(REUTERS) – Coach Ottis Gibson bluntly exposed a decade of under-achievement in West Indies’ cricket with his suggestion that it is now time for the winds of change to blow through the Caribbean.
West Indies, who have not beaten a Test nation apart from Bangladesh since June 2009, never once looked like ending that sorry record in their World Cup quarter-final against Pakistan on Wednesday.
Apart from winning the toss, West Indies captain Darren Sammy and his team did nothing right during the course of a dismal 10-wicket defeat.
West Indies problem is not a lack of talent. It is, instead, a shortage of the drive and passion which propelled Caribbean cricket to two World Cup titles in the 1970s and to the top of the Test arena in the 1980s.
“There is an abundance of talent but, sadly, also a paucity of thought and mental strength,” former captain Viv Richards wrote in the Times of India yesterday.
“I don’t want to criticise anybody but there are many talented batsmen in the side and they don’t seem to be thinking about their game plan.”
Gibson, a former West Indies international who also had a spell as the England bowling coach, did not pull his punches.
“Our senior players have not performed and I am not especially happy with them,” he said.
“Our main batsmen haven’t performed consistently. We need some senior guys who have the hunger and the desire. We need to look at someone like Sachin Tendulkar who is the senior statesman of the Indian team, and goes out and gets runs almost every time.”

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE
Like Richards, Gibson did not name names but a glance at the scoreboard in West Indies’ miserable 112 all out from 43.3 overs told its own story.
Chris Gayle hit two boundaries and departed attempting a third and Ramnaresh Sarwan scored a painful 24 off 68 balls. Darren Bravo, a relative newcomer who has been rashly compared in some quarters with Brian Lara, failed to score.
“West Indies cricket for the last 10 years has been pretty much the same and we’ve had the same players,” Gibson said.
“I think this tournament there have been an emergence of quite good young players and those young players will build our future. We are looking forward.”
Gibson hinted that change might come quickly ahead of a one-day series against Pakistan next month.
“There’s only so much we can do in the nets to build confidence,” he said. “We practised hard, the way we practised through the whole tournament.
“There is not much time until the Pakistan series and there are serious decisions to be made, decisions about players, in that time.
“This tournament has seen the emergence of some young players and those are the players that we will build our future on.”
“It’s not going to happen just with youngsters. We have to balance between the young guys being able to rely on the senior guys and the senior guys mentoring the young guys.”