T&T chief hints at regional split - Cricinfo

[elcid]

I was looking at this article on cricinfo:
T&T chief hints at regional split | West Indies Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

What do you all think?

To be honest even though I do not want to see a regional split for the West Indies team, the selectors have been very unfair to cricketers from Trinidad and Tobago. The current Trinidad and Tobago team is a very strong, motivated unit and with the current state of West Indies cricket, they may not get much international exposure. This may be their only chance.

 

[Pratters]

Will be a sad thing to occur if it all it did occur.

 

[stumpski]

They might well beat the West Indies these days.

 

[Prince EWS]

So what would a team look like? My knowledge of fringe T&T players isn't super.

1. Barath
2. Ganga
3. Simmons
4. Bravo
5. Bravo
6. Ramdin
7. Pollard
8. Mohammed
9. Kelly / someone else?
10. Jaggernauth
11. Rampaul

I've probably forgotten someone really obvious. Either way, I don't think this is the right way to go about things.

 

[Richard]

I dread to think what West Indies cricket must've been like in the days when inter-island feuding was commonplace and near-accepted.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

So what would a team look like? My knowledge of fringe T&T players isn't super.

1. Barath
2. Ganga
3. Simmons
4. Bravo
5. Bravo
6. Ramdin
7. Pollard
8. Mohammed
9. Kelly / someone else?
10. Jaggernauth
11. Rampaul

I've probably forgotten someone really obvious. Either way, I don't think this is the right way to go about things.

Ganga prefers to bat 3. Pollard would be above Ramdin too, and Mohammed isn't entirely in favour with the selectors it seems, so it might be Emrit in for him. That said, Emrit hasn't been great recently, but he does work hard.

I heard about this a couple of weeks ago, I think, and was talking to a friend about it. Basically it would end the Test careers of Dw Bravo, Simmons and Ramdin and prevent those of Da Bravo and Rampaul. Certainly T&T wouldn't get Test status for 15-20 years. Inevitable, maybe, but I can't see it happening for some time yet.

 

[shivfan]

I think Trinidad would be far worse off if they ever went it alone....

Very few of these players are Test class right now. They would be beaten by Bangladesh, and could only strive to be on par with the likes of Zimbabwe.

Frankly, it sounds like a lot of hot air from Forbes Persaud.

Where did Trinidad finish in the recent four-day domestic competition?

 

[Matt79]

If the ICc was any kind of governing body, they'd be able to find a way to intervene in situations like this. Sound like WI cricket essentially needs to have a neutral, professional team put in place to administer it and select and run the team.

 

[MrIncredible]

T&T would never make it at the test level. I could see them playing ODIS but tests never. They just dont have the threshold to provide the players. Plus how many test venues are there in TT ne way?

 

[aussie]

If the ICc was any kind of governing body, they'd be able to find a way to intervene in situations like this. Sound like WI cricket essentially needs to have a neutral, professional team put in place to administer it and select and run the team.

Word out. Cricket doesn't need this ATM. Look at the crazyness T20 cricket causing yo..

 

[SJS]

It is sad that things have come to this pass but if one kept the heart aside then this is the only solution.

The petty regionalism that has plagued West Indies all through their cricket history cant be wished away by soft emotions and good wishes of well wishers. This is a problem that has been there for three quarters of a century and has not improved one bit.

They play as separate island nations in other sports and there is no reason why they wont get used to doing the same in cricket.

When India was partitioned, ICC had suggested that we should continue to play as an "All India" team but thank God we didn't. We now have three Test teams instead of one. You can argue that combine all three and end up with a stronger single side but is that good for the game in each separate nation. The answer, if one used only the head, has to be no.

The same will be true for West Indies.

 

[MrIncredible]

Yeah but India/Pak/Bang are countries where hundreds of millions reside. Combine the cricket playing population of the West Indies and they wouldnt be much more than half the population of London. As individual entities the territories comprising the WI simply donot have the player base or financial fortitude to last at test level

 

[fredfertang]

Yeah but India/Pak/Bang are countries where hundreds of millions reside. Combine the cricket playing population of the West Indies and they wouldnt be much more than half the population of London. As individual entities the territories comprising the WI simply donot have the player base or financial fortitude to last at test level

............... although in the early 1980's Barbados on its own would probably have emulated the success that the WI as a whole had in those days

 

[MrIncredible]

On the bowling front maybe. But their batting reserves were thin.

 

[fredfertang]

A bit thin perhaps but with Maco, Big Bird and Sylvers thundering in I'd back Haynes and Greenidge to get enough runs more often than not

 

[Richard]

TBH the populations are not the problem - at least, not in Barbados, T&T and Jamaica. The problem is the paucity of the region, and the lack of ability to get quality cricketer production, for want of a better phrase.

The islands would not have a hope of playing Test cricket on their own. A West Indies split would destroy a Test nation, not create so much as one.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

A bit thin perhaps but with Maco, Big Bird and Sylvers thundering in I'd back Haynes and Greenidge to get enough runs more often than not

And when those were the West Indies attack, they needed more than Greenidge and Haynes to score runs to beat teams. Gamesetmatch.

Trinidad and Tobago can just about compete in football, but with 1.3 million people (most of whom seem to prefer football) competing in cricket is a different kettle of shark. Contrary to Richard's post, which I have just read.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

TBH the populations are not the problem - at least, not in Barbados, T&T and Jamaica.

You know that Jamaica has about twice (I think) the population of T&T and Barbados combined, and all three combined would comfortably fit under the population of London? There's a direct relationship between population and available talent. In that, if the general pool is small, the pool of cricketing talent within that would be even smaller.

 

[fredfertang]

And when those were the West Indies attack, they needed more than Greenidge and Haynes to score runs to beat teams. Gamesetmatch.

They wouldn't have needed anything else to beat England - If Sylvers had played Tests against England I doubt we'd have had an Anglo West Indian Test go beyond three days for a decade

 

[Richard]

You know that Jamaica has about twice (I think) the population of T&T and Barbados combined, and all three combined would comfortably fit under the population of London? There's a direct relationship between population and available talent. In that, if the general pool is small, the pool of cricketing talent within that would be even smaller.

Zimbabwe managed to be a Test-class team (not an outstanding one, but a Test-class one, capable of competing with almost all sides) on the back of a cricket-playing population (ie, the white men) which would struggle to fill a quarter of the MCG (the white population of Zimbabwe including women and children was something like 50,000 in ~1995).

With enough streamlining and good-quality coaching and practice facilities, the population required to be a Test-class team is not enormous. This, however, has never existed in West Indies and there appears no immediate prospect of that changing.