Cricket standards under the microscope

Director of cricket, Jimmy Adams, says the recent whitewash in Bangladesh has renewed existing concerns over the ability of the region’s cricketers to execute under pressure, and has once again brought the standard of the domestic tournaments under the microscope.

Speaking after West Indies suffered a chastening 3-0 defeat in the recent One-Day International series, Adams said players’ decision-making had been identified as a problem for quite some time, and had again come to the fore in recent weeks.

“If I can be as consistent as I can going back maybe as far as 20 years, basically looking at decision-making under pressure and to a certain degree, execution,” Adams said.

“I think the biggest challenge for us at the moment – and it has been our biggest challenge for quite a long time – is our ability to make good decisions under pressure at the highest level, and sometimes the quality of our execution.

“I have to qualify that by saying that it’s not something just reserved for our international players, it is something that has concerned me about our regional standards for quite a long time as well.”

He added: “It remains one of our biggest challenges and certainly one of my biggest challenges is can we get to a point where we have a system that can produce players who are stronger in these areas?”

An under-strength West Indies featuring nine debutants failed to compete against a well-drilled Bangladesh side and slumped to comprehensive defeats in the three-match series.

They lost the first ODI in Dhaka by six wickets and followed up two days later with a seven-wicket loss at the same venue.

They chased for the first time in the series in the final ODI in Chattogram but lost by 120 runs in pursuit of 298.

No batsman managed even a half-century as the Caribbean scraped totals of 122, 148 and 177.

Adams, who played 54 Tests and 127 ODIs between 1992 and 2001, said the challenge for CWI was properly preparing players for the rigorous demands of international cricket by also addressing the quality of player produced in the region.

“Where CWI sits in the whole equation is how do we get our players ready for the challenges and the questions that will be asked of them at the international level,” Adams told Starcom Radio’s Mason and Guest program.

“The answer as I see it and as I have communicated to the board ever since I came on board, is that the pool we’re pulling from – and I’m just not referring to the first class players alone though that is part of the pool – but when I use the word pool, I go a lot further down the pipeline than just the first class players.

“The answer is going to lie in what we’re able to do at these levels and this is a position I’ve held for many years.”

He continued: “When I was directly involved with cricket in Jamaica, I got first hand working knowledge of a lot of the systemic issues that were affecting standards within the region.

“And I believed then and it is more so now that until that (standard) is an absolute priority in everything that we’re doing, to lift the standards in that pool, that we’ll be asking for maybe too much from those involved in trying to compete against the Indias and the Austalias of this world.