FORMER Barbados cricketer Nolan Clarke has rapped the current West Indies cricket team for what he believes is a lack of commitment.
Clarke, who is currently coaching Holland’s Under-19 cricket team, said: “They need to learn a little more about what the game is about and not only about showing up and trying hard to make a few runs because you cannot try to make runs. Runs are something that you’ve got to be able and know how to make.”
In an interview with NATIONSPORT in Queen’s Park on Christmas morning, Clarke said the West Indies team were not doing well at the moment and he felt it could be attributed to a number of reasons.
“The way they play at the moment it shows that the commitment is not there,” said the former Spartan captain, who also represented Holland in the 1996 Wills Cricket World Cup and once captained the side against India.
“As a team sport one has to recognize that you have to put all the pieces together. One or two people cannot make a team. You need 11 people who are committed,” noted Clarke, who played in five One-Day Internationals and had a highest score of 32 off 46 balls in his last match at 48 years old against a South Africa side, whose bowling attacking was led by Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock.
Clarke also purported that a “very solid technique in cricket, a lot of knowledge of the game and a sense of responsibility to the Caribbean nation” were lacking.
The experienced cricketer, who scored two centuries in 26 first-class matches while averaging 31.69 during the 1970’s, the 1996 Cricket World Cup and once captained Holland against India, said seeing the team being beaten as badly in recent times “really hurts”.
“At times it is difficult to accept it and take it and of course they are trying, but it needs more than that. He argued: “You cannot try for 15 or 16 years. They must realize what they are doing wrong and correct it. If after 15 and 16 years they cannot do that, it means something is wrong with your ability.”
Clarke, who has been living in Holland for about 30 years, said he had been playing golf and “just enjoying the good life.” He and his Dutch wife Gerdene spend every Christmas in Barbados. (GC)
