IN THE AFTERMATH of West Indies’ disappointing performance during the 2011 Cricket World Cup, emotions around the region have been running high over the past few days.
We’ve heard calls for sweeping changes, for the senior players to step aside, for the captain to be removed from the position, and so on and so on.
As people who are very passionate about the sport, we find it unacceptable that we could not win a single match against a major team.
It was a major disappointment when we lost successive matches against England, India and Pakistan.
While some of us might not have expected West Indies to go any further in the competition, we would have at least anticipated a fight against Pakistan.
There was no semblance of one. It is for that reason that a lot of us have been strong in castigating the players, the coaching staff and even the selectors.
But let us face the reality that we are still lagging behind the major cricket nations and that it will take more than chopping and changing before we start to narrow the gap on our competitors.
It will require a fresh approach from top to bottom, including the implementation of new measures at all levels of the game.
The World Cup was not all gloom and doom. Some of the younger players put forward a strong advertisement to suggest that they can be world-beaters in a few years.
A close look at the ages of the our World Cup squad will show that seven of the 18 players who went to the sub-continent were 25 or under, a further eight between 26 and 30 and only three were on the “wrong” side of 30.
If we were to thank the over-30s for their services, it could only be a recipe for further disaster by leaving the youngsters to fend for themselves.
There is talent around in the form of Kemar Roach, Darren Bravo, Andre Russell, Devendra Bishoo and others. Let us work with that pool in the hopethat they develop.
The likes of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul still have a role to play and can help in nurturing the young potential. We should not be prepared to write off those who have served us well over the years.
In the midst of all the condemnation from the experts and the fans, we, however, find it alarming that the president of a regional territorial board could go as far as to recommend to the West Indies Cricket Board that captain Darren Sammy be axed and that Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul and Devon Smith should be dropped to make way for younger players.
His remarks were irresponsible.
While we feel the majority of those players were not up to scratch at the World Cup, don’t let our emotions get the better of us.
