Former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd said that his former outstanding opener Desmond Haynes should have been named the West Indies batting coach instead of being appointed to the lead selector position.
Lloyd was speaking during an interview on the Mason & Guest Show on Tuesday night on the Voice of Barbados.
The legendary skipper, arguably the region’s most successful captain, said: “I told him (Haynes) he got the wrong job. I said ‘You are a batsman of class’. I said: ‘You should be coaching our batsmen’ and he agreed with me. But you see the point is...we are not thinking about this thing properly,” said Lloyd.
Lloyd, a former chairman of selectors himself and former WI team manager, said the situation on the women’s side of the equation was also requiring further attention.
He added that the Windies need to follow the example of the other higher-ranked countries like Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand etc. and become involved in Test cricket. “If you look at the situation where women cricketers are concerned. Look at the countries that are doing well...their longer game helps their shorter game and we are not looking at that. We are just grooming guys and girls to just hit the ball. We want some people to concentrate and still find the gaps; that don’t give away their hand and that’s why we are falling short,” he contended.
Lloyd reiterated that the WI women would render a much improved performance overall if they played Test match cricket.
And he advocated for the CWI to employ the services of their past greats like Haynes and Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts among others to reinforce the winning attitude and discipline.
“I want somebody to sit down with these young players that we have and tell them exactly what is needed, tell them that you guys have got to work hard, you have got to train, you have got to get fit and compete with these other people,” Lloyd stressed, “We have players now and then but we are not taking this cricket seriously.
“We have to work hard at that and tell the young people that ‘listen, we doh mind you playing in the T20 but we would like you to play in our domestic cricket’. Because people are putting a lot of money there and...I doh wanna stop anybody from earning a living. But you were taught most of your cricket in the WI. Give something back.”
He said Nicholas Pooran, who he viewed as extremely gifted, was wasting his talent by not playing the longer format.
“He is a tremendous cricketer. When are we gonna get another Larry Gomes. We need a Gomes in the men’s section and the women’s section. We have to look at our players all-round. You have to get into the heads of these young cricketers. “Tell them exactly what you expect from them. They are very talented cricketers but because of our domestic cricket — the standard is not really that high — we are struggling. But I think we have cricketers that could match others,” Lloyd concluded.
