The West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) is calling on the West Indies cricket Board’s (WICB) chief executive Dr. Ernest Hilaire to apologise for his recent comments which were critical of a number of young West Indies players.
In the statement issued WIPA claimed Hilaire’s remarks were “outrageous, disrespectful and revealing.”
“WIPA calls on Dr. Hilaire and the WICB to apologise.
“That is the very least that they can do. Dr. Hilaire has spoken and in so doing has highlighted serious deficiencies and shortcomings of the WICB. In any other responsible organization a CEO that publicly disparages the company’s product would have serious questions to answer from the Board and shareholders.”
Dr. Hilaire recently made a number of pronouncements on the state of West Indies cricket during a panel discussion at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies.
According to WIPA’s statement:”Dr. Hilaire’s comment that the Windies team is the least educated of all the Test playing teams reveals a misunderstanding of the concept of education and of what it takes to be a successful cricketer.
“We only need to cast our memories back to several of our most successful cricketers who may not have been “academic” in the conventional sense, but who were insightful and sharp thinkers and whose ability to understand and think on the theoretical dimension demanded by the game of cricket, earned them their place in the annals of cricket history,” the statement read.
WIPA charged that Hilaire’s words…”puts West Indian players at risk of disrespect both at home and abroad.
“The world has been told that some West Indian players are uneducated, unable to compete on the world stage effectively, mercenary and incapable of improvement,” said WIPA’s statement.
“This has serious implications with the most immediate being that the CEO of the Board has literally given to the opposition words of contempt to be uttered on and off the field as a psychological tool against the West Indies,” WIPA’s statement argued.
According to WIPA it was also shocking that the remarks were made in a public forum and in the middle of an international series.
Dr. Hilaire, in his remarks noted that half of the Under 19 players “could barely read or write.’
But WIPA said Dr. Hilaire failed to comment on the findings as it related to the performance of West Indian junior teams including the Under 19s, which, WIPA described as “creditable.”
WIPA also questioned why no solution has been found in the last 15 years to the problems young cricketers encounter moving from the junior to the senior level.
“The WICB is charged with providing such a solution and has failed and continues to flounder in bridging the gap as these young cricketers try to go to the next level. Does Dr. Hilaire know that the overall literacy level of Under 19 cricketers from other test playing countries is any different or is it that those cricket boards have done their jobs and crafted the environment for success for all of its players?”
WIPA posited that Dr. Hilaire’s words pointed to the failure of the very institution that employs him as it is the WICB which has the mandate to develop cricket in the region.
“If, as he says, an academy was needed for the last 10 years, and the WICB has not created one (despite the recommendation of many including the Patterson report) the question which naturally arises is whether the board has been doing its job,”?
WIPA said there have been numerous complaints about the lack of professional cricket infrastructure and development of West Indies cricket which has failed to keep pace with the changes to the game in most of the other test-playing countries and argued that to blame the players speaks of an abdication of responsibility by the WICB.
“The best that could be gleaned from Dr. Hilaire’s comments is that he made a strong case for the restructuring of the WICB.”
WIPA also said that Dr. Hilaire’s comments about West Indian society and its young members were totally misplaced.
“There are young West Indian sportsmen and women who excel in their fields world-wide. If this is not the case in cricket on a consistent basis, it says that the WICB has not been doing its job.”
Outside of sport, young West Indians excel in their chosen fields and bring great credit to the region.
