West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Julian Hunte has lashed out at the West Indies team’s performance, insisting that the players do better to earn their tidy salaries.
Expressing concern that continued weak performances could relegate the Caribbean side to a “second division” team in international cricket, Hunte declared that the West Indies must improve.
So far this year, West Indies had a moderate series against Sri Lanka before losing to Australia in the Test and One Day International (ODI) series.
The WICB president pointed out that although the West Indies players are the third best paid—after England and Australia—in world cricket, they are ranked No.8, and he said their performances are inconsistent with the emoluments they receive.
“We want our team to be Number One both in performance and emoluments. However, if we do not start winning, we run the risk of being relegated and we will not be able to earn the money that we require to regain our place at the pinnacle of world cricket.”
Hunte, who is now attending a meeting of the Executive Board of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai, said that recent events have made it clear that if the West Indies team does not improve its performances, it runs the risk of being put in a special category with the other two lowest ranked teams -- Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
“The West Indies Team has to start winning matches against higher ranked opponents or we will end up being relegated to being a second division international team,” Hunte said in a WICB release on Wednesday.
“We need to synchronise all our various efforts and plans to achieve the short-term objective of getting higher up in the rankings. We have to widen our pool of talent, have a clearly stated and objective selection philosophy, increase the amount of cricket played at the regional level, and improve the standard of the players and teams in our tournaments, and we must do it all very quickly. If not, we will not be creating history, as we did in the past. We will be history,” Hunte stated.
In the strongly worded release that describes the region’s cricket as being in a “crisis”, the WICB said it is about to tackle the team’s management, specifically coach John Dyson, about plans to improve the team.
“The Board, at its next meeting on July 24–25, 2008, will deal with what Dr Hunte considers a crisis in West Indies cricket and will ask the Team Management, specifically coach John Dyson, how they plan to improve the technical skills of the players to make them more competitive and improve the world ranking of the team,” the release stated.
The release also announced that a new selection panel is to be appointed.
“The Board will consider recommendations from the Cricket Committee for a new Selection Panel, the contracts of the present members of the panel having expired on June 30, 2008,” the release stated.
