Nolan Clarke calls for patience with Windies

BRIDGETOWN: Nolan Clarke, a former Barbados and Netherlands batsman, has called on the Caribbean public to be patient with the struggling West Indies cricketers. While conceding that it is “heartbreaking” to see the West Indies team floundering among the lowest rated teams in the world coming from the lofty heights they once held, Clarke believes negative comments about their worth will not help the players. Speaking on the “Best and Mason” cricket talk show on CBC Radio on Tuesday night, Clarke said fans must exhibit more tolerance during the rebuilding process. “We need to be patient, we need to be a bit more positive with the youngsters,” said Clarke, who represented the Netherlands at the 1996 World Cup in India.

Holland-based Clarke, who is home on vacation, believes fans that are understandably frustrated over the team’s rapid decline, pressure the players too much. But the 55-year-old, who represented Barbados between 1969 and 1976, insisted the new blood must be encouraged to develop and not be shattered by negatively comparing them to players of the past. “It’s heartbreaking to see such a great nation, we’ve produced so many good cricketers, and at the moment we are really struggling. Give them a chance, though, stop comparing them with the older cricketers and the greats,” he said. Clarke also suggested that the rebuilding task is being made even more difficult because the infrastructure of the game in the Caribbean is not keeping pace with some of the top cricketing nations of the world.

“It is so difficult for the West Indies to perform at the level that they are used to, mainly because the whole structure of cricket in the world has changed, places like Australia, they are having so many good fantastic facilities to promote sport, and it’s just not here for us,” he said. Clarke believes the West Indies should more directly target groups of talented teenagers and prepare them properly for international cricket. “We have got to find a way to compete with those (top) teams by rebuilding the way that we practice, rebuilding the way that we play, and that means finding young cricketers between the ages of 16 and 20 who want to play for the West Indies,” said Clarke, who retired from international cricket in 1997 at age 48.