By Orin Gordon
I FEAR that the dispiriting experience of captaining a side that consistently loses matches will break Nicholas Pooran, the young captain of the West Indies short-form cricket teams. Let’s leave aside WI’s ODI record, which is a special kind of awful. Pooran has won four and lost 10 T20 matches since becoming captain.

His side hit the bottom in their panic-stricken capitulation to Scotland, and got hammered off the park by Ireland – two noted powerhouses of global cricket. From T20 world cup winners in 2016 to not even qualifying for the tournament in 2022. That’s a big fall. And it stings.

The joy and shotmaking spontaneity seem to have left Pooran’s cricket. His highest score in his last 12 T20 International innings was 18. He averaged a shade above 10 runs per innings in that time. It feels at the moment as if the job is consuming him. I can accurately pre-script what the young skipper will say after every post-match interview. The bowlers came to the party but the batters didn’t. It’s the regular offering.

Let’s be clear about what Pooran is; a fabulous 20-overs talent. You need to see him batting live rather than on TV. His six-hitting timing is special. Sunrisers Hyderabad of the Indian Premier League paid him more than US$ 1.2 million last year for a reason.

West Indies white ball sides need to break the cycle of losing, for his sake and ours. If you’re reading this hoping to see suggested fixes, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’ll leave it to the cricket experts to weigh in on that. What I will say is that if accountability is working as it should, coach Phil Simmons and his staff should offer their resignations today.

I’ve taken part in social media discussions with cricket-savvy people who pointed out – correctly – that the problems with West Indies cricket are deeper-seated and longer running than any individual coach can fix. He can’t go out there and bat for the batters, the argument goes. He can’t do anything about a batter swiping across the line of a straight ball on the stumps, and missing.

That’s a weak argument, whether one is talking about a struggling manager/head coach in English Premier League Football, or the head coach in West Indies cricket. That’s not how accountability works. Someone has to take responsibility for success, failure, under-preparation or incompetence. And in competitive team sport, the buck stops with the team management, of which the head coach is at the apex. Simmons ought not to survive two world cup disasters in two years. He should take a page out of Liz Truss’ book.

And let’s not minimise preparation disruptions such as Shimron Hetmyer’s last-minute drama in not being able to get to the airport for a flight out of Guyana that he had asked to be rescheduled. Hetmyer was a key piece in the T20 team. He had made the highest individual score – 81 not out against Sri Lanka – in the World Cup in the Middle East the previous year.

His continued self-absorption was too much for Cricket West Indies on this occasion, and he was correctly removed from the team. Hetty, 26, on December 26, acts like 25 going on 17. He needs to grow up, and get his head in the game. His average scores do not suggest it (yet?), but he is a prodigious talent… six-hitting allied with the ability to see the ball early, and work it around. And despite his excessive poundage, he’s a pretty smart runner between the wickets and mover in the outfield. His road back looks a long one, but he’s got time on his side.

No so, players like Evin Lewis, who looked a shadow of the dominating batter we know he could be. Kyle Mayers and Pooran picked a bad time to lose form. Shemarh Brooks – the replacement for the sacked Hetmyer – barely had time to unpack his suitcase before being thrust into serious competition.

Our cricket is suffused with poor quality. In execution, and in preparation. And increasingly, that poor quality is being vocalised in the commentary box. One of the West Indians calling the play at the world cup does not know the difference between “incredible” and “incredulous”, and confuses effort with “desperation”. He says “phenomenal” a lot. Try this… have a shot of your favourite tipple every time he says “phenomenal”. You’ll be flat on your back in two hours.

And he doesn’t seem to understand the value of silences on television, prattling on and on. One time a batter got hit, and was being attended to on the field by the medical staff. “He’s grimacing”, our commentator helpfully announced. We can see that, Sherlock Holmes.

It’s all frustrating to watch and to listen to, for more reasons than one. Live action broadcasting is hard, and one hesitates to biff a fellow pro. But if a batter should have the self-awareness to go in the nets or seek the advice of an old pro, an ex-player – even an accomplished one – should seek out an old broadcast pro to help to sharpen his game.

Broadcasting is a totally different ballgame. On the field or in the booth, you don’t simply turn up and expect to perform at a high level. You practise, you prepare, and you respect the craft and the conditions. Caribbean fans need to see and hear an all-round injection of quality.

The author is a media consultant, at oringordon.com

This column was submitted before Phil Simmons announced late yesterday that he’s stepping down as West Indies coach