Beginning the assessment of the WI decline – Part II

LAST WEEK we begged the question, ‘Is West Indies cricket in decline an adequate explanation of the relative performances of the West Indies teams over the past two-plus decades?’

And we came to conclusion that ‘constructive analysis was needed as to why West Indies performances in recent ICC tournaments were not in sync with its strong performances in tour matches, even against more highly ranked teams such as England and South Africa.’

As such, we looked at the physical, emotional-mental, knowledge, and economic spaces that cricket is played in, getting as far as the physical. Today we will complete looking at these spaces, beginning with the emotional-mental.

The well-known Australian practice of ‘sledging’ is not done simply because of crudeness, but because of their understanding that cricket is also played in the emotional-mental space. Recently Kraigg Brathwaite expressed: “… it’s important from now to mentally prepare”.

Emotional-mental

1. So what are the preparations that should be done by contemporary WI teams, particularly given the constant comparison of them to our teams of that unique era of WI invincibility in international cricket? How could such comparison be done in a way that is actually beneficial?

2. What are the skills and orientation that coaches, administrators and commentators should possess to facilitate this preparation? This is particularly important when the team is hurting (e.g. Shai Hope, June 27: “I’m sure that the pain is even more severe here in the dressing room”). Yet although Daren Sammy has a reputation of being a ‘motivator’, the Jamaica Observer’s editorial of July 1, 2023 stated “As Mr Sammy correctly said, his charges were the “worst fielding team” on show”. Are such public expressions necessary and positively effective? Even if his assessment was supported by proper data analysis, the focus should be on how best to use this assessment to benefit team performance, and WI cricket.

There are various sources of information on a given player’s strengths and weaknesses including videos, performance statistics, and commentaries. The team’s data analyst can use this information to obtain knowledge on WI players and those of the opposition. This knowledge can then be transferred to the players either directly or indirectly.

Knowledge

1. Whether the attempted knowledge transfer is successful is partly determined by the given player’s learning style and also whether an appropriate knowledge transfer technique is used.

2. Assuming that the knowledge transfer is successful, whether the new knowledge is used by the player is partly determined by:

• The player’s individual decision-making style such as whether they typically use new knowledge or typically operate from ‘gut feelings’;

• The approach used by the player to recall knowledge while on the field. Thus earlier this year a bowler from an opposing team reported that he recorded on a sheet of paper the weaknesses of WI player Brandon King that he had the skills to take advantage of. He knew that he might not remember while on the field, so he took out the sheet from his pocket then used that knowledge to dismiss King.

Economic

1. Even with the best intentions and wisdom, decisions made by administrative bodies will be limited by the availability of relevant economic and other resources. So decisions that appear to be unwise at the surface level though they could be caused by deficiencies in decision-making, they may also be reflecting real resource constraints.

2. The majority of WI players do not come from economically privileged backgrounds, and international cricket has long ceased to be an amateur sport. So it is not unreasonable that those WI players who get selected to play in lucrative T20 leagues would do so, even if that means not playing for WI in some series. By now it should be clear that some players use the ‘personal reasons’ option to make themselves unavailable for WI selection not simply because they are offended by an administrator, but because of perceived self-interest. Yet these players would not have come to the attention of these T20 leagues were it not for the WI cricket system. So this is a difficult issue for which different CWI administrations have tried different approaches but without success. This issue appears to require mature, creative, and collaborative analysis.

The era of WI invincibility was significantly uplifting for the peoples of the region, including the diaspora. It lasted so long that it was taken for a given. It would have been helpful if there were thorough studies that identified the generators of that success, but even if there were such studies it is almost impossible that the identified knowledge could be kept away from other cricketing countries, particularly those with strong economies. Even WI players of that era taking up contracts to play in such countries provided the means for the transfer of their knowledge, including via observations, mentoring, social interactions and conversations.

To solve a problem, it is necessary to first correctly identify its elements, after which there can be the design of appropriate means to effectively address these elements.

Since the end of the era of WI invincibility, the offered solutions have typically been based on truncated perspectives such as the problem simply involves governance, or some administrator, etc. The current situation demands more comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of the problem, and from that, the design of appropriate implementable, feasible and sustainable solutions.

- Sport Pulse and Sport Matters are fortnightly columns highlighting advances that impact Sport. We look forward to your continued readership.Professor Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson is Professor Emeritus of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. He was also a Visiting Professor of Computing at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.