Former captain and West Indies player Sir Vivian Richards, the only West Indies captain to never lose a Test series, says the current players are letting their fans down by putting selfishness before the team.
Speaking on Observer Radio’s Good Morning Jojo sports show in Antigua, Sir Viv said players no longer understand the team’s historical significance of the game and what they represent when they wear its colors.
Also, the former captain says that the fans who supported the team despite many challenging times deserve more.
“We have so many issues. We would’ve had the pandemic. We need something to uplift us and there are times we look to our sportsmen and sportswomen to do that. Presently, the West Indies team is lacking where that’s concerned.”
Nowadays, many players are tempted to play leagues instead of national team responsibilities. This has become a major headache for the teams of many countries in getting the players in one place.
Sir Viv who commented further said that this league is a major problem for the West Indies team. That means players opt out of regional team selection and instead play T20 franchise cricket around the world, which is usually a more cost-effective option.
The former legend added that the Cricket West Indies (CWI) response should have been more proactive.
“It is something that I believe should have been organized long before. It’s also alleged that you hear players sometimes saying ‘CWI knows my schedule’ and stuff like that. That’s not the way it should be. You should be telling CWI what your schedule is and see the best way to work around it if your heart and soul is in representing the West Indies at that particular level.”
“But what I find is that there are some that want to go do what they like in terms of contracts they have with the various franchises. To come back and automatically get in when you have individuals who have been performing, and being around and not basically getting a look in because of these individuals being favorites of such, I think we should at least have found a way earlier to nullify that and have the guys who are fit to play, and not the guys who pick and choose when they feel like playing.”
Also, Sir Andy Roberts has been vocal about the weaknesses of the West Indies team and players since and even before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers exit last month. Sir Viv shares his former teammate’s sentiments
“When you have fragments [of the team] coming in here and there, sometimes guys come in unfit. That’s always been one of my biggest issues — individuals not fit enough and it is alleged that there are individuals on tour not taking fitness tests. That cannot work. It’s not supposed to work in any particular organization. I don’t think it does work in any other organization. When you can solve these problems, then you are on the road to helping to get the success.”
Also, he was deeply disappointed with the performance of the West Indies team in the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup. He explained about it.
“I’m really, really, really disappointed. I honestly felt that they would have fought their way out of the qualifying stages to get themselves into the Super 12. It didn’t look good at all. One of the things that really caught my eye, when we won against Zimbabwe, the way in which we behaved, liked we had won the World Cup, I felt we should’ve just calmed it down a little bit.”
“We got excited and it was a close call in the end. It’s like your team is down five zip and you score a goal and jump up and start pointing to your chest and all that — that’s wasting time. You should try and get the ball as quickly as you can to the center circle to get another goal. I think Ricky Ponting (former Australia captain) put it as clearly as possible in terms of what he knows of the unit in itself.”
“This is supposed to be our best opportunity for us to win something at the international level because this is a team that showed that sort of prospect. This is where I think we have geared ourselves that if we were gonna win anything and win it quickly, it would’ve been the T20 World Cup. Because of that, I’m very, very, very disappointed. I’m not sure why, but I am.”
Franchise T20 takes priority for most. Why not for Teams India and Pakistan?
Used to be UK League Cricket then be home for Shell. Now all have private contracts and ‘you work around that!’😀😀😀
I am not dissapointed,i knew that were going to fail and said it before.Carnival cricket will never win and we have relegated ourselves to that status.There is no committment to build an innings, every ball must be a four or six, few singles and no two’s. It is a form of wild cricket,and we will continue to loose.If serious changes are not made…
The West Indies Cricket team is definitely NOT well managed. Why: because the tail is wagging the dog. Time to fire ALL the selfish unprofessional players. Time to straighten up and fly right. The compromises afforded the individual players suggest that we actually DON’T have a team. Instead we have individual unmotivated players just wearing the same colours…. Urhhh. Shameful and disgusting.
Viv. U. R not helping .and so are the other UPS ..Get the heck out . U R only critizing ….
Civility needs to return to cricket. How did stomach hitting, player insulting, shoe dashing, arm pumping get into this gentleman’s game? ICC needs to intervene to restore true civility in the game
I agree with viv but, what is the answer? I understand the disappointment but what is the antidote??? I say every player of a country’s origin should be made to sign an agreement before they step foot on a cricket field to honour their country first and foremost, if they don’t, they should not be eligible to play anywher.
This is a most painful situation for me, and all West Indians. It’s like our team just surrendered everything we have fought for in a hundred years in this world cup. Our guys are generally weak, and lacks guts, grit and fight. They also lack the commitment to West indies cricket.