More cricket needed

Dec.15.06

EDITOR: Are we in the Windward Islands and West Indies, serious about cricket?

West Indies cricket team has been playing unpredictable cricket for some time now. Two of its leading batsmen returned home. This is indeed a setback.{{more}}

Dwayne Bravo a genuine all-rounder is one of the two, Sarwan being the other one. Rather than strengthening the batting, the selectors chose to weaken the batting. Even replacing Bravo with Corey Collymore a bowler. It is not that Collymore does not deserve his place. He should always be on the team since he is one of the most accurate bowlers for the West Indies. One would have thought that Bravo’s natural replacement would have been someone like Darren Sammy, since Sammy is also a genuine all-rounder and is at present in good form.

Imagine, playing a Windward Cricket championship on a knock out format. Come on, are we really serious? Can we really judge a player from just one or two games that are played in two days? Then can we really say that the winner of the tournament is the true champion. Tell me, how can we expect the Windward Islands to perform good when there is not enough cricket being played?

If we have been following cricket in the West Indies we would agree that for the most part failure of the Windward Islands players, especially the batsmen has to do with the fact that they have not played enough cricket. If we are really serious about lifting Windward Islands cricket, then we should at least return to the old format.

Efforts should be made by the Windward Islands Cricket Board to seek sponsorship for this tournament. For only then can we truly allow our cricketers to develop and the team to become a strong one. It is evident the talent is there, but not enough cricket.

Kennard King