West Indies players get poor tour reports

The work ethic of the West Indies cricket team during the recent tour of England was a major concern of management officials. This was disclosed in comments by the acting Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) president Condé Riley, who is also a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director.

"The reports coming back from the English tour are not good with regard to work ethic on some of our players," Riley said. "Territorial boards must address this issue. In Barbados, we are going to address all of the reports that come back from the WICB - the managers and the coaches. It makes no sense to have people representing boards on tours and when they come back and report, you do not do anything about it."

While the reports on the players were generally unfavourable, Riley was heartened by positive feedback on the conduct of Corey Collymore and Dwayne Smith, the new Barbados captain and vice-captain, respectively. The acting BCA boss also responded to radio reports which claimed Smith did not attract encouraging reviews.

"Both of these gentlemen [Collymore and Smith] got excellent reports out of the reports I consider to be non-acceptable. I want to congratulate them on their conduct on that tour," Riley said. "Dwayne Smith was complimented for attending extra training, being keen, being ready, being there first. The reports on Collymore and Smith made me proud to be a Bajan."

In an effort to tackle the problems within the West Indies team, Riley is hoping the new Centre of Excellence will be an avenue to turn things around.

Located at the renovated Kensington Oval, it will be run by a director of coaching with assistance from other coaches and the facility will include five turf pitches, two all-weather strips, a gym and a conference room.

The BCA will soon be announcing a list of 90 players - 30 each from the seniors, Under-19s, and Under-15s - who will be benefit from the Centre of Excellence. "We are aware that we need to work with our guys from Under-15," Riley said. "We are working towards producing a better, well-rounded cricketer and we hope that by setting up the Centre of Excellence where we will have our guys in training- full-time - that we will produce a better and more rounded player in the future."