There are more questions than answers was the title of the 1972 hit single recorded by American reggae singer Johnny Nash. In that song, Nash’s lyrics state, “And the more I find out, the less I know!”
Although that hit single was recorded well over 50 years ago, its opening lyrics are ironically very much applicable to the current state of West Indies cricket, for which there are definitely more questions than answers.
Very few, if any of those currently involved in West Indies cricket’s administration, can honestly say, I can see clearly now, the album title and main track from which Nash’s additional hit single was taken.
Even the most cursory examination of West Indies cricket would suggest there are more questions than, even more so if such an examination is conducted against the backdrop of three recent occurrences in regional and international cricket; the ongoing Regional Super50 tournament, England’s ignominious exit from this year’s ICC 50-over World Cup, and Sunil Narine’s announcement of his decision to only participate in T20 franchise leagues.
This year’s Cricket West Indies (CWI) regional Super50 Cup was touted to be potentially one of the best, as a result of the involvement of so many of the region’s top ODI players.
With such experience under their belts, a most reasonable expectation would have been for Shamarh Brooks, current West Indies ODI captain Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers and Roston Chase to be dominating and dictating the Barbados Pride’s performances against their respective opponents.
Yet, except for a solitary century by Mayers against the Windwards Islands, they have all failed to do so as batters. Chase in his defence has, however, had a few decent returns as an off-spin bowler.
Much the same can also be said for Guyana’s Shimron Hetmeyer, as well as Jamaica’s Jermaine Blackwood and Rovman Powell. Indeed, the only experienced West Indies ODI player who has had a laudable Super50 as a batter thus far has been Trinidad & Tobago’s Darren Bravo, as evidenced by his most recent 139 not out to lead his team to a 78-run victory over Barbados.
With the ball it has been pretty much the same, certainly in terms of the seamers.
Contemporary and or recent West Indies players Sheldon Cottrell, Akeem Jordan, Jayden Seales, and Oshane Thomas have all had very disappointing tournaments to date.
The bowling at this year’s tournament has once again been dominated by the spinners.
Kevin Sinclair the off-spinner, Gudakesh Motie with his left-arm spin, as well as the wrist-spinners Yanick Cariah and Hayden Walsh Jr, have all been among the wickets, a testimony to the generally poor surfaces that the tournament’s matches have been played on in Trinidad.
The first question to be asked, therefore, is why pitches in the Caribbean are still of such very poor quality.
St Lucia’s Daren Sammy Beausejour Stadium has been widely acknowledged for years now as having the very best pitch in the entire Caribbean. Its curator, Ken Crafton was also reportedly engaged by CWI a few years ago to travel throughout the region implementing measures to uplift and improve the pitches at the respective territorial venues.
The question must, therefore, also now be asked as to why there has yet been no discernable evidence of any improvements as a direct result of Crafton’s involvement.
As defending champions, England has failed to qualify for the semi-final stage of this year’s World Cup. In fact, at the time of writing, the woeful Poms were sitting dead last in the 10-team tournament, with only one win and six losses from their seven matches played to date.
The very same England will, however, be touring the West Indies next month for three ODI matches, as part of a three week white-ball cricket tour.
As such, following their embarrassing World Cup exit, the natural expectation will be for England’s ODI squad for the Caribbean tour to be completely revamped as part of a rebuilding process toward a much improved showing when the tournament is next held again in four years.
England was at least there in India. The West Indies, by contrast, didn’t even get that far, failing to advance from the pre-tournament qualifier.
It will, therefore, now be even more interesting to see what the West Indies selectors’ strategy will be for the upcoming England tour. Will they revert to a repeated reliance on the same old recycled, tried, tested, and proven failures such as Blackwood, Brooks, Chase, and Powell? Or will they, as England is most likely to do, use the series to start their own rebuilding toward World Cup 2027, through the inclusion of much younger talents such as Alick Athanaze, Justin Greaves, Kirk McKenzie, Kevin Sinclair, and Nyeem Young among others? Time will soon reveal, as the West Indies ODI squad for the series is expected to be announced within the next week.
If it was left up to me, my squad for the series, based largely on this year’s Super50 performances, but also including those who were not involved, would be as follows: Brandon King, Alick Athanaze, Nicholas Pooran, Shai Hope (captain), Justin Greaves, Kevin Sinclair, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph and Nyeem Young.
Kirk McKenzie, Hayden Walsh Jr, and Dominic Drakes would be the remaining three members of the squad.
Sunil Narine has been among those senior West Indies players who has had an indifferent Super50 tournament. It would not have been much of a surprise to anyone, therefore, when Narine recently announced his imminent retirement from domestic and international cricket.
As one of the most successful white-ball players in West Indies cricket history, Narine’s retirement, rather than being viewed as a loss, should now be regarded by CWI as a potential opportunity, certainly, as a means of arresting the prevailing declining interest in and involvement with cricket by the region’s school-aged children.
Compared to the halcyon days of West Indies dominance, cricket is now no longer as popular among school-aged children as it used to be. Many of those school children are, however, interested in identifying potential careers that could yield the very best financial rewards.
As multi-millionaires, Narine as well as his fellow retired countrymen Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, should now be utilized by CWI as ambassadors to promote cricket as a viable professional career by visiting schools throughout the Caribbean and speaking to students to encourage them to play cricket.
Admittedly, there would be an inherent danger that the stimulated interest would only initially be in T20 format cricket, whereas the West Indies’ greatest need is to produce future Test cricketers.
CWI’s initial focus should, however, be on utilizing their ambassadors to simply get as many school-aged youngsters interested in and directly involved with cricket. Once they have been engaged, subsequent efforts could then be made to channel the readily identifiable talented players into becoming similarly interested and even more actively involved in the longer formats.
Existing and future Youth Academies can be utilised as “conversion centers”, building into the minds of their attendees that while T20 cricket can earn them substantial money, success in Tests will ultimately provide international fame.
Whether those currently charged with its administration possess the foresight to adopt any such novel approaches toward the betterment of West Indies cricket is yet another question to be asked, as are so many others.
As Johnny Nash sang so many years ago, there are indeed “more questions than answers!”
About The Writer: Guyana-born, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.
More Questions Than Answers In West Indies Cricket!
