PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop said he still believes plenty of talent exists in the Caribbean. Still, it will require a lot of hard work to develop it to make West Indies relevant again on the international stage.
Bishop was speaking against the backdrop of the miserable run of the Caribbean side, led by Shai Hope and coached by former captain Daren Sammy, in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier that ended on Sunday in Zimbabwe.
The two-time champions failed to qualify for the World Cup to be staged in India later this year for the first time after they finished fifth on only two points in the Super Six stage of the Qualifier after previous defeats in the tournament against hosts Zimbabwe, as well as the Netherlands and Scotland.
Sri Lanka and the Netherlands earned the final two spots in the 10-team World Cup to be played from October 5 to November 19, and Bishop said he is still trying to come to grips with the reality that West Indies will not be attending.
“It has been as tough for me as I guess it would have been for any West Indies cricket fan whether they reside in the Caribbean or beyond,” he said on the sports radio program on i95.5 FM in his native Trinidad & Tobago during a telephone interview from Zimbabwe, where has been part of the TV commentary panel.
“The West Indies still have a lot of goodwill around the cricketing world. The number of people that have messaged me to say that they are also hurt has been quite reassuring, so it’s not something that I ever thought I would see taking place, but it is what it is, it has happened, and it has taken me a couple of days to get over it.
He added: “As a player myself, I have been in situations where we haven’t performed to the best of our ability, and if you are running a big organization, your staff, your employees must have an understanding of what are the targets. If they fail to reach those targets, there must be a reassessment and steps taken to right that wrong.”
“I won’t say this is all on the players. They have some responsibility, and there must be some responsibility and acceptance from them. Still, we have to create players at the territorial level that understand the game, prepare for the game, and come up with a culture of excellence, and when you have done everything to prepare those players, you can hold them more accountable.”
Bishop said the fundamentals of the player development pathway in the Caribbean needed work for it to produce world-class players, and there needed to be a system where players fully understand the requirements to be successful.
“We need to produce in the territories a culture that spreads throughout the region, where players must understand how they must carry themselves, how they must prepare, how they must run between the wickets, what the requirements are for white-ball cricket, what the requirements are for red-ball cricket and then feed that into the international set-up,” he said.
“We have to look around how I broadcast and tell the story, even people like myself. We have to reassess whether there is something else that all of us can do and have a buy-in prepare these players for the level of excellence required because the ICC Associate teams are not just beating us; they are wiping the floor with us, so there are dramatic steps that need to be taken right now, and we need everyone buying into that.”
Bishop said a few “green shoots” of talent are coming through the system, players such as pacer Jayden Seales and batsmen Alick Athanaze and Kevin Wickham, plus what has been on offer around the Twenty20 franchise leagues around the world.
“I still believe we have what it takes to be relevant once again, but obviously, it will take a lot of hard work,” he said. “We have to find a better way of harnessing the talent, better talent identification, and procuring of that talent.
“With the news that our prime minister, Dr. Keith Rowley is now the chairman of the Caricom sub-committee on cricket, I think it’s a great opportunity for us to harness in Trinidad and beyond a way forward to nurture the talent. I don’t think it’s rocket science.”
Bishop, now a well-respected TV pundit, said the governments of the Caribbean have a significant part to play in revitalizing West Indies cricket.
“We need greater economics or finance coming into the Caribbean,” he said. “We are competing with India, England, and Australia, all of whom have more significant financial pools than we have, so the honorable prime minister and the rest of the governments have to find a way to contribute because Cricket West Indies, as an entity, cannot do it on its own.
“Politics and sport have always been involved and intertwined along the way. We want accountability on both sides, but we must come together. I do not think one can stand without the other.
Bishop also brushed aside assertions that the concept of a West Indies team had outlived its practical purposes, and it was time for individual territories in the Caribbean to seek international status as has been done in other sports.
“I have heard that for many years,” he said. “It’s not a recent thing, but I don’t buy into it because I don’t know if people understand the magnitude of what it takes to put an international team in the park…
“From where they start from, the economics needed to build that – TV rights, facilities, production of players, a first-class system, and all of that – so I disregard that. I don’t buy that.”
The West Indies Test side, led by Kraigg Brathwaite and coached by Andre Coley, starts a two-Test series against World Test Championship finalists India on Wednesday at Windsor Park in Dominica, hoping for better results.
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