Andy Roberts wants an overhaul of cricket in the Caribbean
Legendary West Indian pace bowler Andy Roberts has slammed the much maligned http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 Cricket Board for their inept attitude, hurting cricket in the region for the last 15 years.
Roberts who was part of the famous West Indian fast bowling quartet that included Michael Holding, Malcolm http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Joel-Garner-c67141, told media that the Board is besieged with problems that have emanated from the lack of vision and
selfishness of Board members.
The Chief Executive of the WICB, Ernest Hilaire has been the subject of a verbal assault by two seasoned batsmen Chris Gayle and Shiv Chanderpaul. The two launched a scathing attack on the man in charge of West Indian cricket and have
accused him of settling his own scores with the players.
Gayle rushed to the Indian Premier League to represent Bangalore after having been left out of the One Day series against Pakistan.
Chanderpaul on the other hand, questioned the decisions made by the WICB and claimed that his commitment to the team was questioned publicly by Hilaire despite his long and illustrious international career.
Roberts thinks that Hilaire and his close aide Julian Hunte should resign immediately as they have left the team in disarray. The West Indians were sent packing out of the World Cup in the Quarter-finals and have already surrendered
to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lewis-c72807 method during their run chase at the Kensington Oval on Monday.
Roberts has been vocal about his thoughts on the state of cricket in the region, stating that the WICB was doing whatever they pleased with complete disregard towards the players.
"The board does what pleases them," Roberts told ESPNcricinfo. "They don't have a clue how to move West Indies cricket forward. They don't have a clue. Some of the board members should resign otherwise the same problems will keep appearing
in the future also."
The West Indies board decided to start afresh after the World Cup debacle. The Board inducted new players in the squad and emphasized on re-building the team.
However, Roberts thinks that the current regime is incapable of overhauling the system and needs to be replaced if further damage is to be avoided.
"Fifteen years is a long time and we haven't seen much progress but if we don't change the current approach, another 15 years will go down the drain. You can't just concentrate on few players playing in the Test team. I have been saying
this from 1995. The problem is that the board seems to view few players as the problem in West Indies cricket. That is wrong. The entire cricket in our region is in a mess,” claimed Roberts.
He concluded by stating that the Board relied too heavily on players like Ramnaresh Sarwan, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dinanath-Ramnarine-c54129 in the past rather than focusing on all players who had the talent and the skill
to make it big at the highest level. According to Roberts these players were invested upon heavily yet they did not deliver as expected which is a failure on part of the WICB.
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