23 July,2009 07:57 AM IST | | Clayton Murzello
When West Indies infamously lost to Kenya in a 1996 World Cup game at Pune, a headline in this newspaper read: 'Shed a tear for West Indies cricket'. More than a decade later, this headline that aptly summarised the state of affairs, still holds good after Monday's 0-2 series loss to Bangladesh.
Despite news of the Players vs Board feud ending, the West Indies selectors have picked the second string side for the first two one-dayers against Bangladesh.
Before the shocking loss to the minnows in 1996, the Caribbeans surrendered the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy to Australia for the first time in 22 years on West Indies soil. It was not that the West Indians played as badly as they did at the Nehru Stadium in Pune that day in February. They were outplayed by a determined Australian force under Mark Taylor which made it their business to be the best in the world. These were the days of Ambrose and Walsh; Richardson and Lara, a quartet enough to send shivers down the spine of the opposition.
The West Indies regrouped and made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup only to be beaten by Australia. Or rather, a leg-spinner called Shane Keith Warne. The West Indians lost eight wickets for 37 runs in less than eight overs.
Pundits reckon Richardson's men were the last among the feared West Indians. Post 1996 it has been a depressing ride for the West Indies cricket follower. The odd high moment has never been followed by a consistent run. There is no shortage of expert opinion of how and why West Indies' cricketing problems have escalated.
The intervention of interest among other sports and pastimes hold some truth but the bigger factor is passion or the lack of it. And don't just blame the cricketers. The administrators too are culpable. The game cannot be in such a ridiculous state with good governance and the players are fighting their fiercest battles off the field instead of on it. Player vs Board battles have punctuated the history of cricket but only rarely did repercussions affect the quality of the playing XI as is the case with this West Indies side. The team for the last Test at St George's comprised only two players (Tino Best and Ryan Hinds) who had played more than 10 Tests.
Leave the duo aside and the combined Test experience was a mere 19. Figures do tell a tale! It's very well for the high-handed administrators to say that they will start building from scratch with this team. But you can't lose sight of the debris.
Reminds one of an incident which took place during the Ashes series Down Under in 1974-75. When Ian Chappell's Australians were fighting for a better share of the Board's profits, the secretary of the Australian Cricket Board Alan Barnes said: "There are five hundred thousand cricketers who would love to play for Australia for nothing."
This got to the players, especially an otherwise quiet Ian Redpath, who is believed to have grabbed Barnes by the neck and uttered. "You bloody idiot, of course there would be five hundred thousand cricketers willing to play for Australia, but how good would the Australian cricket team be?"
Three years later, the Board found out when they picked a second string team in the wake of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket which had the cream of Australian cricket playing for them.
And Australian cricket has not got worse after its 1-5 shellacking at the hands of old enemy England in 1978-79. Once peace was restored between Packer and the Australian Cricket Board, Australia were strong again and winning. The same England team were thrashed 3-0 by a full Aussie Test team the next season.
There's a message in this for West Indies cricket, even if it was delivered 30 years ago.
