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What’s next for the Windies?

(Image: iStock)
(Image: iStock)

When they hit form the West Indies are your favourite ‘other’ team if you’re not West Indian yourself. But when they’re off it can be painful. So what do Windies legends Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose and Shiv Chanderpaul believe must be done to recapture past dominance?

Money must go back into cricket, and into grassroot cricket specifically. Ex-players need to remain in the system to share experience with the new generation. And leadership needs to guide this process.

Fortunately, according to Chanderpaul - whose ODI run tally for the West Indies is only bettered by Brian Lara and Chris Gayle - the administration leading West Indies cricket is already improving things and giving him much hope.

“We do not have the money that is being pushed into cricket that another board might have,” the left handed batter told Betway. “But we’ve done a lot in the last few years.

“I used to do everything on my own without any money, no contracts, nothing. I had to find my own money if I had to travel. “Now the countries in the Caribbean all have contracted players, the local boys all have contracts. That means all the boys are going to play in regional tournaments.”

On the topic of funds, Joel Garner had this to say: “It’s important that the money goes back into cricket. If we want to have the future of cricket, then you invest the money you make back into the grassroots level. That is where the next set of cricketers are coming from,” said the fast bowler who took eight of his 146 ODI wickets in the Windies’ 1979 World Cup triumph.

Chanderpaul believes that the current Windies team, featuring talents such as Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer, is inexperienced and could do with the help of past players adding some needed guidance.

“When I was in the team, I would talk with them (younger players) and help them, particularly when I was out in the middle,” Chanderpaul says. “I see the England Cricket Board put Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Thorpe as batting consultants. That is something we have to start looking at.

“We have a lot of guys with experience in the Caribbean. We need a team of them to go out and work with young players to help them understand their cricket, because there is a lot of talent.”

Like Chanderpaul, Curtly Ambrose points to the need for senior players helping the newer talents develop: “What you have to understand is that the great teams of the past had lots of senior guys to nurture the new guys that are coming into the team,” Ambrose says.

“Currently all these guys are basically starting their careers. They are learning on the job. It is going to take some time. It’s really sad to see West Indies cricket the way it is,” said Ambrose, who took 630 international wickets between 1988 and 2000, including 24 strikes in World Cups.

“There was always going to be a decline,” Ambrose continues. “No team can rule the world forever. There is going to be a time when you lose players. It was going to be difficult to find another Clive Lloyd, another Viv Richards, another Brian Lara, another Malcolm Marshall.

“But we are taking a little too long, in my opinion, to bounce back. I believe we have enough talent in the region to get back somewhere in the top three of world cricket.”

On the positive side, Cricket West Indies (CWI) has moved to make the entire domestic cricket set-up professional in the last six years, which has seen young players incentivised to choose cricket as a full-time career.

Also in the positive column is the fact that the CPL (Caribbean franchise T20 tournament) is gaining popularity which has the potential to help transform the success of the West Indies team.

There is much work to be done, but if the likes of Garner, Ambrose and Chanderpaul are given opportunity to speak and get involved, perhaps the future of Windies cricket can once again be fearsome and dominant.

This post and content is in partnership with Betway.

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