Benjamin lashes WICB - Former speedster questions directors

[Karl]

Benjamin lashes WICB - Former speedster questions directors' priorities

Published: Wednesday | September 2, 2009


Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer


Benjamin
Former West Indies fast bowler Kenny Benjamin says that one of the reasons West Indies cricket is suffering administratively is because the priorities of some of those who serve on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are not right.

According to Benjamin, who yesterday completed a two-day cricket clinic at Sabina Park, which was sponsored by Digicel, some members of the board appear to have other motives than cricket and this is affecting the effective administration of the sport.

"First, I think there are a lot of incompetent people who are in important positions.

"Second, I don't think cricket is the first priority of a number of persons who sit on the board, and because of this cricket administration matters gets pushed down the back burner," said Benjamin.

"A lot of them seem to be there as a result of political ambitions, for the monetary rewards such as perks and travelling and profiling to say that they serve on the board.

"If you check it nothing is happening as it relates to the progress of West Indies cricket and no one wants to leave the board. Why? It seems as if something is good for them in there. Cricket is not benefiting, the benefits seems to be going somewhere else," he added.

Asked to comment on the statements made by Benjamin, WICB vice-president, Dave Cameron, neglected to go into details, saying the profiles and accomplishments of the WICB directors are online and speak for themselves.

"I didn't hear the comment and I would want to leave that one alone. I am not in Jamacia

and I don't know in what context his comments were made," said Cameron initially.


Commenting further, he said: "Additionally, I don't think I need to respond to that. What you do is look at the WICB website and search through the listing of the directors on the board and see what their attributes are."
But Benjamin, who played 26 Tests and 26 one-day internationals, and who is also the territorial development officer for the Leeward Islands, said it's irrelevant what the websites say as the decline of West Indies cricket is there for everybody to see.

Boys' club
"We need to change the way we do things. A lot them will not agree, but the WICB is nothing but a boys' club which operates on privileges rather than performance. When they meet it is more about what you can do for me and what I can do for you, rather than what we need to do for cricket.

"Each territory needs to ask themselves: If the directors are not there for cricket development, what purpose do they serve? "We need to look at what qualifies someone to be a WICB director," he continued. "Is it popularity? There needs to be better screening of who each member selects to represent the game," he noted.

[Karl]

Really?

It is interesting to listen to these two-way ( ) communications.

The WIPA and past players never have one single solitary good thing to say about those managing West Indies Cricket.

I take the WIPA and the players comments and put it smack in the middle of the current players performances. One thing jumps out at me - We have no present cricketers with records to match those outstanding ones of yesteryear.

Viv's record? Any player in the present squad anywhere near in achievement?

Holding, Roberts, Croft, Garner, Marshall, Walsh, Hall or Griffiths?

Desmond Hayles, Greenwich, Richardson, Clive LLoyd?

'Wicket Keepers as good as Dujon, Deryck Murray, Hendricks or Alexander?

...and before those above...

...any of the calibre of Fredricks, Kallicharan, Kanhai, Hunte or Rowe?

I wonder if these players have ever asked themselves about producing for West Indies cricket's sake?

...for selves?

What is it they want us to believe? Get rid of the WICB and suddenly they will become class players?

They should consider this - bat, bowl and field well consistently and they just may start winning matches...series! They could then start preening and stop this nonsense about attempting to sell the idea that the WICB is the cause of their failures.

They should think on the fact that the WICB on the way to rebuilding West Indies Cricket could start by throwing all the non-performers out! ...any which way you look at it this current batch of cricketers are failures.

They need to...well...just go!

[Mosiah]

hope all this just accelerates the end of this farce!

[Gamma]

karl...like in football, the talent is there. EVERY single person you mentioned played professionally outside of the caribbean (usually england or australia) sobers and richards go on at length about the competive nature of aussie sportsmen....

england killed that goose for us....they discouraged their county clubs from selecting west indians and imposed limitations on overseas players otherwise...people like viv though had been there for a while and had residency (maybe were even eligible for british citizenship).

the board NEVER put anything in place to develope cricket...the talent would always be there and the pro set up in england cost them nothing to produce champions!

furthermore they became arrogant, players had to play in the domestic competition to be eligible for selection....huh? players doing well in a professional setting had to give up their livelihood to make themselves available to play in a competition that was several levels below what they played in day in day out and for professional coaches.

the substandard players are DEFINITELY the result of POOR management by the WICB that we have a Gayle, Chanderpaul (nothing about his batting is orthodox...WHAT A TALENT) and sarwan...bowlers like taylor is due to RAW talent...xavier marshall, pollard even ganga would have benefitted immensely from proper training and playing consistently at a high level.

consider that our young players go directly from the domestic competition to test cricket which is SEVERAL levels ahead in terms of competition and mental toughness, we are lucky that they are not all mentally torn down!!

[Karl]

Ofcourse the talent is there! ...but talent alone does not cut it.

It is the duty of the local island boards to nuture and develop the young talents. Make no mistake about it the English only took our players after the players were known quality. The bre-beh they never spared a glance!

As to the whining past players, they are well represented on the boards found in the various islands. They are represented on board of directors, committees of the boards and coaches. Do not forget those boards are the bedrock of Windies cricket. They, it is who are responsible for discovery and development of our talented.

What did the whiners do when the WICB tried to immediately on hearing that overseas professionals would be allowed in limited numbers on English County teams?

Institute regulations such as you mentioned to have the immediate impact of raising the level of competition in the Inter-Island competitions.

...and what did the whiners do?

Killed it!

Well what have the whiners presented to us as best WI players?

Yup! ...you got it! ...those who have given us our current record! 99.99+% of 'never will be good' players...failures!

Get rid of our current lot. Get rid of the whiners of the boards which produced the present lot.

Back to the drawing board...dust off the blue prints that produced the players I named earlier. Get rid of the whiners!

[Rudi]

Wow, it would seem that like talent the "old boys club" abounds across different sports ie track, football and cricket. I wonder if it's a West Indian plantation thing. Gwawn WICB enforce your discipline for the benefit of........

[Yuttie]

sanction MVP!

my bad this a cricket thread

[Gamma]

RUBBISH karl....they saw the talent and that is why they were offered contracts in england...NOT because they were the finished product!

the talent was HONED to perfection at the club level...if that had not happened those players would NOT have excelled they way they did!

but tell me karl...what long term plan did the board implement to develpe west indian players in the west indies? last time i went to the "academy" in st georges, grenada overgrown shrubbery and dilapidation abounded.

tell me ONE long term plan that they put in place?! just one!

[Yuttie]

champs...my bad. I keep thinking you're talking about track and field.

[Rudi]

champs...my bad. I keep thinking you're talking about track and field.

Yoyu're an evil fellow.

[Yuttie]

no sah..... evil is saying Jamaica sold her soul for World championship gold medals!

FRANNO MUST GO!

[Exile]

I agree with everything EXCEPT on Ganga...

[Gamma]

mi jus throw him in deh fi si if anybody was really paying attention...

[Karl]

RUBBISH karl....they saw the talent and that is why they were offered contracts in england...NOT because they were the finished product!

the talent was HONED to perfection at the club level...if that had not happened those players would NOT have excelled they way they did!

but tell me karl...what long term plan did the board implement to develpe west indian players in the west indies? last time i went to the "academy" in st georges, grenada overgrown shrubbery and dilapidation abounded.

tell me ONE long term plan that they put in place?! just one!

What type reasoning is that?
Ofcourse anyone constantly facing excellent challenges the possibility of improvement should be expected.

...but were is the proof that say Viv would be less than the "master blaster" he became if he had remained in the West indies?

Let's go back further - What do you say about "Atlas", "3 Ws", Lerrie Constantine and the early work...some would say distruction...all our greats did...either without playing at that higher level of English county cricket or before they hit the English county cricket circuit?

Are you saying Viv's work before he made our WI team was not great work? ...Gary Sobers' years of destroying the world's best with bat and ball before he got into the English County Cricket circuit was less than great? ...Micky Holding? Jackie Hendricks? Franz Alexander? and the oither tons of good...excellent...and great players who did not have the benefit of playing in English County Cricket?

It is fact our islands used to produce excellent cricketers without benefit of moving out of the West Indies...they used to produce local grown great players! They are currently failing to do that! Flying ion the face of that reality suggests falling into the trap of closing eyes to failures of the current lot running the island boards and the crappy set of players we had (they should never be allowed to return...unless they 'sing dem sanky an weel an cum again - give assurances to improve their games and perform well for the West indies, the fans and selves. They are a disgrace to all and should be feeling also to selves. They have no shame).

[Gamma]

karl, at the time of hendricks et al (yuh figget headley too)county cricket was not the professional outfit it became in the 80's AFTER kerry packer introduced the world to PROFESSIONAL cricket. The playing field was more level then it was basically talent for talent.....the stakes have since been raised on ALL accounts and THAT is where WIBC has been left lagging! They are STILL in the era of franz alexander and jackie hendicks when we are now in the era of ricky ponting and jacques kallis!

i have been to cricket clubs in south africa and i have SEEN first han the work being done with youngsters at the age of TWELVE working on the fundamentals of all 3 disciplines batting fielding and bowling. time and again our young cricketers are in AWE when they visit these places for the first time and realise the investment being made in developing cricket.

karl, do you think that the reason why SA and AUS are on top of the pile is accidental? if you do not think so, please enlighten me as to which BODY has been responsible for the development of their cricket or whether it is strictly the players.

you notice how AUS and SA churning them out? their academies are in FULL flight..you are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

in today's cricket talent ALONE will never cut it! the only consistent windies batsman is chanderpaul and he is perhaps the most unorthodox batsman in cricket today..what does that tell you?

read sobers'/richards/walsh autobiographies