BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC) - A group of former West Indies cricketers have banded together and intend to put immense pressure on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in an effort to drive a significant improvement in the state of the game in the region.
Desmond Haynes, the former Barbados captain and West Indies opening batsman, has indicated that the group will make their voices heard on various issues affecting West Indies cricket.
“Cricket means a lot to all of us and we cannot have an ‘old boys’ club’ running cricket when we are not doing well,” Haynes said at a ceremony, where a bust of former Barbados captain and West Indies fast bowler, the late Malcolm Marshall, was unveiled at his alma mater.
“I believe that we, the ex-West Indies players, met in Grenada a few days ago, and we said that we are going to be the voice of West Indies cricket.
We are going to put the WICB under a lot of pressure because if we see them doing things that are hurting us, we are going to talk about it.”
Haynes charged that former outstanding West Indies players were denied access to the Shell Cricket Academy of the St George’s University in Grenada to help coach young players because they were uncertified.
“We learnt that people like Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Rev. Wes Hall and all of those guys who have done so well for our cricket to bring our cricket to where it has reached over the years, cannot go into the Academy and coach a young player how to bat because they do not have a coaching certificate,” Haynes said.
“How do you equate a coaching certificate to 116 Test matches and someone who has played the game in different arenas and has played it so well?
That’s what the WICB is telling us as former West Indies players who want to make a difference to West Indies cricket.”
Haynes played 116 Tests and 238 One-day Internationals between 1977 and 1994.