Speaking to the Express from his hotel in Durban, West Indies 'A' team manager Joel Garner was philosophical but forthright about the difficulties currently facing West Indies cricket, specifically his team down in South Africa.
And as the suddenly shaky senior team prepares to face the challenge of an ambitious England, the former ``Big Bird'' of West Indies fast bowling let fly another bouncer at the unsteady edifice.
``Our players are not professional enough. We need to address that.'' The statement follows the second straight whitewash for a West Indies team in a Test series. Monday's 19-run loss in the final Test match in Capetown condemned Jimmy Adams' ``A'' squad to a 3-0 series in the three-match loss, the same margin by which Courtney Walsh's team went under in Pakistan.
And while stressing that the ``A'' team tour was about development, Garner could not ignore the deficiencies. ``We have to look at how our cricketers think and how they react,'' he said. ``We still do it on a part-time basis. What we've got to do is look at the Under-15 and Under-19 level and instill the priorities,'' Garner added.
Repeatedly stressing the vast difference in approach between the South Africans and his team, Garner expressed general disappointment with the performance of the unit, especially the batsmen.
``I wouldn't say the team was out of its depth,'' the manager began, ``but when you analyse it, we lost because we were not batting.'' He added: ``Take the captain out of the play-he scored over 500 runs on the tour-the others managed just about 200. We had a 10-day camp here where we tried to iron out the problems. But we had to go through a lot of basic things and that made the difference.''
And it was those ``basic things'' that concerned the ``Big Bird.'' ``They (South Africa) were saving 70 runs in the field,'' he continued, ``and that is a great achievement. But we had to spend time teaching people how to field long-barrier. If you have to spend time at ``A'' team level to teach people to field long barrier....We keep talking and talking and talking.''
Nevertheless, the manager did not seem to feel all the talking was in vain. Although declining to single out individuals, Garner did feel some progress had been made.
``I think that we have been able to bring a few of the younger players on. (...) We've got one or two of younger bowlers (Nixon McLean and pacer Pedro Collins) who still have some rough edges that need to be smoothed out. But that's been one of the positive aspects of the tour, people showing a willingness to improve.''
Pressed further about personnel who could be part of the Test action against England, the WI ``A'' manager mentioned Adams who has been ``scoring runs on a consistent basis.'' But he was reluctant to go further.
``What we tend to do is start naming people and put a lot of unnecessary pressure on them,'' he said.
However, the ``Bird'' could not end without touching on some recurring themes.
Is West Indies cricket in crisis? ``I don't think we have a crisis. We have to approach the cricket in a positive way.'' But reminded of Clive Lloyd's comments about ``pride going out the window'' in Pakistan and asked about his own experience, Garner offered only a guarded response.
``People who wear the West Indies colours should do it with pride and hunger. They should never say die.'' And his parting delivery was this yorker. ``As a former player, when you look at how fellows approach the game, you have to ask yourself what the players are thinking. They are representing three million people. It is very important for them to recognise that.''