Former West Indies pacer Courtney Walsh believes that one solution to getting regional cricket back on track is to allow for the free movement of players.
The Jamaican, who spoke on Good Morning Jojo on Tuesday, said teams should be allowed to incorporate the services of players outside of the region during tournaments while countries should consider utilising players from other regional territories within their squads.
Walsh, who claimed 519 wickets in 132 Tests and 227 wickets in 205 ODIs, said there is no debating that regional cricket needs overhauling and fresh ideas be put on the table. This he said is one option that should be considered.
“I think we have to look at revamping a lot of stuff in cricket. The standard of our cricket used to be very high where when Jamaica played Leeward Islands or Barbados or Guyana it’s like a mini-Test. That is not happening now. If you look at the scores we are getting – 230, 70, 50, and you get a result, it is poor consistency. We need to up that bar and we may even have to look outside of the box for a season or two, bring in a couple of players to play,” Walsh said.
“You have Ramnaresh Sarwan and Travis Dowlin outside of Guyana not playing right now. I still think they are good enough to play regional cricket. So if they can’t make the Guyana team or they are not playing for Guyana, Leewards, for argument’s sake, who seem to be struggling a bit, can bring in these players to sort of help the youngsters you have here to guide them and move them around. It is things like that we have to look at.”
The 49 year old, who made his debut for the West Indies in 1984, also spoke on the current impasse between his fellow Jamaican, Chris Gayle, and the WICB, saying that at the end of the day, cricket should be the winner.
“I think cricket has to be the winner and whatever needs to be done, should be done so that we get a result from it one way or the other, and hopefully he would be able to come back out and play cricket for the West Indies once he wants to play. You wouldn’t want for the Board to be selecting Chris Gayle and he is not up to playing,” he said.
“He has indicated that he wants to play (and) if he seriously wants to play, I think it’s time for that to come to a closure and cricket upfront (would) be the winner, and he is allowed to play once he is prepared to play,” the former cricketer added.
Walsh’s first claim to fame came in 1979 when he took 10 wickets in an innings in school cricket and three years later made his First Class cricket debut.
Walsh made his Test debut against Australia in Perth in 1984, taking two wickets for 43 runs.
Later that season, he also made his One Day International debut against Sri Lanka at Hobart. He first played for Gloucestershire in 1984 and was a mainstay of the side until 1998.
In 1987, Walsh was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
