For some, the West Indies' recent and consistent failure on the international stage, in recent years, is in large part due to regional players being unable to attain the competitive standard required for international cricket, after taking part in a substandard regional competition.
In several instances, players that have dominated the regional season have gone on to struggle against international opponents, once called up for the West Indies. Blackwood, who heaped up 768 runs in 15 innings for Jamaica, including a double hundred against the Leeward Islands in the tournament's last match, however, has gone on to register a dominant performance against England. He believes things are changing.
“To be honest I don’t pay too much attention to who is taking this or that, everyone has their opinion,” Blackwood told members of the media via a Zoom press conference on Tuesday.
“For me, personally, things are heading in the right direction in the Caribbean. I think I put in a lot of work to score some runs in the regional 4-dayers and definitely you can see it in my body language and approach to Test cricket now. So, it has helped me to become the player I am now, and you can see the growth in my batting.”
Otto played 48 first-class matches for the Leeward Islands between 1979 and 1990. During that period, he scored 2550 runs that included six centuries and 12 50s at an average of 34.00.
The right-handed batsman was the vice-captain of the West Indies ‘B’ that toured Zimbabwe in 1986. Former West Indies batsman Carlyle Best was the captain of that team that included Jimmy Adams and Carl Hooper who would both go on to become captains of the West Indies team, Phil Simmons, David Williams, Julian Charles, Javon Etienne and Vibert Greene among others.
A cousin to West Indies fast-bowling great Sir Curtly Ambrose, Otto would go on to manage the Leeward Islands team. He also managed the Antigua and Barbuda team that participated in the Stanford 20/20 tournament in 2008.
A franchise system was introduced to the regional cricket set-up approximately six years ago. It has led to teams taking part in the regional One Day and Four Day tournaments as clubs, as opposed to just countries.
For the most part, however, with a few exceptions, the franchises have remained mostly composed of players from the countries in which they are based. Benjamin believes some of that is due to a bit of nationalism, which he has pointed out is harmful to the professional set-up and the development of the game overall.
“One of the things in the Caribbean is that I think, patriotism is killing us. Sir Viv would know that when we go to England to play and when he played for Somerset and Glamorgan that’s where you play for and that’s where you represent because that’s where you are at that time. But I think in the Caribbean everybody wants to play for their country rather than play cricket and that is one of the problems we are facing,” Benjamin said in a recent interview with the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show.
“We need to be exposing our best players, it doesn’t matter where they come from and it would only make other players raise their standard. If we are playing mediocre players just because of where they come from then the standard isn’t going to rise,” he added.
In previous seasons, players like Guyana’s Assad Fudadin, Keron Cottoy and several others have represented teams outside of their country of birth, but they remain in the minority. Benjamin pointed to the case of Nicholas Pooran and Joshua Silver who both play for the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel.
“You have Pooran and you have Da Silva but when you look at Da Silva and the type of cricketer he is, he is not a bad wicketkeeper either, so he could be pushing for one of the wicketkeeper spots as well. But what if you have the number one and number two wicketkeepers in Trinidad.”
