WEST INDIES and Australia between them have dominated world cricket for about three decades and were the undisputed kings of the game. However, at the end of their reigns the standard of their game fell steadily as they went into a grim performance slump.
Australia appear to have overcome that slump and in the current Ashes series the team played brilliant cricket to beat England and regain the Ashes in just three Tests. Clearly, their recovery strategy is working.
West Indies, on the other hand, continue to play poorly and in the recent Test series against India and New Zealand, their performance fell to a new low. The team is trapped in a vicious failure cycle from which it is struggling to escape.
The idiotic exercise of sending the team to Florida to start its preparation for the tours of India and New Zealand did not help and leads one to believe that there is not a sensible or carefully thought out recovery strategy in place.
India’s captain Mahendra Dhoni recently told me that the main difference between great teams and the others is the interval between mistakes. The longer the interval, the better the team performs.
He explained that when a great team makes a mistake, the players learn from it and do not repeat it for quite some time. The lesser team, on the other hand, makes mistakes and keeps repeating them at frequent and regular intervals. The West Indies team and the WICB fall squarely into the latter category.
The life cycle of every champion team is one of conception, growth, optimum performance, stagnation and then decline. But the decline can be prevented or corrected if the team starts a second growth curve or psychological rebirth while it is still playing well.
This revival strategy requires attitudinal change, a relisting of priorities and a change of leadership. It also requires the inclusion of disciplined and hard-working players who are hungry for success and committed to mastery of the basic skills.
New systems, efficient structures, visionary leadership and competent management of players and the board’s activities are also needed.
The longer the decline lasts, the more difficult it is to reverse. Unfortunately, most teams wait until they are in full decline before they act.
When West Indies were dominating world cricket they did not see the need to start a second growth curve and in the 1990s the team went into a steady decline. At that stage they were in a state of denial, could not see the reality of the situation they were in and believed that things would automatically and miraculously improve.
Consequently, little was done to change or adapt to the circumstances they faced. During the last 17 years the team’s failure spiral intensified as the slope of the decline became steeper. For some time now the team has been near the bottom of the world rankings in Test and One-Day cricket.
The decisions, actions and combative attitude of the WICB and the West Indies Players’ Association are good examples of what not to do in circumstances like these.
At the end of its reign, the Australian cricket team also went into a decline. But, unlike the West Indians, the Australians were acutely aware of what was happening and immediately started to put a strategic plan in place.
They asked themselves the right questions, made some difficult and unpopular decisions, changed captains, coaches and players, and put different structures, systems and resources in place to arrest the slide and start a second growth curve.
Some boards and administrators find it difficult to start a second growth curve because their mindset does not allow them to see themselves as part of the problem. Some members do not even understand that transformation and psychological rebirth is easier when they start with themselves and set the right examples. And they don’t seem to realize how hard it is for a team to play well on the field with a dysfunctional administrative and management team behind it.
Let us pray that in the new year, the board, support staff and players acquire the strength, wisdom and resolve to change their old ways and their disruptive thinking. In the end, success is often more about unlearning and removing bad habits, outmoded traditions and self-defeating attitudes than about learning or adding new ones.
Dr Rudi V. Webster is the author of the new book Think Like A Champion (Harper Collins India).
