For donkey years cricketing enthusiasts have been calling for changes and new ideas to be used in picking a West Indies cricket team to do us proud as the teams under Frank Worrell, Garfield Sobers, Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd and Rohan Kanhai. Every single administration following the Richards era has made vexing blunders continuously. All regional administrators have contributed with the mess as they too do the same as if it is a style. West Indies lost a game because the administrators could not do maths. T&T lost an important semi-final because the administrators could not understand English. Team after team is picked with the same recycled used-up players who do not have cricket in their focus.
In the international arena you have the captain and management taking full responsibility for a team's poor display. Kumar Sangakara, a relatively young player and captain of the Sri Lanka team, quit the position even though it was the final they lost. Ricky Ponting also quit as the Australian captain. But the West Indies' make-believe captain is holding strong to the captaincy position after suffering mass humiliation in the same competition. All the commentators were laughing at that captain wondering what his roll was after taking the toss.
It is about time a management team takes over with the responsibility of having a team picked by the West Indies public through a referendum. There should be no grading of players attracting heafty pay packets. A stipend should be paid and the team rewarded based on performance, inclusive of the administrators chosen by the public. Just one chance we ask. Surely, we cannot do worst than what is happening now. The time for a new approach is now.
Lystra Lythe
Sangre Grande