Sir Curtly Ambrose said while he fully endorses regional players plying their trade across the world to secure their financial futures, he believes those players should equally make themselves available to play for the West Indies.
There have been several instances in the past few years where players have declined invitations to represent the West Indies but then jet off to destinations across the globe to play in T20 tournaments.
The issue was brought into sharp focus recently when several West Indies players declined to tour Bangladesh citing the pandemic and their related safety concerns. However, some of those players later went on to play for T20 franchises in countries that were also experiencing spikes in the number of Covid-19 infections.
During an interview on Talk Sports Live with Michael Bascombe on Saturday, the West Indies bowling icon, said the players need to do a better job of striking a balance between playing franchise cricket and representing the West Indies.
“The game has evolved. There is a lot more cricket being played now and many different T20 tournaments around the globe and there’s lots more money as well, so guys are going to go where the money is and I have no issues with that,” Ambrose said.
“A cricket career can be a very short one, once you have injury it could be all over for you so with guys going around plying their trade with different franchises making money to set themselves up financially, I have no issues with it.
“However, I think it needs to strike a balance somewhere because most of these guys who are playing their trade around the world, it’s because they played for the West Indies team why people saw them and gave them contracts. So for me, you need to find a balance somewhere where you can give back to West Indies cricket. You need to give back to West Indies cricket at some point as opposed to abandoning West Indies cricket.”
This is not the first time that Ambrose has expressed these sentiments.
In December 2020, he publicly criticized Andre Russell, who declined an invitation to play for the West Indies against New Zealand but later went to play in the Sri Lanka Premier League T20 tournament.
Chief selector Roger Harper told the media that Russell declined the West Indies invitation citing the need to clear his mind after being in quarantine lockdown for both the Caribbean Premier League in Trinidad and Tobago where he played for the Jamaica Tallawahs franchise and then, the Indian Premier League in Abu Dhabi where he played for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Ambrose poured cold water on the explanation.
“Because he wants to clear his head for a while to get his mind together, I have no problem with that because cricket is a high-pressure game,” he said.
“So if you want to clear your head for a while, take your mind off cricket I have no issues with that, but if you are going to reject playing for your nation, your country, and then two weeks later you’re playing for somebody else, that to me is a no-no.”
Meanwhile, commenting on the state of West Indies cricket, Ambrose noted it will be difficult for the West Indies to unearth players with similar talents to those from the team’s glory days of the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s because the current crop of players had not grasped what cricket means to the people of the region.
The outspoken 57-year-old Ambrose, who took 405 Test wickets in 98 Tests between 1988 and 2000, said he did not see those glory days ever returning.
“This is no disrespect to the players we have now because we have a couple of guys who have some quality in them and can become great but what we have to understand is that I don’t think we will ever see those great, exceptional glory days again,” said the towering Antiguan, who famously took seven wickets for one run in a devastating spell against Australia in Perth in 1993.
“It’s going to be difficult to find another Viv Richards, or a Haynes and Greenidge, a Brian Lara, Richie Richardson; you know, a Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, and the list goes on and on, Clive Lloyd.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult to find those quality players again.”
He said this was the case because the modern players have little appreciation for the legacy that made the West Indies great.
“Most of the youngsters we have now, probably don’t quite understand what cricket means to West Indians in the West Indies and abroad because cricket is the only sport that really unites Caribbean people,” argued Ambrose.
“When we were the best team in the word, West Indians all over the globe could walk and boast about how good we are because we were the best, so it’s going to be difficult to see those glory days again.
“Yes, we can be competitive and climb up the ICC rankings and be a force to be reckoned with again, but those glory days, I don’t think we will see them again.”
For fifteen years, the West Indies under the leadership of Sir Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards were the number-one Test and ODI team in the world. The team won the ODI (Prudential World Cup) in 1975 and 1979 but have not won the tournament since. The West Indies are now ranked eighth in Tests and ODIs and tenth in T20 cricket despite being the defending champions, having won the tournament in 2016 and 2012. (CMC)
