ADAMS – A GOOD MAN HEADING INTO A BAD SITUATION
WESTERN BUREAU: have the ultimate respect for Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies captain, and under normal circumstances, I would be elated that he has been asked to take on the very important role of director of West Indies cricket.
However, while I consider Adams the ultimate professional and think his credentials are very sound, I fear that based on the less than complementary state of the West Indies board, with the best of intentions, he might well be setting himself up for failure.
As I have said repeatedly in this column, I have absolutely no respect for the Dave Cameron-led administration because, in my opinion, it has done severe damage to the enviable brand.
As a region, we are still blessed with very good talent that could take us places, albeit not on the same scale as in the glorious days when the team was led by the likes of legendary Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards.
The fact that despite our inept leadership we still can boast of having the senior men’s, Under-19 and women’s Twenty20 World Cup titles, at the same time, must be an indication that we have good raw material that, given the right leadership, could take us right back to the top.
Unfortunately, like renowned sports psychologist Dr Rudi Webster, who has been in and around West Indies cricket for a very long time, I believe Cameron should pack his bags and follow outgoing cricket director Richard Pybus, who has decided against renewing his contract.
In my more than 40 years of watching and falling in love with West Indies cricket, I have seen presidents ranging from very good to ordinary. Like Dr Webster, I believe that Cameron is the worst of the lot, and by a very long way too.
I have never seen a president who looked so unprepared for the job in terms of his human-relationship skills and petty antics, such as the retweeting of an unkind comment about Christopher Gayle.
In f act, I doubt t here was ever a president before Cameron who a current player would publicly label a ‘big idiot’.
IIt would appear that some of our most respected leaders in CARICOM, and even some of our great players of the past, would probably endorse Darren Bravo’s opinion of Cameron, if a little more diplomatically.
I am worried that being the consummate professional he is, Adams, who recently distinguished himself as the director of cricket at English county team Kent, could well be walking into a very bad situation with this West Indies board.
So like many other cricket fans across the Caribbean, I am begging Cameron to put West Indies cricket before himself and step aside for the good of the game.
I am sure there are other former West Indies greats who would like to give back to the region’s cricket but would see it as a waste of time under Cameron’s leadership.