Alvin Kallicharran belonged to a generation of West Indies cricketers who dominated world cricket. Every time the men from the Caribbean took the pitch, Kalicharran, like most of his contemporaries, pinned his hopes on the team.
However on Monday, as West Indies suffered a defeat against Scotland in its opening game of the T20 World Cup, Kallicharran didn’t hide his disappointment.
“I am disappointed like every cricket lover. You cannot be more disappointed than that. How are you going to attract sponsors (with such outings)? If I am an employer and you come and tell me that I want a raise in salary, will you give it to him just like that? You would want a result. Results will give you sponsors, better players and facilities. Results will give you better pay and we need to learn that,” Kalicharran said on Monday.
“That’s the way we start and we have to create our breed from that on how to be hungry to succeed. If you learn to be hungry, challenges will be less…”
In the city to launch the Omtex ICWC Cricket Institute’s 24/7 Hours Cricket programme, Kallicharran admits that West Indies has been in a transition phase for far too long. Referring to the time when Clive Lloyd, Michael Holding and Rohan Kanhai would rule cricket, West Indies found its future generation ready with Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose around, but ever since their retirement, things have gone downhill for the team with no one really holding fort.
““The West Indies of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s was a success story. No one ever expected for them to drop from the top to the absolute bottom, whenever a team. To replace players of the calibre of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Gordon Greenidge and all of us, when that team was put together we were all of the same age bracket, so we retired more or less at the same period. To replace such players, it is not easy, so it left a big vacuum..” ”Alvin Kallicharan
“Then, Courtney Walsh, Ambrose and Brian Lara came onto the scene and after that it was empty. In the future, we can only hope. Because when West Indies cricket is healthy, world cricket is healthy, and everybody wants to see a West Indian team. So, we are hoping, unfortunately, we have been hoping for too long. I hope somebody can show again that the West Indies as a team can be talked about as one of the best…”
The West Indies players, however, have fared well in franchise leagues. But Kallicharran believes that playing for the country should be the first priority. “You need to understand that it’s the country that produces you. The country produces the players and if you don’t look at that as an incentive, I don’t think we can really look and see,” the former captain said.
Speaking at the event, Kallicharan also threw light on the popular debate of Deepti Sharma running out Charlotte Dean during the India vs England ODI series.
The former West Indies cricketer said, “It’s all because players are finding ways to outbeat opponents. You are exploiting every avenue. We come from the old school, and that means I do not agree with this. But if it is happening now, then we don’t know where the game is going go to…”
However, running out a batter at the non-striker’s end by bowlers in their delivery stride if a batter is backing up, is no longer considered unfair play under the new set of laws announced by the MCC.
According to the new rules this act has been moved from Law 41 (unfair play) to Law 38 (run out).
Comments
SHARE