Ahmedabad: West Indies cricketers want to make a name and a living playing cricket, but the Caribbean’s prolonged struggle with finances is affecting their progress, skipper Roston Chase said here on Saturday after losing the first Test against India by an innings and 140 runs.
The West Indies side cut a sorry figure posting 162 and 146 in the two innings as India went 1-0 up with the second and final Test to be played in New Delhi from October 10-14.
Once a powerhouse, the West Indies were decimated for their lowest-ever Test total of 27 in their previous Test at home against Australia. It led to an emergency meeting being held by Cricket West Indies, which involved the legendary Clive Lloyd, Brian Lara, among other key stakeholders.
”I don’t really want to touch too much on that, but what I would say (is that) yes, there is obviously a struggle in the Caribbean for finances,” Chase, who is also a part of the ‘cricket strategy and officiating committee’ of CWI, told the media.
The committee consists of Lloyd, Lara, former batter Ramnaresh Sarwan and current players Shai Hope and Chase.
”Whatever help we can get — if they are planning to get the help — I hope that we do get it so that we can strengthen the infrastructure for cricket. The systems in the Caribbean are a bit poor in terms of training facilities and stuff.” ”But I’m not using that as an excuse or something to hide behind for the poor performances that we’ve been putting out lately. I still think is the onuses is on the players to find some way to turn up runs and wickets and stuff, so I don’t really want to get too much into that,” he said.
When asked if there was any lack of desire or any other fundamental issues with the current Test cricketers, Chase said the guys are ”eager to play.
”The guys are eager to play. The guys are young; they want to make a name for themselves. They want to make a living for themselves. I don’t think that is a case where they come up there and don’t train or they don’t want to do their best,” he said.
”But we have to improve our skill levels, and, and if the skill level is there, we’re not doing it for long enough periods. In Test cricket, you have to do it for five days. If you just do it for maybe one day (or) two days, you’re still not going to be on top or even in the game,” he added. And when asked point blank if a ”resurrection” was possible for the once dominant West Indies cricket team, Chase replied in affirmative. ”If I said no, I wouldn’t be a true West Indian,” he shot back.
”We’re down right now, but there have been times where we’ve been up and other teams have been down and they’ve risen. I would never say that a resurrection is not possible for us, but we are going to have to take some small steps and try to find our way back up the ladder,” he said.
Chase, who decided to bat on a lively track, said he doesn’t repent his decision at toss but wants better application from his players.
”I don’t think the decision was a bad decision. We saw the wicket, although it had a bit of moisture, we still thought that it was a good wicket to bat first,” he said.
”We didn’t start well and we never really put any partnerships in place. We never really got back into the game. We never put those partnerships together and we paid for it,” he said.
Chase said irrespective of the recent disappointments on the field, he wants to keep the team motivated.
”As a captain it is my job to motivate the team. Irrespective of whatever position we may be in or what happened in the last game, it’s my job and the coach’s job to motivate those players and give them the best chance, or give them that confidence that we still believe in them, because it’s still a team,” he said.
”At the end of the day, I can’t do it by myself. I can’t depend on the coach. It’s still me and those guys going out there. I would like trying to motivate those guys to give me a good performance,” Chase added.
