Colin Croft's Prescription for English and West Indian Cricket (6 June 1999)

6 June 1999

Colin Croft's Prescription for English and West Indian Cricket

Colin Croft

Steven Camacho, the Chief Executive Officer of the West Indies Cricket Board, is very open, honest, communicative and informative when it comes to something rather close to his heart; the perils, fortunes, future and hopes of West Indian cricket.

I spoke to Steven Camacho in a telephone interview last Thursday (June 03). He easily cleared up any misunderstandings about the presence of Manager Clive Lloyd, Coach Malcolm Marshall and Acting Coach Sir Viv Richards in the managerial structure of West Indies cricket.

This was necessary as it had been rumoured among the press in the United Kingdom that Clive Lloyd would elect to stand down after the absolutely dismal showing of the West Indies cricket team in the World Cup. Remember too that Sir Viv took over for the ailing Marshall in the West Indies team effort.

Said Camacho; "As far as I know, Clive's and Malcolm's contracts do not expire until October next. At that time, supposing that both are still in their respective positions, and I see no reason why that should not be so, the WICB would then make decisions about their future in the WICB's structure. I have not heard anything officially of Clive's wanting to step down. That is just a rumour. As is well known, Malcolm has had a serious medical problem and he will have to have some considerable time convalescing before he, and indeed the WICB, could make a decision on his effectiveness for the future."

Camacho continued; "The West Indies are due to go to Sharjah from October 13-22 next. It is more than likely that, barring any additional health problems, both Clive and Malcolm will be the manager and coach of that short tour. Please note that Viv was only a stand-in for Malcolm until the World Cup ended. By the time the Sharjah 1999 tournament is completed, a decision will have been made, or, at least, will be close to being made."

Asked if Sir Viv will be better suited to continue now in that coaching role, as he had already started in the position, Camacho replied; "That too will be decided in October. Things right now are as they were before Malcolm's illness. We welcomed Viv's input, but the WICB does not foresee making any decisions until October."

I have nothing but respect for Clive Lloyd and for Malcolm Marshall as players and captain, but I genuinely believe that both should be relieved of their positions immediately, if not sooner. Why prolong this continuing agony any longer? Not even masochists enjoy and appreciate such pain.

I said as much after the Debacle of South Africa and, despite a slight respite against Australia in the Caribbean, nothing that has happened since to the West Indies cricket team has convinced me otherwise. The team's overall performance has become worse, if anything, despite Brian Lara's brilliance against Australia.

I have nothing against these two erstwhile performers in their day. The facts are simple. Lloyd and Marshall have managed to have overseen too many debacles recently; Pakistan 3-0 (3 Tests series), South Africa 5-0 (5 Test series) and 6-1 (ODI) and now the World Cup effort, which was a total disgrace. This has got to stop somewhere certainly sometime. Now is as good as any.

The West Indies managed to draw against Australia on the backs of Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Jimmy Adams and Ridley Jacobs, so please do not tell me there was a turn-around. Indeed, had Lara not made his 546 runs, the result against Australia would have come uncomfortably close to the tour of South Africa, as the other batsmen produced just as little against Australia as they had against South Africa. Check the final statistics and you would see that I am right. Combine any three of the other West Indian batmen in that Australian series and you will find that their combined aggregate does not even match Lara's 546. The West Indies' World Cup embarrassment confirms that there is much too much rhetoric but little substance to follow from this team. Talking a good game makes no sense. Making the correct changes and effecting the correct attitude will. Here is an example.

The practice sessions at Leicester for the game against Scotland were so very intense and serious, I was particularly impressed and pleased and I even mentioned that to Lara in the press conference after that game. It should be noted that the West Indies blasted Scotland out for 68 in only 31.1 overs, then, knowing then that a good run rate was needed, the blazed the required runs in just over 10 overs.

In the meantime, the last practice sessions at Old Trafford for the all-important game against Australia was a joke. Unlike the Scotland game, where the intensity was evident, there were so many unnecessary people IN the nets at Old Trafford. Everyone in the West Indies cricket team seemed so relaxed and confident. The resulting 110 blew that thought open.

Obviously, Australia had not read the script. Australia easily disembowelled that West Indian confidence.

Here is another scenario which should have been attended to properly. For both the game in Dublin against Bangladesh and the game at Southampton against New Zealand, the West Indies had great opportunities to pump up their run rates. This may just have seen them survive to the latter stages of the competition.

Instead, the West Indies just dallied along. After having Bangladesh at 55-4, Bangladesh still managed 182 in a lengthy 49.2 overs. It took the West Indies all of 46.3 overs to get the required 183. That was scoring at 3.95 runs per over. Worse was to come. The West Indies got the better of the toss against New Zealand. At one stage, New Zealand were 59-5, yet they too rallied to get to 156 in an also lengthy 48.1 overs. In effect, with conditions as good as any throughout the series for batting, since the sun actually came out and the pitch had dried out, the West Indies took longer to overhaul New Zealand, runs per over, than it took for them to beat Bangladesh. They batted at an even more pedestrian 3.57 runs per over to overhaul New Zealand's 156, taking 44.2 overs.

This obvious lack of planning, leadership, awareness and foresight must not be allowed to progress any further. It seems that everyone at these games were aware as to what the West Indies should have done except the West Indies themselves.

Lloyd is quoted in a recent news agency story as saying that "the present West Indies cricket team is not far off from being a good decent cricket team." I wonder which team he has been looking at. For one to address a players in a team as "decent", then that team must have players, period!! This utterance, if true, even overshadows his previously, openly given opinion, made during that tour of South Africa, that "Stuart Williams, our opening batsman, is one innings away from being a great player."

Hopefully, Williams will remain that innings away from being a great player. He is probably the poorest equipped batsman to have played for the West Indies in the recent years. If you doubt me, check the stats. He averages in the low 20's in Test and just over 30 in ODI's. Worse, he certainly did not look the part in the World Cup, yet someone somewhere persists with him. This crappy rhetoric must stop!!

I am here to tell the West Indies manager and all who now want to listen, those who lived in fantasy land over the last few years or so while I continued to say the same things I am now saying again, and perhaps now being accepted by even the greatest sceptics and believers in West Indies cricket, that the West Indies cricket team has very few players of real international class. There are probably now only three, maybe four players of real determination, class, poise and ability to operate at international levels and standards, as low as those international levels and standards are these days. Of course, the soon-to-finish ageless wonders, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh will not be counted here.

Brian Lara, Ridley Jacobs, Jimmy Adams and Shiv Chanderpaul are probably that four. Only two, Lara and Chanderpaul, are really gifted enough, and young enough, to carry West Indies a long way. Jacobs is good, but he will not last forever. Adams is barely good enough. In reality, that is indeed it.

The others, with the possible exception again of Reon King and Merve Dillon, to use a boxing term, are simply journeymen, but they must not be confused with the master electricians of the same name. Many may not like that term, but that is the truth.There is nothing masterful about this lot. Because they continue to hear it from their manager and coach that they are good enough, certain players in the West Indies cricket team will believe it. That is just not good enough. Incidentally, Ricardo Powell should be given another chance to restart, but in Test cricket this time.

Unfortunately for West Indies cricket, it is my opinion that Clive Lloyd has become more like the present West Indies cricket team; morose, careful and even less friendly than the normal West Indies teams normally are; than the team should have become like him when he was captain; enterprising, relaxed, professional, sometimes even playful, but certainly successful. Even if the team were not successful, at least they should look as if 100% effort is being given at all times.

I believe that Viv Richards should be appointed immediately, if not sooner, as "Supremo", Manager/Coach all in one, to partner Brian Lara. If for no other reason, Viv has no agenda as he is already very great and knighted even. He has no plan but to win. He respects all but fears none.

These two and only these two must be responsible for the actual selection of the West Indies cricket team. A few scouts could be used to ear-mark a few players for extra observation and implementation. The Manager and Captain must also be responsible for anything less that 100% effort. That is something they must insist on. Even if the results are not immediately forthcoming, the effort must be total. West Indies cricket must not be allowed to continue waddle into the 21st century like it has been this two years!!

Unfortunately for England, their situation is extremely similar to that of the West Indies, though at least for the West Indies, there is already an incumbent captain.

Even more than the West Indies, England should have a complete house cleaning, wipe their slate completely clean. Indeed, it may even be better for them to have a new slate, period. Both the West Indies and the English teams are too surrounded by personnel who talk a good game, but do nothing to change their team's status.

If you doubt me, mark these words here. Whenever you listen to David Lloyd doing commentary, now that he is not the Coach of England anymore, he will pinpoint exactly, and absolutely correctly, what is known to be needed to help England. The only problem when he was actually Coach was that David Lloyd would not have been brave enough to actually do the needed changes in his tenure. He had too many masters to please. It should also be noted Cheerleaders do not normally play the actual game!!

From top to bottom, including the present Manager and all players, England should clean house. Then, from the very few worthy players around they would have left, a captain should be selected. A very important necessity would be that the actually elected captain must be worth his place before being considered, much less elected, as captain.

England must get rid of that attitude, disease even, of not wanting to lose, something ingrained in anyone over 40 years old and involved in England's cricket. They must be adventurous to win. Being adventurous sometimes means losing. For example, what the England cricket fraternity did to Alex Tudor in Australia after his aggressive, better than average start, was scandalous. Potentially good players must be encouraged and, like race horses, let go, given their head, so to speak, to run.

I am very convinced that England's problem over the recent years is the result of their supposedly "good" County Cricket. Firstly, while it is changing somewhat, players, especially those with average and below average ability, still consider playing for their counties more important than playing for their country. That is somewhat understandable, in a sense. After all, the counties provide daily bread and butter. Playing for the country does provide icing on the cake, but it is not guaranteed. How, though, could anyone feel that playing cricket at county level could be more important than playing at test level, the highest level of cricket, is beyond comprehension.

County cricket allows some real fantacising. Frankly, it is rather poor. Counties accept players who just get by. Most of the batsmen would manage 1000 + runs even if they were average. This is from 17 games. A bowler may have in excess of 70 wickets in that 17 games too. It does not take a special effort to do that.

Can you imagine India's Sachin Tendulkar losing sleep at any time when he knows that Ian Austin, Mark Ealham, Adam Hollioake and Andy Flintoff will be attacking him the next morning? Sachin will probably oversleep!!

Look at Phil Simmons for Leicestershire. He is a world-beater when playing there. He is useless as an international cricketer when playing for the West Indies, more cheer-leader than player. That does not work in the real world!!

The truth is, these guys are average in the big leagues, at best. Yet, these guys are stars at their respective clubs.

Final example here. Look at Lancashire's poor batting performances when Flintoff, Austin and Neil Fairbrother are absent. If that does not tell the true story of the mediocrity of county cricket, then nothing can.

England, like the West Indies, has two "real" bowlers, Alan Mullally and Darren Gough. Make them the nucleus of a good bowling attack, then look for young upstarts like Tudor to do their thing.

England's batting, more or less, is the same. Nasser Hussein and Graeme Thorpe are really the only batsmen close to world class in the present England team. Make them the nucleus of the batting. Expand the footprint a bit and go down to Wales and such places for batsmen who are prepared to throw the bat around.

Another fact, one many would not want to accept as true, since so many are now being "employed" as so-called coaches, is that there are just too many coaches around. There is just too much overall coaching around these days.

Throw in a few youngsters and see how they swim in the big leagues with the real whales. Believe me, if they are good enough, they will survive. Strangely, that was the modus operandi when the West Indies started putting together that winning combination in the late seventies which ruled the world until the start of the nineties. If it worked then, I am sure that it will work now.

In addition, Nasser Hussein should be the captain of England. He demands and commands great respect from friend, foe and all others. He is worth the respect given to him. He is a good player, inspirational, a tremendous fighter and something of a class act in every way. He may not have done much with the captaincy for Essex yet, give him the opportunity to really shine through as a leader, then see what happens. He might just surprise a few people positively.

Alex Stewart should be put out to pasture like the rest. He has done fairly well, but his presence does not give any real confidence to his players and even the people who appoint him. Some of his decisions are strange, at least. Alan Mullally, in my opinion far and away the best bowler in England's team when the team was in Australia, never opened the bowling once there in the last Ashes series. Had he done so, England may even have beaten Australia.

There are two things about the Coaching position, in England and in the West Indies, that I would love to see. Firstly, the cricket team Coach should be soccer-like. He must be allowed to make unilateral decisions and be held responsible for them, win or lose. No hiding behind anyone. He must also have a free hand, in collusion with his Captain only, to select whom he thinks would make a good combination.

Secondly, in especially England's case, there is no-one absolutely English around, except perhaps Ian Botham and Tony Greig, who really knows about winning and more particularly, the enterprise necessary for winning. England is in a quandary. Almost everyone over 40 years old is too steeped in the negative attitude of useless rhetoric, satisfying too many masters and, especially, not having ever been involved as a real winner at the highest level of the game. On the other hand, none of the "new" breed happen to have the winning experiences neither, nor especially the know how needed to be aggressive and win.

Therefore, the English cricket Coach should be a foreigner who has no other agendas other than winning. It has not been so bad for soccer. Indeed, English soccer especially has benefited tremendously from the foreign invasion of Managers, who do, more or less, the same job of cricket team Coaches.

Manchester United has benefited immensely from the presence of Alex Ferguson, a Scotsman. Arsenal must be smiling all the way to the bank, and elsewhere, because of the input of Frenchman Arsine Venga. Dutchman Ruud Gullit is now trying to work his managerial magic again at Newcastle after making Chelsea winners again. It is not just incidental that Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle and Chelsea have dominated English soccer over the last five years. They have won almost everything. Surely, their managers had something to do with it. Need I say more.

There is a reason for this. These managers take no prisoners. They also ask no quarter. These guys brought enterprise and a winning attitude with them. Winning is all that matters to them, not molly-cuddling those tremendous egos of the players and almost everyone else.

For English cricket to progress, the cricketing authorities must take chances. I may even have a few serious suggestions for the position. If England could afford them, then maybe Tony Greig could be consulted, along with Ian Botham. Greg or especially his still extremely fiery brother Ian Chappell would be absolutely suited for the position, even if it might be sacrilegious to have an Australian as the coach of England at cricket. If he is not otherwise taken up, Pakistan's present captain, Wasim Akram, could also be a good possibility, if he chose to stop playing in the almost immediate future. If the West Indies does not need Sir Viv, he too could be consulted. Australia's immediately past captain, Mark Taylor, perhaps another sacrilegious suggestion, is not a bad bet neither.

These guys were not "day in, day out" cricketers in their day, such a most of the recent coaches of England, of which David Lloyd was the latest, have been. Those named were winners. Those previously named know how to win, made a habit of winning regularly and know how to create winning combinations and teams. What has any of the so-called knowledgeable, recent coaches of England won, either in their playing days or while in coaching/management. In a word, nothing!!

If England, and indeed the West Indies, do not want to bite the bullet now, then the 21st century could be even more painful that the experiences of the latter part of the 20th century. It will be good for Test cricket the world over if both the West Indies and England could put out creditable teams, even if they do not win everything. At least, cricket will be the eventual winner.

Source :: Colin Croft