West Indies Cricket…again

If the WICB did not have confidence in the abilities of current captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, to handle the team effectively and efficiently, then someone more suited to the job should have been appointed. But to have the captain operate like a robot on the field responding to the dictates of the coach at every turn is to transform the team and the game into entities more suited to North American Football than to the cricket that we have come to know for decades.
That the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) allowed the two foregoing decisions to be implemented suggests that the organisation may well have lost some of its primary focus – t0 look after the best interests of the players on the West Indies team. After all, it is not all about the money. It is about the well being of the whole person who has been selected to represent the region.
The players themselves seem not to have been all together as a team in many ways.
We have always known of the problems of ill-discipline among the players which the WICB has somehow been able to keep from the media.
We were never really allowed to know for sure who was the apparent intended victim of the alleged knife attack on the plane when the team was on its way to playing a series in South Africa. There are several other incidents that have been covered up in a manner of speaking. The average West Indies cricket enthusiast is left wondering why this or that player is no longer considered by the selectors despite some show of form at a particular time. The matter of the athlete being the object of disciplinary action is hardly ever revealed.
In many respects it appears that the WICB wants the support of the region’s cricketing enthusiasts only when it suits its pride and purposes.

Same old khaki pants
Ken Gordon has come on the WICB as its president without any involvement in the game enough to recommend him for the tough job.
As was the case with Pat Rousseau before him it appears that the region’s cricketing chiefs opted for an individual perceived to be successful in the world of business to take the game and the organisation out of its current malaise.
It appears however that the emphasis of Gordon, much like Rousseau and Chris Dehring, is being placed on raising revenues while the game itself continues to suffer immensely from leadership from individuals knowledgeable about the sport and experienced in sports management.