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  • 3 months ago
Former Cricket West Indies director Baldath Mahabir says the current administration has failed to take meaningful steps toward rebuilding the game in the Caribbean.

Mahabir's statement comes after calls in several pockets for the West Indies cricket team to be disbanded.

Vinod Narwani spoke to the administrator who shared his fiery opinion in part one of this two part piece.
Transcript
00:00There was a time when the world feared the West Indies cricket team.
00:06Under the astute leadership of Clive Lloyd,
00:08the Caribbean Giants won the inaugural ODI World Cup in 1975
00:12and retained the title in 1979.
00:14And it goes to this magnificent cricketer.
00:17They even made it to a third straight final in 1983
00:20but surrendered the trophy to Couple Dave's Indian team.
00:23The men in Maroon dominated Tusk cricket as well
00:26with Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner
00:30just to name a few bringing smiles to the faces of West Indian fans.
00:34But things started going downhill for the West Indies
00:37after a 2-1 Test Series loss at home to Australia in 1995.
00:41They have now become whipping boys
00:44which means the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy winners
00:47and the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cup champions are no longer respected by many.
00:54The West Indies have five ICC titles
00:57which is more than what Test Nations England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka possess
01:03with Bangladesh still on zero.
01:06But guess what?
01:07There are calls for the Caribbean islands to go their own separate ways.
01:11That's because the pain has become unbearable for fans in this part of the world
01:15following the team's dismal showing for three decades.
01:19One man who is clearly unhappy with the current state of West Indies cricket
01:23is former CWI director Baldat Mahabir.
01:26Despite the Patterson report, the Wilkins report, the Barito report, the Webby report
01:33nothing concrete has come out of those reports.
01:37So we can safely say that the West Indies cricket board will not self-correct.
01:42So if it will not self-correct, what is the other option or what are the other options?
01:48The other option is for the, one of the other options is for the territories to go separate ways,
01:54the 16 territories that form the West Indies cricket board.
01:58The West Indies failed to qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India
02:03and also missed out on the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy held in Pakistan and the UAE.
02:09They were also bowled out for 27 in the second innings of the day-night test
02:13against Australia in Jamaica earlier this year, making it a 3-0 sweep in favour of the men from down under.
02:19And the latest to that list was the ignominious 2-1 loss to Nepal in a bilateral T20 series in Georgia in September.
02:27Mahabir is fully aware that not all the islands are highly populated,
02:31which makes it difficult for them to form their own national team.
02:35Some of these islands, some of these countries will not be able to make it on its own.
02:40So there may be a room here for negotiation, something like winwards and leewards form their get-together and apply to ICC.
02:49And then the bigger islands, Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica and Ghana, which is not an island but a country.
02:57And they go their separate ways and climb up the ladder of ICC.
03:02Many have often asked the question, what's the reason for the downfall of West Indies cricket?
03:08The answers often given are substandard pitches, mediocre regional tournaments, players gravitating towards franchise cricket, etc.
03:17But there might be more to it.
03:20The board does not have the propensity for change, it has not shown the willingness to adapt.
03:24It has been using the same systems and the same structure that is clearly not going to take us anywhere forward in the future.
03:33Mahabir says it's extremely painful for him to watch the West Indies play cricket or even read articles about the men in Maroon.
03:41In a subsequent sportscast, Mahabir gives his views on what next should West Indies cricket be disbanded.
03:48There are no alternatives to export.
03:51Probably some gloves as well.
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