Windies face troubled future

As their captain, Brian Lara, faced the media on his own at SuperSport Centurion, just as he had done in Port Elizabeth after a crisis team meeting and promised, as a result of those indepth discussions, a better all-round team effort, serious questions were being asked of him and the immediate Windies future.

Even their respected veteran journalist, Tony Cozier, privately posed a thought at the start of the fourth day of this final Test win by late afternoon by 351 runs, whether there was a future for the team known as West Indies, which with the University of the West Indies, is about the only unifying force in the former British colonies of the Caribbean.

Which is ironic as the International Cricket Council globalisation policy gathers strength and John Shepherd their agent in the area oversees dramatic and impressive growth in regions as far flung as Argentine, Peru, the Belize, the Bahamas, central America and some southern states in the USA. Lara, his captaincy abilities now being questioned and under pressure, tried to explain some of the problems as he saw it on Monday after the second crushing defeat within four days in a series which promised much but delivered little. The great fast bowling pair of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh were on crutches by the end of a gruelling seven weeks programme, the batting broke down more often than a R5 watch and a top-order never came to grips with Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock or Jacques Kallis.

And in the end Lara had to admit the side was ``not as one'' as tremours of discontent rumbled in the aftermath of the strike which held up the start of the tour. Even the tour song. ``Rally around the Windies'' with its catchy syncopated rhythm was as off key as was the batting flair so often talked about was missing.

Even Lara, seen as the catalyst which has sewn much dissent among the rank and file senior players admitted much soul-searching is needed to rekindle the natural gifts long noted in the West Indies style of game.

As Reg Scarlett, a former Test player now running an academy in Port of Spain, Trinidad, says it is the unifying factor which makes cricket the most popular sport in the Caribbean. While athletics, soccer and to a lesser extent basketball have a local identity which appeals to each island, they do not have mass approval of cricket.

Perhaps, as Lara feels, it is time to rebuild from under-15 upwards, as he has seen in South Africa with a vibrant, flourishing programme.

Trinidadians, Guyanese, Bajans, Jamaicans and Antiguans kept each other company during the tour of South Africa. During weeks of travel and hardship through a series id disappointments they became friends and waved their flags and wept, openly and bitterly on Monday at the demise of their team.

Yet in the English Caribbean, as in England, Australia and New Zealand government-run schools no longer play the game. The clubs have to do the job; academies and island junior squad systems regenerate players into a game which collapsed because of a lack of long-term planning when the West Indies ran rampant and crushed other countries with a similar clinical professional pride South Africa has imposed on them this summer.

There is also a question of money. The Caribbean is not a wealthy place and since the break up of the federation in the 1960s small nations have limped along, reliant on hand outs from a variety of benefactors with large business interests.

Sir Garfield Sobers, a West Indian patriot as well as one of the world's great players, has long lamented the disintegration of the federation and for what it stood: regional commerce and industrial strength suffered because of parochial pride. Barbados was the centre-point and poltical jealousy and paranoia soured relationships.

Lara tried looked beyond first whitewash in West Indies history and probe other reasons for the defeat. South Africa had any number of players who were on the fringes but were not selected for the series. Now several of them had been brought into the limited-overs side. And he, himself, along with others had not performed as well as they should have during the series. ``West Indies cricket has been in decline for a few years now and this is the end result of it,'' he said. ``We are going to have to go back, look at it and see how we can improve our young players so we can develop a group of more competitive players at international level.

``We now have to put this series behind us. In the last 18 months to two years we have lost have lost two-nil, three-nil and now five-nil. Now we have to concentrate on finding a group of players who are going to be competitive against the Australians.

``When we go back (after the one-day series) we will have to look at the players we have and their form and commitment. The Management (Clive Lloyd and coach Malcolm Marshall) tried their best to work with the guys, but in the end you have to go out and back yourself as an individual,'' he agreed. ``You can get all the advice you want off the field, but as individuals we have lacked confidence on this tour and it showed in our performances.''

What he did not say yet has been pointed out often is that the side selected for the tour of South Africa was universally approved in the Caribbean as the best available, but criticisms of the side since the series started showed there was a serious miscalculation of the strength of the South African team, based as it was on the results of their of England.