Two-tier Test system will breed elitism, says ‘Big Bird’
EQUALITY Ex-Windies paceman feels equal distribution of wealth is needed if cricket is to prosper
ST LUCIA: Even 29 years after his retirement, cricket circles talk about the menacing fast bowler that Joel Garner was. One walked up to him with some apprehension at the West Indies training session on Monday and sought an interview, but he readily agreed. In a chat with HT, Garner discussed what ails West Indies cricket, spoke against former players for merely criticising and not doing anything about it and said a two-tier Test system could lead to elitism.
The ‘Big Bird’ though broke into a grin when asked to choose the best batsman and fast bowler ever. “Boy, you put me in a difficult situation. In my time there were so many great players. For me, it’s going to cause a lot of discussion. (Malcolm) Marshall was my pick among bowlers. Viv Richards was the best batsman. In my team those were the best,” said Garner, who is now the West Indies manager. Excerpts: How long will it take for West Indies to return to the top? You will get the results only when you are prepared to put the work in. It’s a young team but the coaches are working to make the fellows more professional. I don’t think we play enough cricket in a year to be where we want to be. This is the first or second year when we are playing 10 first-class games. But are they enough to produce cricketers? I don’t think so. Hardly anyone plays county cricket now. Is that a reason too? That is where we became professionals. The workload is different. Everything about county cricket is different. We played 22 or 24 games a year, and one-day cricket, whether that’s 40-over, 50-over or 55-over. There used to be five intense months of cricket. These days I don’t think anyone plays county cricket. Do you agree money has taken precedence over playing for pride? I am not going to get into that. If you get a million dollars for six weeks’ work, are you going to work for a year for a million? It’s a question of common sense. First you have to love the game. If you are doing it for money, then I don’t think it is the real reason why you will play. The money’s good? Yeah. At the end of the day, did you enjoy the game? Do you think you made a contribution? Those are questions those who play the shorter version will have to answer for themselves. Do you think CPL can help players get better at Tests? I don’t think so. Test cricket is the ultimate. However you look at it, it’s a case of skill. CPL, yes, you go and play for hour-and-a-half maybe? Yes, you entertain the crowd, but what is there? What have you done or achieved? I think it’s a money-making affair. What do you make of this Indian team? It seems fairly well-organised. I have been away from the international cricket scene for a little while. I spent most of my time looking after local cricket at Barbados. Your team seems to be young, a team for the future. How much did it hurt to lose the 1983 World Cup final to India? It wasn’t difficult. We lost because we played bad cricket. You win some or you lose some. Life is full of good and bad, happiness and sadness, challenges, ups and downs. We played bad cricket on that day. Actually we played bad cricket in two games. In two matches we lost to India, if you remember. All I think was that it was overconfidence. Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman are taking big decisions like who to appoint as coach. Dravid is India A coach. Isn’t it possible for the golden generation of West Indies players to do such things? The first question you got to ask is how many players of the 80s are involved with cricket, directly in the local associations. Everybody’s just being critical and wants to talk. If you look at it maybe I’m the only one from my generation who is still actively involved. I could have pursued a career in journalism, TV or whatever. But I am still involved with cricket in Barbados. To each his own, people pursue the goals they want. As for me, my joy is in watching the juniors, and developing cricketers at the local level. Why don’t we see as many athletes in cricket nowadays? We don’t do a good job selling cricket to the youngsters. You will see all the youngsters are competitive up to under-19. After that they fall away. We have to show them that cricket is a game you enjoy, and it builds character, and gives you a future. You think West Indies have enough coaches at the grassroots level? That brings me to another point. You build the places to play cricket but any day you look at it, you examine what is spent on cricket at junior level. My budget in Barbados is maybe 6.5 million dollars. If you put all the other islands together, I don’t think their budgets can add up to that. We are lucky with the support we have had. But when you go to other places, it’s non-existent. What is your take on the proposed two-tier Test system? It will be a mistake. Cricket is supposed to be a global sport. The two-tier system is going to breed elitism. I don’t think you need that in cricket. If they want to improve cricket they have to see how to fund programmes worldwide as Fifa has done with football. If you have equitable distribution of wealth across the table then we can improve. We don’t want money to be spent on frivolous programmes. We want to spend on programmes that develop youngsters to bring them up to a level that will make world cricket very strong. Then you will not need a two-tier system. There will be all the best teams in the world competing against each other. If the competition is strong, people will come back.
The first question you got to ask is how many players of the 80s are involved with cricket, directly in the local associations. Everybody’s just being critical and wants to talk GARNER, criticises former players