Talent alone is not enough
By: PETER O CONNOR (T&T Newsday)
Sunday, November 19 2006
Seventeen years ago today, Trinidad and Tobago woke up to the dawn of Red Day, in anticipation of booking our place in Italia ’90.
Although we lost on the field that day, it remains a special date in our history and in our memories. Today we have the opportunity to re-live those memories without having to deal with the trauma of the result.
The past week has not given us any joy in sport to sweep aside the painful but proud memories of the Strike Squad and November 19th.
Pakistan’s comfortable Test victory over the West Indies, with a full day to spare, showed again how unstable we are. Flush from finishing second (although the Final exposed our lack of character) in the ICC Champions Trophy, we spoke bravely of “Turning the Corner” — again?
We were confident going to Pakistan, gaining false security from the fact that two of their best bowlers were ineligible to play against us.
But, once again our confidence was misplaced, and yet once again we realised that we had not “turned any corner” and that, at best, our cricket was a roller-coaster ride, soaring today and plummeting tomorrow.
In a very real sense, this is worse than if we were consistently bad. If we were lacking in talent, but committed to improvement, we could look forward one day to turning that elusive corner.
Our tragedy lies in the fact that we are brilliant and exciting sometimes. But then we fail so pathetically — other times. Do we lose our skill, or do we lose our heads, when we collapse?
The answer is clear to all of us and is epitomised in that unfortunate mascot we have created for the Cricket World Cup next year.
“Mello” is cool, laid back, indifferent, and committed to nothing. To win the World Cup, indeed to win at any serious sport, we need to become hard, serious, focused and committed to the task at hand.
There is a huge gap to be bridged, and it has nothing to do with our talent, except to recognise that talent alone is never enough.
Our talent and flamboyance carried us through the late 1970s and ’80s. Then the Australians, followed by others with less talent than ourselves, began to analyse us, and identify our weaknesses.
We just kept coasting along, slowly losing our supremacy through the ’90s, until we now founder around, searching for the “corner” which will take us back to greatness.
We are now watching the twilight years of the last Great Cricketer the Windies has produced — Brian Lara. He arrived on the scene around 1990. Sixteen years later the West Indies have not produced another Great Cricketer.
I started to support West Indies cricket in 1950, with the Windies first tour win in England.
We had “Greats” in the Three Ws, and Ramadhin and Valentine. In the ’50s I saw the emergence of Sobers, Kanhai, and Gibbs, followed by Conrad Hunte, Seymour Nurse, Hall and Griffith in the 1960s.
Through the ’70s and ’80s we saw Haynes and Greenidge, Viv and Ritchie, Derek Murray and Dujon, Mr Clive Lloyd, and of course that constant stream of super pace bowlers — Roberts, Holding, Garner, Croft, Marshall, Ambrose, and Walsh.
In the 1990s, and early ’90s at that, we saw Brian Lara, and that was the end. For five decades, from the ’40s through the ’80s, we produced several of the world’s best cricketers of their era.
Today, only Lara can be considered among the world’s best, and not for long.
Yes, I know we are quick to acclaim some new “Great” on the basis of five wickets or a century, but these people cannot sustain their performances, and will never be great.
But how can we expect greatness from young athletes who come from a society which is laid back, non-competitive, and which still views sport as “fun,” but still wants us to win against serious competitors?
When their talent is not matched by commitment or character, we must recognise that they come from where we come, and there is no example set for them to rise beyond their natural talent.
Clearly, our mission is to find the formula to instill character, commitment and pride in our athletes, and who knows, we may eventually see these virtues instilled in ourselves and our leaders.
And following on the disappointment of the cricket, we had to endure a 1-4 football loss to Austria on Wednesday.
Coach Rijsenbergen spoke of the lack of character in our performance. I thought that barring three major defence blunders — the first three goals — we did not look as bad as the score suggests. A relatively untested back four, missing Avery John, Brent Sancho and the versatile Silvio Spann, seemed to be our problem. I have certainly not lost heart. We now move on to work more with our locally-based players, as the overseas pros will not be available for the CFU Digicel Cup which we host in January. They will be used in the CONCACAF Gold Cup next July, so Wim has to do some juggling and blending over the next few months, and I am sure this will be for our long-term benefit.
My ongoing hope is that we are able to organise some meaningful competition for all of our teams before they have to compete in their respective competitions.
We read with disappointment of the late departure of our Lady Warriors, and the fact that they will have no acclimatisation and training time before they play qualifiers against really prepared teams.
This disappointment comes as a result of no funding, and regrettably, we are going to see many more disappointments, as our football benefactor, Jack Warner, has announced that he will no longer be funding our football.
We wait to see who, if anyone, will pick up Jack’s burden.
But, for today, get down to the Hasely Crawford Stadium, to relive the memory, but not the pain, of a campaign that made us all so proud.
Go out today and enjoy the Strike Squad in all their glory.