CHENNAI: For quite a while now, the West Indies have not been the force they once had been. They have plummeted to new lows in Test and One-Day cricket and shockingly failed to qualify for the 50-over World Cup in India last year.
The drastic drop in performances in the two formats have led to diminishing interest and dwindling attendances for international matches in the Caribbean. Their T20 game – they have won two World Cups in the shortest format – has been their saving grace.
Taking into account the challenge of having all the regional boards on the same page, Cricket West Indies (CWI) has had plenty of work to do to get the national team back to the upper echelons. It is making moves slowly but steadily, with one of the key initiatives being the setting up of a fully-functioning CWI Academy in Antigua.
The CWI Academy’s head coach Ramesh Subasinghe, who was in Chennai along with assistant coach Rohan Nurse and seven budding players for a two-week camp at the Super Kings Academy, emphasised that Windies are “trying to address the issues by putting up a structure”.
“We are a group of countries, all the islands feed players into the system. Some islands have a bit of infrastructure and some do not have anything. It is quite challenging. This is the first time we have had an academy where players from different parts of the Caribbean can come together and train,” Ramesh, a former Sri Lankan first-class cricketer, told TOI.
“We are confident that we will have three or four world-class players coming up pretty soon. We have got the young boy Jewel Andrew. He has already played for the West Indies and has a long way to go. He is showing good potential. With the right work ethic and support around him, he could be a world-class player. There are a few apart from him,” Ramesh added.
While Ramesh is hopeful of a turnaround in the years to come, he admitted that developing long-format players has been a tough task since many have been “brought up on a white-ball diet”. “There are many small leagues within the Caribbean, a lot of these players also get offers as ‘developmental players’ in leagues around the world. Sometimes, it is challenging to say: ‘Look, you have to play red-ball cricket.’ But the CWI is very serious about red-ball cricket.
“The fundamentals and mental resilience could be well tuned in red-ball cricket and they can then be transferred to white-ball cricket. It is only T20 cricket that we have been doing well, we have a lot of work to do in 50-overs cricket as well.”
‘Desire to bowl fast is lacking’
A team that once boasted of a fearsome pace pack, the West Indies have been struggling to put the fast-bowling pieces together for years now. When asked about it, Ramesh replied: “Our pitches have not been conducive to fast bowling. The desire to bowl fast is lacking, so the bowlers have to do the hard work. To bowl fast and long, you need to be extremely fit. That is something we are working on so that they can bowl for sustained periods. There are some really good talent, but we need to encourage them from a young age.”