"Falling on Deaf Ears"

This was the headline in the mid-week Nation of October 31. Hayden Gill was addressing the perenial complaints and shortcommings in staging regional cricket; and no one seems to be listening. He quoted from Tony Howard, the then Manager of the Barbados team in 2000, who said that "the problem with this competition is that it seems to be organised by non-cricketers...".

Now that he is in charge, what is his excuse for the poor organisation of the KFC final four?

Failing Grade for 3Ws

I give a failing grade to the 3Ws and its administrators for the staging of the KFC final four. When I arrived for the first match, the media area was still under construction and chairs were still being bolted in the public seating area (this continued for the second match). I had to restrain a vocal and angry Colin Croft as he berated Ronald Butcher for the poor preparations.

They also seemed not prepared for the rain and the mopping up operations were just laughable. The waterhog appeared to be broken. I saw no drying agent. There was very little leadership.

This, from our premier academic institution, is unacceptable.

Mr. Butcher must take full responsibility for this situation. I am sure, however, that no action will be taken and would not be surprised if this situation occurs next time.

T&T Comments on the Dyson Appointment

Taken from www.trinidadexpress.com:

Former West Indies batsman and selector Joey Carew said he was not against a foreign coach, once he has get the job done. “I know little of the man but what I can say is that I am going to be very happy, if he can get results. If he has been given the job, it means that he has some credentials and we hope that he can inflame our cricketers to be more national minded.

“In this aspect, I would hope that probably among his management team would be a West Indian who can help in this aspect.”

Former Test off-spinner Rangy Nanan said he would have loved to see a local coach given the job but questioned whether the players would have given him the required respect. “I would have loved to see a local coach but I don’t know whether the players would have given him that respect that they might give the foreign coach.”

Successful cricket coach Anthony Gray said the WICB has to give locals the chance to get experience and stop looking outside. “We continue to be too dependent on foreign people and we are not educating our own. Bennett King and David Moore both failed because they came from a different culture and now we go back to another Australian.”

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB), Forbes Persaud said he was not in favour of a foreign coach because he thinks a regional past player can be better equipped for the job. “I don’t particularly like the move, I would have rather one of our own. The problem in our cricket today is an attitudinal one and I think that a foreign coach would have difficulty in having an impact on this.”

John Dyson is New WICB Head Coach

The new head coach of the West Indies team is John Dyson!

It appears that we have not learned from the Bennett King debacle. What more must our own coaches do to impress the WICB. I believe that any of Simmonds, Williams or Springer, or a combination of any 2 (which I would have recommended), would have been a better choice for our long term development.

An while this is happening we continue to give the very incompetent David More our youngsters (A team and U19) to "un-coach". Even here there seems to be no development pathway for our own coaches.

New WICB CEO

The WICB has chosen Dr. Donald Peters as its new CEO. This is an exceedingly good choice. Dr. Peters will bring a development perspective which should be in harmony with President's own priorities.

I wish him well.