Here is an interview from Trinidad courtesy of interviewer BC Pires with Bryan Davis, former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies batsman and current cricket administrator at the Queen's Park Cricket Club, on what has been, so far, a disappointing Cricket World Cup.
By BC PiresQ: Which of last week's three defeats was the worst?
A: Any defeat is very, very depressing. I really can't say one is worse than another, unless you say Australia is rated as a top-class team and New Zealand has just beat them [before the World Cup] in three matches straight, so Sri Lanka would be the worst defeat because they are closer to us on the table. But they're all awful.
Q: Against Sri Lanka, we didn't even look like the match was important?
This is something that baffles me. I always talk about leaders motivating their charges but I would have believed that getting to the World Cup alone, the individual would be super-motivated! Nobody has to tell me, ":Boy, you're in the World Cup now, go out and play your hardest!"
You have a billion people all over the world looking at you! Well, I had to look for some other theories and I felt that [West Indies selector] Andy Roberts statement [that he was unhappy with a bowler being substituted by a batter] was so poorly timed. That really shocked me. What surprised me more was Brian's reply:
He wasn't there at the original selection team to pick 15. Apart from why you weren't there, you should bring that out now? It sounded like, "I don't really agree with this 15, you know". And this was between the New Zealand and Sri Lanka matches! I'm a player on that side: I've already lost confidence because I've lost two matches in a row and then I hear (my captain) Lara didn't want that side at all! Why can't these people, Roberts especially, just shut up? The team is picked, leave it there. Whoever is picking the team-up to now no one has said who selected the final 11 for the game-but I know that the coach could prepare the team as much as he want but, I, as captain, when we go on the field, I decide when you bat, where you field, when you bowl. So to say Lara is blameless can't be right. Even if Simmons comes in, he can't be batting at eight!
Q: Any basis for the suggestion he should resign?
I don't normally express sympathetic feelings but [laughs dryly] if there was a time I felt sorry for anybody [chuckles], this is the time! But I don't see the need to resign. I believed Brian should resign [after it] whether he had won the World Cup or not. Lara has reached close to his retirement age, somebody else ought to be captain.
Q: Are we out of the World Cup?
I've read Brian has said he's the eternal optimist and you must be that way in sport, or there's no point playing. But the reversal required, I can't see it happening. When you lose matches like this, your confidence takes a beating I don't think you can recover from, to lift your spirits to beat teams like South Africa, England and Bangladesh. I'm not saying it can't be done; but even if they win the three games, they have to depend on somebody to beat somebody else.
Out of the six games, you had to win four and we lost that opportunity. They have nine days until the next match; how they utilise that time will be very important. Trying to [chuckles] develop skills at this stage is out of the question. Now it's a straight case of lifting yourself mentally. They have to do things that will assist these boys in feeling good about themselves.
In my youth, in a period of low scores, Jeffrey Stollmeyer told me, "Go out into the nets and get the bowlers to bowl you half-volleys. Bat for half-hour, drive to your heart's content!" I did that and made a hundred against Police the next day. After driving these half-volleys for half-hour, and although I asked them to bowl me them, I started believing I could bat again. And that's the point. I felt so good, so confident.
The West Indies team needs something like that. I would say, play a match or two against some weaker opposition, an island or club team. Running between the wickets, not the nets, playing against their own bowlers, who trying to bowl them down. [Laughing] Don't ask me what will happen if they lose the match though.
Q: Would the three-day home break they took last week help?
Psychologists would be in a better position to answer but I, as a former professional, don't think it's wise. I don't think the boys should separate. They should be together but do fun things: a boat trip.
Q: India and Pakistan are out, Bob Woolmer's death, if WI get knocked out, this will be the worst World Cup so far?
I would go along with that. What they've said before doesn't seem to be happening. They talked about tickets being sold out. I was telling someone in the LOC here, "You're not going to get anyone at the preliminary matches here". And he, who is not involved in cricket, said, " No, people will be storming the box offices to get in!"I thought, "This is amazing!" First they said it was a West Indian thing, we don't buy tickets until the last moment.
Then they said it was the Indian diaspora who would come and suddenly buy all these tickets. Why would the Indian who loves his cricket come for the preliminary round, six weeks to the final, when he expects his team to be in the Super Eights? The West Indian was not thought of at all. I thought we were treated really badly. No one did any research on our culture.
We grew up in the atmosphere that it was always a picnic or party, from the Schoolboy's Mound to the Party Stand. It's not so much the passion for the sport but the passion for life! People mistook that passion for life for such a deep love of the game that they believed that if Bangladesh came here to play Sri Lanka, everybody coming in the Oval to see that. No! People coming to see the West Indies! And they not coming if you tell them they can't bring their cooler and their nice, cold Carib beer! And they not coming if they don't have their little drum or conch shell, because we're a noisy people! Every little stupidness, they ban! Trumpets, horns, all sorts of things.
Q: Did the LOCs see themselves as ICC implementers?
I don't know what their responsibilities and duties were, if they were carrying out orders or initiators. The security need I understand but the way it was done was overkill for our country. Mumbai has 14M people. Even if people object to what you've done, you'll still get 60,000 people in the ground! But if you upset us here, with 1.3M, all these problems, you can't get to the ground, you can't carry your beers, you can't lime, you paying TT$42 for a roti, I say, "BC, I having a lime home by me".
We have our beers and lime at the proper prices and we have the atmosphere at home. And that is what Trinidadians did. Rather than come here and you can't even talk loud. No fatigue? Our crowd feel they know more cricket than the actual cricketers and they shout advice all day long! I've been there, I'm telling you. [Laughs] They tell the captain what bowlers to put on and take off! And they have big arguments, and laugh, and drink their beer. This was cut out completely! So who they wanted to come here? To see who?
Q: The people in charge simply failed to read the spin?
Very well put. They didn't do enough research, didn't call in the right people. I wonder if Tony Cozier was called in, to ask his opinion about staging this. Tony Becca, Reds Pereira, people who've been all over the world covering cricket.
Was their advice sought? Everybody went in there trying to pretend they had the knowledge of cricket. A West Indian might follow England playing Australia in Australia but England playing Australia here, he ain't interested. He want to see West Indies beat both of them!. To expect crowds here? So many things were against that!
Q: Should the gates have been opened rather than letting the world see empty stands?
Maybe. [Chuckles] That's what they did with Anil Roberts! [Laughs] Go in anywhere, man! Look, sorry, I've gone on a lot but this thing has been building up inside of me and you've given me the first opportunity to release it. I really vex no ass! [Laughs; then sighs] No, it's really, really sad. I saw them sopping up water on the field in Guyana with sponges. We look really backward and this is going around the world.
Q: We blew it?
I think so. Completely.
