Call for the West Indies cricket bosses to resign

Calls for en masse resignation of the West Indies cricket officials have started as the team, comprising players "unwilling or unable to meet the exacting demands of international sport", is virtually out of the World Cup.

After a promising start to the World Cup, the West Indies have lost four of their five second-round matches and are virtually out of contention for the semi-finals. They still have to play two matches, but even two wins can't take them to the semi-finals, unless the other results favour them.

The Trinidad Express, the country's leading mass circulation tabloid, has led the way in calling for resignation of top West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) officials as well as captain Brian Lara.

"All the evidence points to players who have either been unwilling or unable to meet the exacting demands of international sport in the modern era with both local and foreign commentators confessing bewilderment, if not astonishment, at the lack of intensity in the team's training sessions, to say nothing of the players' inability to lift their game even as it was apparent to spectators that the Super Eight matches were drifting away or, indeed, hurtling out of their grasp," it wrote in a hard-hitting editorial.

The paper said there were no excuses for the flop show.

"No excuses can be made by the managers of West Indies cricket for the team's all but impending exit from cricket World Cup of which we happen to be the host. The West Indies were totally outplayed by Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and South Africa," it wrote.

"The margins of those defeats were bad enough but what was even worse was the almost total absence of any kind of fighting spirit, both the supposedly lowly Bangladesh and Ireland showing us up in that regard."

The newspaper said that it was time to start afresh for a nation that won the World Cup in 1975 and 1979.

"The only solution, therefore, is to close the book and open a new chapter by urging the resignations of the entire WICB, now led by Ken Gordon, Brian Lara as captain, Clive Lloyd as coordinator and last, (but) by no means least, coach Bennett King and his two Australian assistants," it said.

West Indies won all their three Group D matches to advance to Super Eight, or the second round.

The other teams that are leading in the Super Eight stage must lose the rest of their games for West Indies to qualify for the semi-finals.

The semi-finals will be played April 24 and 25, while the final is slated for April 28 at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

(IANS)

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