Dear Editor,

WE have watched with consternation and despair, the performance of the West Indies cricket team during the first Test match against India in Antigua, which ended on Sunday 24 July, 2016 with the West Indies team being defeated by an inning and 92 runs. Without reservations, I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the administrators of West Indies cricket, although a few players are not without blame. Having actively served as an administrator of cricket in Berbice, Guyana, from 1964 to 1983, I prefer to focus my attention on the administrators rather than the players.
For a cricketer to succeed, especially at the highest level of the game, he/she must have a solid foundation. The cricketer must be grounded in the rules and procedures of the game, but more especially he must be able to perform and produce with credit, under different conditions. That foundation must be dominated by discipline, fitness, a fighting spirit, a will to win and tremendous powers of concentration.
It is the responsibility of the coaches, but more particularly that of the administration to ensure that this foundation is laid. If we are preparing for First Class cricket and Test cricket, our cricketers must be able to occupy the crease and score 100s instead of 50s and our bowlers must be productive.
Young batsmen must be fit, learn to occupy the crease, improve their skills, technique and talent, gain confidence, form and readiness while being productive. The bowlers must be taught to bowl length and line with variations in pace, length and line, swing, spin, bounce and turn. The fast bowler must be taught to bowl long opening spells, especially after taking early wickets. Further, opening bowlers must be ready to take the new ball to bowl that final spell of the day.
The chasm between the West Indies Regional Four-Day competition and the Test level is wide and deep, too wide to jump across and too deep to climb out of. If our players are to survive and succeed, the administrators will have to build bridges of opportunity.
The Guyana Cricket Board has removed these bridges by not playing the Three-Day First-Division cricket competition which they discontinued in 2010 — a competition which was started before the 1920s — and the Four-Day Inter-County competition which they discontinued in 2015 after it had been played since 1954. It is significant to note that all of our 50 Test cricketers came up through the Three-Day, First- Division system and only 12 of our earliest Test cricketers did not come up through the Four-Day Inter-County system. The need to invest in and give exposure to our young cricketers cannot be over-emphasised.
The Three-Day First-Division and the Four- Day Inter-County competitions must be reinstated, if our administrators are to have any thought of producing First-Class cricketers and Test cricketers of quality. The investment must be made. How can we expect our Under-19 cricketers to move from that level to the Four-Day Regional level without a bridge? How can we expect our first-class cricketers to move from the regional level to the Test level without the foundation? Where are our cricket academies?
In India, the finals of the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Cup are played over five days. In Australia, the Sheffield Shield finals is also competed for over five days. Why would these countries be doing this? The obvious answer is that they are preparing their first- class cricketers for five-day Test cricket. The fact that these two countries are the best at the Test cricket level and continue to produce the best cricketers in the world should come as no surprise.
The fact that our West Indies team has been performing so poorly exemplifies the conclusion that our administrators have not been performing, hence the decline in the performance and standard of our West Indies Test team. It is past time for the administrators to consider what they can do for the sport rather than what they can gain from it.

Yours faithfully,
MORTIMER GEORGE
Former Honorary Secretary Berbice Cricket Board
1987 Life Member. 2014 Inductee BCB Administrators Hall of Fame