West Indies Cricket Fans

Deep stuff here Mapoui....

I think WI lost interest in cricket...due to mass migration, independence, TV, video games, Americanization, lost generation, etc..

yeah? I however must write better even if I am in a hurry! let me try to clean it up!

I have no doubt that the rise of the Black Power Movement was a catalyst in imbuing our Players with a " LET'S CUT THEIR ASSESS ATTITUDE ". But also significant is the fact that IN THOSE DAYS OUR PLAYERS WERE FULL TIME CRICKETERS , because when not representing us , they were playing Cricket in England .

Obviously this hardened them to the English weather Conditions , and the pitches facilitated their performances , in batting & bowling , their fielding and catching were also helped because they were mentally & physically ready . All this came to an end when our Players in the 1980's were banned , prevented , or forbidden to ply their trade in England .

It must also be noted that the schedule in those days benefited Touring Teams , due to the fact that many matches were played , before the first Test Match and between the other Test Matches . Our Team therefore was always ready mentally & physically to beat their opponents . MAKE NO MISTAKE THE GOLDEN ERAS OF WEST INDIES HAPPEND WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ASSISTANCE FROM THE WICB .

AT THAT JUNCTURE THEY BECAME PART TIME PLAYERS ; DUE TO THE FACT THAT IN THE REGION , WE DID
NOT HAVE , AND STILL DONT HAVE A REGIONAL PRO OR SEMI PRO LEAGUE , TO TAKE UP THE SLACK FROM BEING UNABLE TO PLAY CRICKET IN ENGLAND .

I am of the view that if at that time the WICB sought financial Sponsors to form a Pro or Semi Pro League , or failing those two options , to increase the duration of the Regional Tournaments , it would have been successful . Unfortunately right now the standard of Cricket is so low that this is currently impossible to do . THIS IN MY OPINION WAS DUE TO A SERIOUS LACK OF VISION BY THE WICB .

I am of the opinion that the onus was then on the WICB , being the governing Body for Cricket in the Region , to increase the duration of the Regional Tournaments , which we all would agree is the highest form of Cricket in the Region . The WICB still stuck with its formula of having One Regional Tournament in the 3 versions of the game . This in my opinion was and is totally inadequate .

THE ADVENT OF THE CURRENT ICC FORMAT HURTS OUR PART TIME PLAYERS MORE THAN IT HURTS PLAYERS ON TEAMS RANKED ABOVE OUR TEAM , WHO PLAY A HELL OF A LOT MORE CRICKET THAN OUR PLAYERS . HOW SO ??? . TOURS ARE CURRENTLY TRUNCATED , DUE TO 2 OR 3 TEAMS TOURING THE HOST
COUNTRY SIMULTANEOUSLY . THE WICB IN ITS INFINITE WISDOM GENERALLY AGREES TO HAVING ONE WARM UP MATCH FOR OUR TEAM . SO WHEN THAT MATCH IS CANCELLED AS HAPPENED IN 2007 WHEN OUR TEAM TOURED ENGLAND , THE VERY NEXT MATCH WAS THE FIRST TEST MATCH .

The only thing that can combat this is to have intense preparation Camps , Stanford & his Board recognized this , which is precisely why they had a 6 weeks Camp , in the now famous Twenty Million Dollars , Twenty / 20 Match Series , where his Team beat all their opponents including England .

AFTER SEVERAL DECADES , THE WICB APPARENTLY HAS COME TO THE REALIZATION THAT PROPER CAMPS ARE A NECESSITY , SOMETHING THAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR OVER 6 YEARS .

Point, ..nice post..what else were the other catalysts back then?

MAKE NO MISTAKE THE GOLDEN ERAS OF WEST INDIES HAPPEND WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ASSISTANCE FROM THE WICB .

maybe the board thought that they were doing a good job along that is why they ignored the regionals and local developments?

well Gayle,Pollad, Bravo and the rest are as full time cricketers as those of the duration of westindian dominance.

for one thing those players of the dominant periods were better than these of the past 15 years...and critically they played better than those now.

by playing better I mean these players now even if of lesser caibre could give much better account of themselves by approach, organisation, just plain common sense, which none of them appear to have..even the west-Indians most surprisingly..for they of all people appear to be quite sensible, purposeful and practical in routine westindian life.

so why cant westindian players make accurate assessments of the state of a game for eg., and adjust their play accordingly?

what is missing, and why isnt it provided by what must provide those things for citizens anywhere..everywhere or any national/regional entity?

school, culture, knowledge of how the world functions/works, the importance of nation, of ones collective... that man cannot and dont live alone and that one is part of something which works for man and that man works for, for mutual benefit, survival...and that without that man is nutten.

there is the integrative reality that makes the citizen, that can imbue the individual with idenitity, purpose, practicality, a reason to fight beyond a seperate individual selfishness, to marshall ones abilities in battle regardless of the relationship of forces and whether ones resources are relatively considerable or less so.

observing the westindies team on the field a forriner could easily conclude that those players, for how they play, are from a stupid society, not so much a backward one....for one can have a backward society in many ways but it may not be stupid ..just backward currently for its particular historical development and experience

further investigation on the part of that forriner, would reveal the westindies to him/her as I know it, to be a foolish, neo-colonial reality, sporting an elite mired in oppressing its own people, in league with forrin capital, busily truncating westindian social activity so as to produce the very fools the forriner first observed on the field of play, incapable of making the best use of their abilities

the wicb is purpose in all it has not done for westindies cricket , as in all it has done. there is and can be no doubt about that. they have deliberately beaten westindies cricket into the groud to rid themselves of a potentially revolutionary factor in westindian social life.

in the absences of the fervor stirred up by a winning team, the westindan people have segued into an insular social torpor, induced also by feeding the people flouride in their drinking water, supposedly to protect against tooth decay, but which in fact robs the people of their energy, anxiety, anger at their social reality...renders them docile and mentally malleable, prone to further indoctrination and conditioning.

Mapou you on a roll bro....Keep em coming

In response to Ball Oil ,

I am also of the opinion that THOSE PLAYERS READ BOOKS ON ALL ASPECTS OF CRICKET , OUR CURRENT PLAYERS BY & LARGE DONT SEEM TO READ BOOKS ON CRICKET . I am of the opinion that you can learn by looking at TV , but reading goes into Batting ; Bowling ; Fielding & Catching into much more detail than looking at Cricket on the TV .

POINT wrote:In response to Ball Oil ,

I am also of the opinion that THOSE PLAYERS READ BOOKS ON ALL ASPECTS OF CRICKET , OUR CURRENT PLAYERS BY & LARGE DONT SEEM TO READ BOOKS ON CRICKET . I am of the opinion that you can learn by looking at TV , but reading goes into Batting ; Bowling ; Fielding & Catching into much more detail than looking at Cricket on the TV .

do you think education has a role to play in the make up of our player?

BTW, you know we don't have libraries and bookstore like lang time

In Response to BallOil ,

I would agree that perhaps there arent currently a lot of Book Stores in the Region , Years ago there were a Series of books coming out of England , They were the TEACH YOURSELF SERIES , covered many topics , I know for a fact that there were Teach Yourself Cricket ; Football ; Field Placing etc . These I have seen personally . They were very informative , and helped persons involved in Sports .

I think the players lack the dedication and the drive to succeed... Look at Chanderpaul, he didn't go too school far but he is the best player we have now. I think the younger generation would rather tweet, facebook, play video games, or watch TV rather than put the extra time in the nets.