Over the next few weeks Guardian Media Sports Desk will publish a series of features from former players, administrators, writers, historians and commentators on and about West Indies cricket from around the region about what is needed to revive West Indies cricket. Here's our second publication.
Interviewer: Journalist Barry Wilkinson. LL.B (Hons), MA
Interviewee: Sir Clive Lloyd CBE AO CM
Q: Sir Clive thanks for being the opening batsman for this new series in the Guardian. You are arguably the most revered captain the West Indies has ever produced. In addition, you have been an outstanding mentor, manager and administrator, so therefore you are indeed very qualified to answer my first question: what do you think is needed right now to revive cricket in the region?
A: Well, first we must try and get cricket on a stronger footing. When your domestic cricket is strong, your Test cricket and your one-day cricket will be strong. Back in the day, although we were playing county cricket and so on, we still came home. We played Shell Shield, we played one-day cricket, and all the youngsters were playing with us. We were luckier than the guys now because we played county cricket and sometimes you bat four or five times in one week. You played 15 days straight. So, you were a thorough, professional unit and playing under different weather conditions. Some of our players (now) play county cricket, but we must get a stronger base. If we don’t do that, playing with all these guys here will take much longer to prosper. The Indians have it nailed down properly. All their youngsters are making 100s in Test matches very often. England’s players are doing extremely well. You know we need to start taking control of our cricket. If we have our players playing when they want to play, we’ll be exposing a lot of our young players too early, and our cricket will be at the bottom. And that’s what’s happening. They’re learning the game on the job. We must play more often with each other. It’s no use grooming all our players and then before you know it, they’ve gone. So, we’ve lost five years or whatever that we put into that player, and you lose ten of them. And if you notice players like (Ben) Stokes and these guys are still playing for their country. (Joe) Root still wants to play. And the Indian players, are young players and are learning a lot, and quickly, from previous players, captains and ex-captains, who were very successful. And their cricket is sort of flourishing. And we need to do that. We can’t just groom a player and let them go just like that. And we have to give them an NOC (No Objection Certificate). These guys are lucky. Our players are probably the only players who don’t pay tax. All the other countries pay tax.
Q: When you look at the fact that commercially West Indies is probably down the pack because we don’t have as many companies investing in our cricket. How do you think CPL, for example, was able to do to get that investment going? Because you look at CPL versus you look at West Indies cricket, they have a lot of sponsorship. West Indies cricket has not been able to attract a wonderful cadre of sponsors. What can we do to attract more sponsorship to get some more money coming into the Academy and to other leagues in West Indies cricket?
A: There are two things that have got to happen. You’ve got to produce players that people want to see. If I am going to sponsor anything I want the best players to play. If you have a sponsor in England or sponsors and you’re telling them that Stokes and these guys are not going to play, they are not going to sponsor you. And you’ve got to be successful. I want somebody successful, you know, to advertise my product. So, we have to nail that down first. That we must, you know, inform the players that doing well is important.
I remember 1973 when we were going to England under Rohan Kanhai and we asked for some extra money and Donald Carr who was the CEO at the time said we can’t give you any more money because you haven’t won a Test match for 21 Test matches. So, I was a senior player then and I realised that winning is important. Not only for winning’s sake. It is winning for you to sort of ask for a better tariff and such. If you want to call it that.
Q: You speak a lot of Stokes and Root. What do you make of the current cricketers that we have in our cadre that you would compare to being world class that could match with the others around the world? I believe you mentioned Nicholas Pooran already. What about young Shai Hope? Alzarri Joseph? Who are the cricketers that you think we have in our armour that you would say can compare and match with those around the rest of the world?
A: I would think that if we have the full complement of one-day players we can beat anybody. Pooran. We have (Shimron) Hetmyer. You have Hope. The only thing about Jason Holder is that I think that he’s lost a bit of pace, and I think it’s because of that shoulder injury. We have some good players. (Sherfane) Rutherford looks good. But we have to get those players to play constantly. If they don’t play often then it’s going to be difficult to keep getting a consistently good squad. But I think he needs a mentor really. To just have somebody to talk to. We need to have coaches who can really explain to these young players what is necessary for the games today. Because it has changed a lot. I mean, when you look at India. Look at the players that they have coaching, (Rahul) Dravid. You look at Australia – (Ricky) Ponting, (Matthew) Hayden. England has got – (Marcus) Trescothick and Darren Gough. People who have done extremely well in their careers so they can pass on the knowledge. And that is what we have to do. We must get people who can impart the knowledge that will stand them in good stead for the future.
Q: CPL has revived major interest in cricket in the West Indies. How do you view that league and its importance to West Indies cricket?
A: Well, it’s not a bad competition at all. They probably could try and get a few more top-class players. Or another team or so, or two. We must make it. I don’t know what the prize money is. But prize money is important and the salaries that these guys are earning in the IPL. I don’t know what they earn in the CPL, but we must improve our stadiums. We must improve our pitches. We have to have better pitches prepared. And facilities for their patrons. I think there are a couple of things they must look at and I hope that they’ll be able to look at those in the next couple of months and make sure that this is a top-class tournament.
Q: What do you make of the new league that you are chairman of the Global Super League? That’s also another step in the commercial direction for cricket in the West Indies.
A: Well, there again, Guyana has got the space. They’ve got the grounds. Once they can improve their grounds. They’re building a lot of decent hotels around the place. This competition can be pretty well run if they have the right sponsors. And guys will come once they can enjoy the facilities and so on. Guyana is still a pretty good place to be. And I’m sure that if it is well organised, they might get a couple of other teams, and it could be a competition we would want to take part in.
Q: Let’s talk a little bit about women’s cricket. How strong do you see the West Indies among the women’s teams around the world? They just got knocked out at the semifinal stage at the T20 World Cup. But, how do you view the standard of women’s cricket and its future?
A: Well, I think we have some very good women cricketers. Even world class. (Hayley) Matthews, (Deandra (Dottin) and (Stafanie) Taylor. There’s no doubt about that. I think the West Indies Board should take charge of that. That should be part of their remit. Make sure that the women go through the same situation.
That they have the same sort of sponsorship situation that the men have. Good facilities, good coaches. They should have very good ground. I meant when you look at the number of women that play cricket in Australia it’s mind-boggling. So, we don’t choose our teams from the full complement of islands. It’s only some islands where the players come from. I would like to see them fitter. I’d like to see them play Test cricket. Because the longer game would help their shorter game. Our girls are coming out and they are good stroke players. But they are looking to hit the ball out of the ground, or they are looking to hit sixes. You know I looked at some of the girls from India and the way they bat, that’s how some of our players should be playing. You know, looking for the gaps. Still hitting fours and threes and twos and thus not giving away your hand. And I think that we do have some good cricketers. There’s no doubt about that. And I think if they play the longer game, it will help our women’s team to improve and be world beaters again.
Q: How do you view the administration of our cricket? Should we move towards a more company structure to make it a bit more professional which would give stakeholders and shareholders the average ‘Joe’ bloke to be able to be a shareholder in West Indies cricket? Because that phrase “we’re all shareholders” is used very loosely. There’s nothing that says we have money to put in the pot. What would you say about that?
A: Well, I think that, yes, that needs a bit of a shake-up too. I suppose they could look at all of those. You see if it’s not right there at the top, you have got to have a better system. Our system is not as good as it should be. I told them about the Under-17s and U-19s. To me, the U-17s should be schools’ cricket and the U-19 and upwards should be our A team. You know, because if you’re running U-17 and 19 tournaments. It could be heavy on the finances. And we need to have a good “A” team because that is where our Test players come from. So, if we’re playing against other “A” teams, we’ll be playing against top-class players. So, our standard would rise. So, we must look at all those things. How is our cricket structured? Do we have an A to Z? And how is the money going to be used? And I think that there’s so much that you must do to get back to where we were. But we have the talent. We have the players. And I’m sure we have the will. It’s just getting people working along with the players. And to make sure that, let them understand the importance of sport and cricket in our region and what it does for us.
