“SHAKE THE TREE and let the fruit fall.” Those were the words of our late experienced sports journalist, Don Norville. He was driven to that position when, in the late 1960s, West Indies cricket had drifted into a noticeable and measurable decline.
We had experienced significant high points during the Frank Worrell era that manifested the quality, even brilliance, of Sobers, Hunte, Kanhai, Butcher, Hall, Griffith, Gibbs, Nurse and the list can go on.
As those individuals moved on into retirement, we languished until the mid-1970s when the Clive Lloyd’s focus on pace, backed by the exceptional skills of Richards, Rowe, Kallicharran, Greenidge, Fredericks, Haynes, Gomes and others, brought us back to the top of the pack.
That era also ended and, despite the significant contributions from proponents like Lara, Gayle, Ambrose, Walsh and Hooper, we have fallen further and further behind in the cricketing pecking order. I simply say we have been here before.
To my mind, the reason is the same – the comfort of leadership which is always anathema to progress and development. Leadership may be the first ship to have missed its docking station but it has closely been followed by development, financing, relationships and technology.
This, one would say, is the sad state of West Indies cricket. That’s easy, but when we say that we are blinding ourselves to the obvious factors. Our recent successes at junior, senior and female levels say something that cannot be ignored. Yes, more can be done and must be done.
Our flagship, our virtual trident that is the symbol of what we are, our test cricket team, is a representative group that is defined by young people at the embryonic stage of their careers. There is no experienced person from whom to draw or learn from previous battles.
To me, this is a challenge of leadership. There has been no coordinated succession plan to keep our fortunes in the positive. Additionally, our regulations as a cricketing nation have also contributed to the situation as it stands. These must be addressed in a focused strategic way.
In any succession plan, vision must work in collaboration with standards and a well-outlined evaluation structure from which harsh but necessary decisions must be taken. Of course, our long-standing immaturity defined by insularity and parochialism often inhibits our ability to act.
Our cricket demands principled leadership knowing that whatever decision is made will be criticised from one constituent sector or the other. We must be in it for the principle and not for the title or the position or potential perks that may accrue to us.
The leader does not have to be a former cricketer or business or public administrator, but one with the ability, the vision and the values to execute the mission. Be there for the right reasons or the compromising and debilitating cancer of insularity and parochialism will destroy you.
Another area of challenge to West Indies cricket is relationships, such as inter and intra board rivalries, management /player quarrels and, self-proclaimed experts’ criticisms. They are serious challenges here that must be addressed if true cricketing success is to be realised.
In any area of progressive development, there is never “the way” but always “a way”. There is a structure to respect and a strategic focus by which to be disciplined. If you are part of a team, understand that “my way is better than the strategically projected way” is only acceptable in the heads of arrogant self-seekers.
Jeff Broomes is an experienced educator, principal and community organiser who also served as vice president of the BCA and director of the WICB. Email: [email protected]
