Club and the Indian Premier League (IPL) respectively.

What they have said to me by their actions is that although it may be an honour to represent the Barbados and West Indies teams, as professional cricketers you cannot take honour to the store and to provide for their families they had
to do what was best for them.

Almost always a team is seen only as the individuals at the frontline, as in the case of the Barbados cricket team, the 11 individuals on the field. In reality the team is more than that. The team also includes the manager, the coach, the ground staff and the board of management and so on.

You can therefore understand my amazement while listening to the commentary of the game Barbados versus Trinidad and Tobago on hearing Andrew Sealy – third vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association and one of the commentators, say that should Fidel Edwards be included in the West Indies team to play against Sri Lanka it would result in the West Indies losing.

Below par

These comments were made, I can only assume, because of Fidel's below par performance in the game. Sealy obviously does not understand his responsibility as a board member and certainly does not see himself as part of
the Barbados team.

He does not understand that he was part of the group that appointed the selectors, the coaches and provided the infrastructure that prepared the players for the competition and should not have been making such statements especially in such a public domain.

The stance taken by the coach was equally shocking. In an interview in the DAILY NATION of April 2, 2008, he chastised the players saying that they were not up to par, adding it appeared that they did not have the ability
to compete at that level and that their thought processes were not right.

He apparently does not realise that as coach his job is to identify the players' deficiencies and correct them. He, like Mr Sealy, took the easy way out – they criticised the players. At the start of the tournament Vasbert Drakes stated
that he was looking at the development of the young players. I have seen no further development in Kemar Roach, Shemar Brooks or Jonathan Carter.

I can only recommend to those people responsible that both individuals be reminded of the need for discretion.
I would also recommend that the three selectors Messrs Estwick, Moseley and Payne take new guard. Too many of their choices have not come up to expectation.

* MIKE WORRELL is a former West Indies B team wicketkeeper batsman.