NEW FRANCHISE SYSTEM SHOULD HELP WEST INDIES CRICKET

It is a sign of how poor the West Indies Cricket Board has been that after seeing how the rest of the cricket world had progressed, caught and surpassed us, they were still persisting with the system that had not only become badly broken but also ridiculously obsolete. The last great West Indies team of the 1970s and ’80s came together as a result of several situations converging at the right place and the right time.

Cricket was played more often, kids were passionate about the sport, the region was blessed with an abundance of outstanding talent, and Clive Lloyd came along. Kerry Packer came along too and taught our talented players what it was to be a professional sportsman. Everything conspired to forge what is perhaps the most dominant Test team in history.

As those players aged and their talents waned, a trickle of talent made their way into the team. Among them was the otherworldly talent of Brian Lara, who played in the last remaining remnants of that great team. The fact that as great as Lara was he played on a team that lost more than it won was an indicator as to how long now the system of producing players had been broken.

Coach after coach came and went and nothing changed. Recommendations were made but no one listened, a consequence of the deep-rooted insularity that has held the Caribbean community back for as long as one can remember. It still continues to do so.

Enter Richard Pybus. Pybus, who has worked with Pakistan and Bangladesh, was hired by WICB CEO Michael Muirhead and began working on November 1, 2013. He has since introduced the West Indies to the best practices used by other countries across the globe to hone and develop talent.

Under the new system being rolled out by the WICB and supported by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), each territory will become a franchise. Each of these franchises will select 10 players who will be paid a retainer and who will earn increased match fees from an extended first class season. By the way, players who are on the fringe will be placed into a pool and each franchise will be able to select players from that pool to make up their full squad complement.

It is estimated that each player will earn anywhere between US$20,000-US$30,000 a year, meaning that they will be paid a decent wage to play cricket. They will have no other focus, no other distraction. Cricket will be what they do for a living. No more going to work in the days and knocking a few balls in the evenings after work. No more going to work and bowling a few overs a day once work is done. Under the new regime, each franchise will have its coaches for the respective disciplines and support staff which it is hoped will help each player achieve the maximum potential from his talents.

That talent will eventually make its way into the West Indies team and transform it into a world force like we managed to create by chance four decades ago.

The only part of this that I haven’t yet figured out is whether the franchises will be hiring coaches from abroad while the ones here are brought up to par because for the West Indies to properly develop the talent available, that process must start at the grassroots level. That is where the kids will be taught the correct mechanics of the sport and where they will begin the process of the pursuit of mastery.

We have already seen the impact quality coaches from abroad have made on regional players through the Caribbean Premier League; that and the fact that the players get to rub shoulders with quality players from the better cricket playing nations of the world. Our best T20 players are being recognized and selected for the various leagues across the world and are not just playing, they are making significant contributions.

There must also be properly trained coaches at the high school level to continue the process of development. Former West Indies and Jamaica captain Jimmy Adams, who was also national coach lamented what he said was the absence of decent coaches at the high school level. At the time he said that, just a few years ago, he argued that it makes little sense to have kids come into the senior programme with extremely flawed techniques that the senior coaches will have to work on correcting even as opposing bowlers exploited the attendant weaknesses.

It will take time to get all the elements right, but I believe we are finally on the right track to turning our fortunes around. That eternally long corner that the West Indies has been on for the last 15 years will eventually be cleared but a lot depends on how well this new master plan is executed.

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9 Responses to “NEW FRANCHISE SYSTEM SHOULD HELP WEST INDIES CRICKET”

rudy says:

September 24, 2014 at 7:46 am

I definitely support this move as the regional structure is not working. Presently more security personnel are at the matches than spectators. We have to try something different.
Currently some regional teams like the Leewards cannot beat a combined campus team. Lets remember that when West Indies were on top almost all our top players were professionals playing in England year round and the decline coincided with the barring of overseas players in County cricket

Our upcoming players cannot develop on 6 regional matches a year. Let us a least try something different
dallo says:

September 26, 2014 at 2:35 am

@rudy…i agree with you on the issue of the discontinuation of english contracts as a major contributing factor in our decline.

i beg to differ just a little with mr. levy with regard to the factors involved in our 70′s and 80′s success, since it wasn’t something that was entirely new. we were already great throughout the 60′s and suffered a little hiccup in the early 70′s due to the departure of our top flight bowlers, which took us a few years to replace.

in spite of these announced changes, the dearth of talent over the last 15-20 years is still alarming to me. out of our domestic cricket we still produced people like rowe, kallicharan, roberts, holding, viv, dujon, richardson, ambrose to mention a few, something we don’t come close to matching nowadays.

where are those kinds of talent in the current era? nowhere to be found.
Blair Boyd says:

October 1, 2014 at 7:45 am

The problem is this over the years,there are too much bias in selecting the players.It is not because the wi players is not playing county cricket in England,I disagrees with that type of statement.I can remember back in the 1960s when Sobers,Butcher,Nurse,Wes Hall,Charlie Griffith,just to mention a few players were playing.Wi hardly could beat any of the teams,because most of the players were from certain eastern countries .They claimed that they were the back bone of wi cricket,so that’s they were not successul at all.So of these people is facing the real problem which affecting the team,and type of trend stil continues up to now.There are very good players in the region because watched them played,but there are too much biasness is still going on.The players got most of the raw deals ,is the Jamaican players because we are not from the eastern caribbean islands.The way they selected the team,they must end up in problem.Because they selected team before the regional competition is concluded,so you don’t have a look at the players ,so thats where the real problem is.
Blair Boyd says:

October 1, 2014 at 8:45 am

The wi team is on a tour,there is no vice captain also no,back up keeper no real coach with the team.The people who running the organization is lacking of human resource skill ,that’s where the real problem is .Most of the time these guys hanging around the team,they are not really qualify to served into the areas where they worked.The wicb they have a very poor pr system,because over the years .They kept playing cricket into those undevelop countries where there is not enough people living there,to supports the game.The wicb ignored the four original countries which have the bigger population ,and playing into those areas where no body hardley attends the game.We want to know what is going on ,is there any one out there who can speak to the wicb about their bad behaviour.The board is mashing up the game ,when they play the game in those areas,they are only hiding the game from the people.So that’s why most people out there is lacking the interest in the game,because when you looked at the game.There or empty stadium,more officals then spectators in the stands.
dallo says:

October 1, 2014 at 2:55 pm

@ Blair Boyd…in the 60′s the west indies were dominant under worrell, who until clive lloyd came along was easily our best captain.

those players you mentioned, along with hunte, kanhai and gibbs were all-time greats and that team was virtually unbeatable.

we reproduced that same caliber talent in the 70′s through to the 90′s, so we know what quality cricketers look like and trust me, we don’t have many of those these days.
dennis wolfe says:

October 7, 2014 at 8:12 am

Dear sirs i have noticed that no test players nw in india are icluded in the different countries lineup. Are they exclude and if so why..
Blair Boyd says:

October 18, 2014 at 9:12 am

Dallo I read your reply ,and what you are saying about the 1960s players,is not true.Under Worrell captain,how games the wi won.The word great is loosely used,when you called some of those older great.Do you understood what the word great really meant,you need to look up the meaning great and sees what it really means.In my book I don’t see one of them that would fall in the category of great,some of them could be called good players ,but not great.Dallo for your information I was born in the 1950s,so I saw a few of those senior players played for years,so I know what am talking about.you are confusing your self about great ,and good players .Those guys have not played enough games,they have not played for no long period of time,also they have scored enough runs to be fall into the area of great my friend.
Blair Boyd says:

October 18, 2014 at 9:27 am

Dallo I read your reply ,and what you are saying about the 1960s players,is not true.Under Worrell captain,how many games the wi won.The word great is loosely used,when you called some of those older players great they are not ,if you understood what the word great really meant,you need to look up the meaning great and sees what it really means.In my book I don’t see one of them that would fall in the category of great,some of them could be called good players ,but not great.Dallo for your information I was born in the 1950s,so I saw a few of those senior players played for years,so I know what am talking about.you are confusing your self about great ,and good players .Those guys have not played enough games,they have not played for no long period of time,also they have scored enough runs to be fall into the area of great my friend.At first when Lloyd took over the team from Khani, the lost a couple of games before they started to daminated world cricket.You further said that Worrell was best wi captain ,I totally disagreed with you.I believe the two best captains for the wi ,is Clive Lloyd,and Viv Richards base on records,that’s what am basing my ratings on.
dallo says:

October 21, 2014 at 9:00 pm

ok blair let me deal with you now. you read your bible? ’cause in thessolonians 5:21 it says ‘prove all things; hold fast that which is good’. so let’s go to the records.

1961 was that memorable tied test series against australia, and though we lost the series 1-2, about half a million australians did a parade for us for an extraordinary series.

1962 we beat india 5-0.

1963 we beat england 3-1. that english side had greats like boycott, cowdrey, ted dexter, ken barrington, allan knott, freddie truman, brian statham, underwood…tough team.

1964 we didn’t play.

1965 we beat the great australians with the chappels and company 2-1 and that made us world champions for the first time.

1966 we again beat a rough england team 3-1.

1967 we beat india 3-0.

1968 we lost to england 0-1 and the following year we went to australia and were beaten 1-3. by now hall and griffiths had retired and gibbs was in the twilight of his career.

so we dominated for most of the 60′s sir and were crowned world champions in 1965.

as far as greatness goes, sobers, gibbs and hall were undisputed, kanhai and hunte are right there and griffiths was a special bowler himself. butcher was so good that he kept the outstanding seymour nurse on the bench for a good stretch and derrick murray was a record breaking keeper.

finally, you misread my comment about worrell. i said he was the best captain before lloyd came along.