Inadvertently, I may have started up a great hornet's nest with a very
innocent interview, done two days before the start of the second Test
between New Zealand and West Indies at Wellington, with the present West
Indian team manager, Clive Lloyd. In that interview, I asked Lloyd if he
would be applying for the position of West Indian senior team manager, the
criteria for which have only very recently been published in the Caribbean
by the West Indies Cricket Board. Indeed, I have received calls, e-mails
and everything else for comments on this.
Lloyd's reply was simply this: "I do not think so. I think that I have
given my all over the last few years to try to make this team better.
However, I think that whomsoever takes over this team would not be taking
over a bad team. We have worked on a few things over the last few years and
these guys are now getting there, slowly. We now have a few fairly good
openers, and a regular wicket-keeper. The fast bowlers are not bad but our
middle order batting still needs to be consistent and a bit more tough."
One could detect, if one looked closely, that Lloyd is sorely disappointed,
perhaps even sad, that his tenure as Manager did not become more successful.
However, as one friend told me, "The best race car driver in the world could
not bring home a winner in a Grand Prix if the car was not built, serviced
and tested properly."
Clive Lloyd's problem, in my mind, is that he took a position and tried to
change it from the inside. In my opinion, he should have asked for the
responsibilities of his position to be spelled out before he took the
position. He would then have had the option of accepting or not. One
cannot accept a position using one criteria and then hope to change that
criteria once the position is accepted.
Somehow, that reply of Lloyd's has been badly misconstrued as to suggest
that "Clive Lloyd is stepping down as manager of the West Indies cricket
team." That really makes no sense at all, since one could only step down
from a position that one actually "holds." To explain that, some important
history is necessary here.
Clive Lloyd was appointed as Manager (his second stint) of the senior West
Indies cricket team, on a three year contract, some time in 1996 after Wes
Hall, the then Manager, decided that he had to go unto better, or at least,
different things. Lloyd's contract actually ended last October (1999).
Clive Lloyd was then asked by the West Indies Cricket Board, after the
plethora of one day games played between May and October last, to continue
in the position, for this New Zealand tour ONLY.
This was to facilitate the WICB to put things into place and appoint a new
Manager for the new Millenium, starting with the Pakistan and Zimbabwe
series in the Caribbean early 2000. In effect, Clive Lloyd in New Zealand
is not unlike present US President, Bill Clinton; a "lame duck" or "caretaker" manager. Normally, a "lame duck" anybody gets nothing done, as there
is no need to get anything done. Simply, it is a waste of time!!
A passing note should also indicate that the team's present Coach, (Sir)
Vivian Richards, was also appointed ONLY for this short tour of New Zealand.
For him to continue as Coach, Viv too will have to apply, like everyone else
aspiring to the position, and be considered likewise. However, a quick
glance of the advertised requirements, as published by the WICB, for the
position of Coach of the senior West Indies cricket team, would indicate
that, very obviously, Viv Richards does NOT qualify. In effect, he too is a
"lame duck" Coach!!
Despite the fact that Viv has some eight and a half thousand Test runs, and
is still the only West Indian captain not to have lost a Test series ever,
after being captain for about six years, it is unbelievable, but true, that
Viv does not qualify. To qualify to be the West Indies senior team Coach,
as stated by the WICB, an applicant must have at least (a) a Senior
Coaching Certificate, as issued by either the MCC or the WICB etc., and (b)
at least two years of continuing experience in a similar position as a
cricket coach. Viv Richards has neither of these qualifications.
Viv is NOT a certified cricket coach and he has only been the team's coach
for a short period during the last cricket World Cup and now to New Zealand.
He has suggested that "I intend to apply for this position. Six weeks (the
New Zealand tour) is certainly not enough time to whip this team into the
shape I would like, as I want to implement a few things. I have not even
scratched the surface yet."
There is something badly wrong here. Perhaps questions should be asked of
the West Indies Cricket Board. Among them would be the obvious one. "Why
was Lloyd's contract allowed to run down and end before the vacant position
was even advertised, much less filled?". As things are, no-one will even
be interviewed before the new Millenium, since the closing date of the
vacancy notice for this senior team Manager position is around the middle of
January next. The West Indies Cricket Board, in my mind, has been very slow
on the uptake in getting things done here. Surely they should have known
that Lloyd's contract would have expired in October, since he had a contract
with them. The WICB should have advertised for this position some time in
July last, just after the World Cup ended. By now, someone might have been
identified and might even have been employed.
Unfortunately for Lloyd, in a sense, he is caught up in a sequence, now,
that he cannot control. Personally, I thought, and actually said so, that
he should have been fired, along with Malcolm Marshall, after the South
African debacle. From what I could see and sense while covering that South
African tour, no leadership was provided by these two at all during that
trip, leadership which was dearly needed after the second Test match at Port
Elizabeth. Had the right things been done there and then, as any American
sports entity would have done, the West Indies, and Clive Lloyd, would not
have been in this continuing mess.
Mis-information is a terrible thing, especially going into the new
Millenium. For this senior West Indies cricket team management situation,
it has been so poor that even former West Indian players are suggesting,
only now, that perhaps Lloyd should step down as Manager. Lloyd cannot step
down from a position which he does not, in fact, "hold". He is now in a
"care-taker" position, until someone else is appointed. He knows that and
so does the WICB. Whenever a new Manager is selected and appointed, as
should have been done, at the latest, by October last, Clive Lloyd would
probably go on his merry way, having put all he could into West Indian
cricket, both as a player and as a manager.