xtratime Logo

[caption id="attachment_19869" align="alignnone" width="580"] Former West Indies legend and now the Team Operations Manager Joel Garner with Rostin Chase. Image Source: Xtra Time[/caption] Debasis Sen, Gros Islet: Former West Indies legend and presently the Team Operations Manager, Joel Garner is a big admirer of Virat Kohli's captaincy. According to the Big Bird, the present cricketers should emulate Kohli as to how he carries his game. The 6 ft 8 inches tall burly fast bowler used to cause chill down the spine against rival batsman with his deadly bouncers and toe crushing yorkers which hit the base of the stumps before the batsman could react. The big maan has seen it all- from being an intergral part of the famous pace quartet (Holding,Roberts and Croft) that ruled world cricket, to holding the post of President of Barbados Cricket Association , director on the board of WICB and now overseeing the current generation of West Indies cricketers. He has also served in several roles to promote cricket in the Caribbean at events such as the World Travel Market. In an exclusive interview to Xtra Time at the dug out of Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Big Bird opens up on contemporary issues like the proposed two-tier system of ICC, conflict between the senior cricketers and WICB, decline in the standards of West Indies cricket to Virat Kohli . Here are the excerpts: Tell us about your new role as cricket operations manager Well my job is cricket centric to be specific. When times come I will do what I can to improve the performance of the players There is a steep decline in the standards of test cricket by West Indies. What according to you has been the main reason? I think that the issue is we do not play enough cricket as a group and if you look at the average age , this current West Indies team is about 23-24 years of age. It is a young team with not a lot of first class experience that is rare. The more cricket you play the better you come at it and then the more experience you gain. We are in a building stage. We expect there will be challenges. The only thing is you can get better if you work hard. I think part of the problem is no I should say part of the challenge is we do not play enough 4 day cricket. We play 10 days a year, in between we play some one day cricket . But the whole thing is that we have to play a lot more 4 day cricket which will help us to concentrate to be competitive. I think that’s what the problem we are facing in recent times is. What’s your take on ICC’s proposed two tier test system. I don’t see how it could help test cricket. If cricket is to improve you need to spend money to develop cricket at the grass roots level in all the territories that play the game. We have a challenge where we do not have the financers to spend in all these territories to improve the cricket. It has to come from somebody but I don’t know where it is coming from but the two tier system, I don’t think it is good for cricket. Do you think too much of T20 cricket all over is also taking away the charm of test cricket? T20 cricket is a money making affair and entertainment. That is all it is and that is it. It is encouraging to get into the T20 squad than to play the longer version of cricket which is to me much harder, much more difficult. But that is the choice of the players, not my choice. Having seen Kohli in this series so far, what is your analysis about him? I don’t know. For me I don’t want to say too much. But I am a great admirer about how he carries his game and I admire his captaincy. For me that is something that the other players would want to emulate and it is good for cricket. But the pace at which he is going, can he go on to break all records in the future. I don’t know.  Nobody can say about the future. Only time will tell. And if you are to compare the current generation of cricketers- the likes of Joe Root, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli …… Stopping the question – No, I don’t make comparison of cricketers. I don’t get involved in that sort of practice. The current team would have looked a lot better if seniors like Gayle, Bravo, Smith would have played. What are your views on the player- board differences? Is it hurting West Indies cricket? I think those fellows have made a choice of what kind of cricket they want to play and that is it. I wouldn’t get involved in that part of it and that is their choice. They do what they think is the best for themselves. The wickets in the Caribbean have become slow and low. How big a role has it played in the decline of West Indies cricket? I think the quality of the wickets could be improved. I think we need to play on a proper wicket favouring both the batsman and bowlers. When you look at our regional wicket they are usually low and slow. I think when we go away we find that we get wickets with a lot more bounce. The wicket in Jamaica was fast wicket with grass on it and this wicket looks to be similar. I think we have to start our first class level to prepare wickets that are proper cricket wickets- I mean if you bat well you score runs and similarly if you bend your back you get wickets. Tell us something about the golden era of West Indies cricket and now when you see the current players struggling , how do you feel? Well that’s been documented and for everybody to see. I need to go over it . I don’t need to say more about it. Those were good times but this is a different time and a different era. They are different players all that together. We all played county cricket and international cricket for whole year around. This is a young group who plays around 80 days of cricket in a year. It must be heartening for you to see the West Indies fight back to save the test match at Sabina Park. I think the game was a good game. We played the game we are supposed to. I think on the first day we made some mistakes. But our boys quickly rectified the mistakes and what we actually did was try to pull back the game. I think India were scoring too freely, work a bit harder for their runs. And the boys showed character on the last of the test match. How do you look at the future of test cricket with not many crowds coming in to support their team? I always feel test cricket is here to stay. What we have to do is sell the cricket. I mean we have to do a better job in selling the cricket to patrons and the people.