WEST INDIES NEWS
by ESPNcricinfo staff
May 6, 2012
Ernest
Hilaire, the West Indies Cricket Board CEO, has said selectors should focus on
selecting the 'best XI' for the West Indies team, one that was a strong
collective unit rather than just comprising 11 star players.
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| WICB CEO : DR ERNEST HILAIRE |
"For
a decade or so the selectors were guided by a process which had them arriving
at the eleven best players to take the field," Hilaire said, during the
Barbados Cricket Association Awards ceremony. "With the eleven best
players on the park our results went from bad to worse and yet worse still.
West
Indies have been without the services of Chris Gayle since the 2011 World Cup,
owing to his differences with the board, and Dwayne Bravo intermittently, due
to his Twenty20 commitments elsewhere.
"There
has been a paradigm shift. The emphasis is on selecting, not necessarily the
eleven best players but the 'best eleven'. It is not dissimilar to asking
whether we prefer a team of stars or a star team. They are decidedly different.
"The
best eleven may not include the most attractive players but is rather a
combination of players who, as a group, are more likely to bring positive
results and show a commitment to sustained development."
Hilaire
said the West Indies team has been steadily improving and is on the right path.
"Though the victories have not been tumbling in, there can be little doubt
that West Indies cricket is showing the signs of learning the first
characteristic of any successful enterprise - the determination to
succeed."
"We
have seen a greater commitment to fight to the very end, we have seen what was
once thumping three and four day defeats in Test cricket now turned into epic
final-day battles.
"This
new approach is not far off from producing the results we all yearn for. Change
does not happen overnight, it is a process, sometimes painful, always with
mistakes and mis-steps but once on the right path the results are certain.
"I
implore you to recognise that from the days when our team seemed conditioned to
losing we now have a team which is battling to win and believing that it can in
fact achieve victories."
Australia
toured West Indies recently and the hosts drew the ODI series but lost the
Tests 0-2. West Indies are now in England for a full tour.
SOURCE: http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/current/story/563938.html
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