Former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd said that his former outstanding opener Desmond Haynes should have been named the West Indies batting coach instead of being appointed to the lead selector position.
Lloyd was speaking during an interview on the Mason & Guest Show on Tuesday night on the Voice of Barbados.
Also, Former captain of the West Indies, Sir Clive Lloyd, says the standard in the inter-island competition needs to improve if the Caribbean side wants to be competitive on the international arena.
He was reacting to the Windies’ 48-runs loss against South Africa in the second ODI. Lloyd says not enough 4-day cricket is being played in the region.
He also says the players and directors of the region’s cricket need to understand that the longer game will improve the performance in the shorter formats.
Lloyd says the little four-day competition that’s played in the Caribbean is void of the better players. The legendary skipper said:
“I told him (Haynes) he got the wrong job. I said ‘You are a batsman of class’. I said: ‘You should be coaching our batsmen’ and he agreed with me. But you see the point is…we are not thinking about this thing properly,” said Lloyd.
Lloyd, a former chairman of selectors himself and former WI team manager, said the situation on the women’s side of the equation was also requiring further attention.
He added that the Windies need to follow the example of the other higher-ranked countries like Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand etc., and become involved in Test cricket.
“If you look at the situation where women cricketers are concerned. Look at the countries that are doing well…their longer game helps their shorter game and we are not looking at that. We are just grooming guys and girls to just hit the ball. We want some people to concentrate and still find the gaps; that don’t give away their hand and that’s why we are falling short,” he contended.
Lloyd reiterated that the WI women would render a much-improved performance overall if they played Test match cricket.
And he advocated for the CWI to employ the services of their past greats like Haynes and Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts among others to reinforce the winning attitude and discipline.
“I want somebody to sit down with these young players that we have and tell them exactly what is needed, tell them that you guys have got to work hard, you have got to train, you have got to get fit and compete with these other people,” Lloyd stressed, “We have players now and then but we are not taking this cricket seriously.
“We have to work hard at that and tell the young people that ‘listen, we doh mind you playing in the T20 but we would like you to play in our domestic cricket’. Because people are putting a lot of money there and…I doh wanna stop anybody from earning a living. But you were taught most of your cricket in the WI. Give something back.”