When WICB President, Teddy Griffith, was elected to that prestigious office in 2003, he stated that it would be his Board's intention to put the West Indies senior cricket team back into the top three Test playing countries in the ICC World Cricket Rankings by the end of the year 2005. Certainly nobody could begrudge him those positive and optimistic remarks when taking over his difficult office and at a time when West Indies cricket was at a generally low ebb. Realistically, however, it was already barely feasible - even if the West Indies had won every Test series between that point in time and the end of 2005.

The truth of the matter is that when the West Indies team travelled to play in Zimbabwe and South Africa in 2004 they were already positioned at number 8 in the World ICC Rankings out of a total of ten Test playing nations. They returned from South Africa, of course, as a badly beaten side and their position remained the same - number 8 out of 10.
Obviously, with two defeats in the first two games of the present four Test series against England on Caribbean soil, their position gets no better. The only two teams who sit below the West Indies in that ICC table are Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. This situation would have seemed inconceivable the last time that England visited the Caribbean, and even last year one might still have argued that because of their one-time greatness in the game and because the West Indies were still one of the teams world-wide that cricket fans liked to come out and watch, their ranked position was perhaps a little false and that surely, at the very worst, it was only temporary. Not so, I'm afraid, and here in March of 2004, we find ourselves ranked quite rightfully in that lowly number 8 spot. What is more, is that the Windies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are continuing to lose whilst the seven teams above them are quite clearly improving themselves and participating in some competitive series in other parts of the world. Thus, the gulf between these three and the rest of the Test playing world is growing wider by the series.
In view of the above irrevocable facts, perhaps it is way past time that the West Indies players began to recognise their realistic position in world cricket and to behave accordingly. When the team came back from South Africa, I remarked on the disturbing words from overseas and West Indian commentators and journalists alike concerning their open lack of discipline, application and professionalism both on and off the field, and criticisms which went all the way down to demeanour, improper dress and down right bad manners. I included the quote of South African captain, Graeme Smith - a man not afraid to tell it like it is - who spoke of the West Indies players as having to "get rid of a little bit of bravado and concentrate on getting the cricket right", and going on to add, "If you look bad doing it, who really gives a damn?" This week, Wisden's Freddie Auld, reporting from Port of Spain, felt bound to remark that the West Indies players were still more interested in their bravado approach than the nitty-gritty sometimes required to get the job done properly and remarked on, "The way the players strut around the pitch and the hotels, you'd think they were world beaters, not woeful losers," and adding, "No wonder their Manager, Ricky Skerritt has had enough." It is indeed very sad that the one-time open admirers of West Indian cricketers now feel bound to tell what they now see.
There are and will continue to be all kinds of calls for a new manager, a new coach, a new captain and some of these may eventually happen, but right now it is my opinion that it is the West Indies players who need to sort out their heads and get things right. Their attitudes and approach must change and it must change immediately. Let them know that they are now thought of as a cricketing nation in the same group as Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, and that their first step is to gradually put one more team below them in the ICC table, and then another, and so on, until they may once again hold up their heads in pride and be justified in doing so. Nothing wrong with pride when it is earned, and even then, the big secret is to know when to temper it with a little humility.
To do this, they have to start literally playing a different game. Lara singled out the stand in Trinidad between England's batsmen Nasser Hussain and Mark Butcher. As they also did in Jamaica, they hung in when the going got tough. It wasn't pretty, but they didn't mind about that. To some, it was being described as boring and perhaps the Windies batsmen were thinking that, too. But if they were, they were wrong. This type of approach, when it is called for, and what our batsmen need to realise, is what it takes to win matches and this is exactly what Graeme Smith meant when he said, "If you look bad doing it, who really gives a damn?"
Butcher and Hussain did it twice in consecutive matches. They didn't give a damn if it didn't look good, but they did give a big, big damn about staying out there and fighting through it all for their team. They succeeded, and in doing so contributed heavily to winning both matches for England....and now they are heroes.
They were very brave to perform the way they had to. Bravado comes in different forms. With that mindset, our boys could have been heroes, too.

Mr. David Kenworthy

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