Dear Editor,
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has made yet another change when it fired Phil Simmons after only 18 months on the job. It seems that the Trinidadian was an excellent coach, but he had difficulties with his employers when he criticized the manner of the selection of the players.
The WICB has changed more than 15 coaches within the past two decades from Rohan Kanhai, Andy Roberts, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Roger Harper, et al ‒ all outstanding cricketers and good coaches. They even tried Australian Bennett King, who never played first class cricket and who failed to deliver to a failing West Indies team. He resigned after three years on the job mainly because he had a difficult relationship with the players. Ramnaresh Sarwan who was captain said he was aggressive and vocally abusive to certain players to the point where he even threatened them.
West Indies cricket is now at rock bottom, now ranking 8th in Test and 9th in ODIs, but second in T20 from the leading team in the world from the mid-1970s to early 1990s. It is not only a large number of coaches it has changed, but captains as well; from 1928 Carl Nunes to 2016 Jason Holder, it recorded 36 captains including Clive Lloyd, the most successful captain, Rohan Kanhai, Carl Hooper, Alvin Kalicharran, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sarwan.
The selectors change the players so much so that fans like me hardly remember their names as compared to yesteryear with the likes of the three Ws ‒ Worrel, Weekes, Walcott ‒ Wesley Hall, Charlie Griffith, Lance Gibbs, Brian Lara, Gordon Greenidge, Malcolm Marshall, Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and others.
A large number of fans have lost interest in the game, especially Test cricket, and the WICB and its affiliates have to work out ways and means to improve the summer game which was once a job for hundreds of thousands.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
