Where Has All The Talent Gone In The West Indies?

[hawkeye]

West Indies cricket has not been great for a long time. Why? Is the talent still there like it was in the 70s and 80s?

Many in the Caribbean will recoil at the assertion that the talent pool is not really overflowing. Yet all they need to do is look at the players that have come out of the other top cricket playing nations and compare. Any honest examination will show that whereas England, South Africa, Australia, and India have produced their fair share of world beaters since the 1990s, the West Indies has been lagging far behind in that regard. It is therefore evident that the biggest problem facing West Indies cricket is the production of cricketing talent to match that of the other top teams. That is the problem the Caribbean cricket authorities will have to resolve. Over the years captains have been changed, coaches have been fired, selectors have been replaced, and still the West Indies team, on the whole, has been very disappointing.

Clive Lloyd's appointment is indeed a good decision, and no one doubts he will do a good job within the limitations of the raw material available. Chances are, however, the West Indies side will only get better when the Caribbean develops more competent players. Until then not much else matters.

WI Needs More Than Clive Lloyd As Selector

 

[ethybubs]

If Clive Lloyd can't find you a superstar list, there isn't one out there.

 

[War]

As i've mentioned before, WI team since they won 2012 T20 world cup is full of talent. Currently they have their most talented squad since they went into decline in 1995.

But their essential problem is that their best players (especially their batsmen) only bat well in T20 cricket. When they play in 50 overs & test, they have a ridiculous achillies heel of being unable to construct long innings and build big totals as a batting group.

Once they can sort that out, I believe they have the squad to rise up the ranking & impress in a similar vein to what NZ have done recently.

 

[abhi_jacko]

^^Hopefully they can take note of their previous performance against BD, which was partnership building done to perfection. Would love to see a competitive, settled Windies team before the World Cup

 

[PokerAce]

WI right now are a rather good lot of players. They have the likes of Pollard, Bravo, Sammy who are all hitters capable of destroying bowling line ups. Narine is a good spinner and Roach is a fast bowler with pace. On top of that they have Gayle who we all know could destroy anyone on his day. Add to is Chanderpaul who is among the most consistant performers in the test arena over the years. Also Chanderpaul is the kind of player who makes people mad, when he is batting against them. He look so innocuous, and yet never looks like getting out.

So that statement that WI have not produced world beaters post 90s is not true. Individually they are all very capable players. Just that they need to find out how to do it as a team.

 

[Samuels]

At this point, our cricket is in a much better position than we were post Lara's retirement. Our FC and OD tournaments are finally getting stabilized and regular and it is also paying dividends in the form of likes of Jason Mohammed and Badree amongst others coming to the scene. Sadly there are still a few people like Leon Johnson who would choose cash rich T20 tournaments over wearing the WI colors. That said, the overall quality of cricket in WI has seen a boost ever since the FC and OD tournament has seen a regularity.

As far as Clive Lloyd is concerned, he is probably the best out there for us. He knows how to get the best of the Carribeans and how to make people from different backgrounds gel together. He has done that as captain back in his hey days. His much known idea of playing cricketers from Barbados and Trinidad and Jamaica and Antigua together has been very successful. Big Jamaican Holding and pacey Antiguan Roberts are the perfect example of what Lloyd was capable of as a leader. Now that we have him in the team with a role, we can expect a few encouraging changes. Hopefully, Sunil Narine being a regular Test match player to start with.

 

[cricketmad09]

They're too busy passing the dutchie.

 

[War]

Bangladesh in West Indies 2014 : Two WI players pick CLT20 over Tests | Cricket News | West Indies v Bangladesh | ESPN Cricinfo

As i mentioned in the tour thread, a reoccurring problem with windies cricket that still threatens whatever perceived improvement they could make is these frequent clashes with IPL & T20 leagues with windies series, especially those in the caribbean.

IPL easily affects the prime months of windies home season more than any nation since it began in 2008. Now the WICB tries for the 1st time in 86 years to keep a test series in September, the hurricane/rainy season (2 avoid IPL clash) & now they run into similar clashes with the champions league

I don't want to call windies players mercenaries, but i don't know how windies are going to develop if their top players will always miss series when their a T20 tournament clash. They got 4 big test series vs IND/S Africa/ENG/AUS coming up in the next 6 months. They are not going to make progress without.up the test ranking if they don't have their key players in those series.

Knowing cricket ridiculous schedule too, if they play terribly - it will be a long time b4 they play the major nations in a test series again - it will be back to playing Bangladesh every minute. All countries even under the new ICC dispensation, still needs to play AUS/ENG/IND especially to get maximum TV revenue - none more so than WICB.

WICB//ICC/IPL got to sit & work out a way they can have that tournament & affect WICB so much.

 

[amir7500]

It is due to exit of previous players.