Lloyd wants Windies to show passion for the sport

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Legendary former West Indies Cricket captain Clive Lloyd wants current players to recommit themselves to the improvement of the game in the region.

Considered the most successful Test captain of all time, Lloyd said that the players must develop a passion for cricket, and not just the money.

"We must have our best players playing in our cricket — all aspects of our cricket," he said in a recent interview with former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop.

"You can't just think that you want all the money. (The) fellas are being paid pretty well, but (they) must have some love for West Indies cricket. And at the moment I'm not seeing how it could move forward. I would like to see more of a skill set."

Lloyd, who played in 110 Tests and 87 One-Day Internationals for West Indies between 1974 and 1985, said that regional players are being overwhelmed by their opponents in forms of the game.

"You [look] at our players and you are not seeing this extra fight that is needed to compete. We don't seem to be competing against other nations. They [seem] to be outmaeuvring us in all departments of the game, which is unfortunate," he said.

"We still have people here who are interested in the game, people still support cricket and we have to because as West Indians we want our cricket to get back up that hill. But at the moment it is not there. We have one or two good players, no doubt about that, but we are not kicking on."

The former captain is also concerned about the fitness of the young players who are representing the regional side. He said the fitness of the players is affecting the performance of the West Indies team.

"I found that our players don't look as fit as they should be. I still would like to have someone like Dennis Waite with our guys. To me, too many of them are being injured and I don't know why 19- and 20-year-old guys getting injured and they are not playing a lot of cricket. So I think it's a fitness situation and we would have to try and do that over a period of time, but fitness is going to be very important to us."

Lloyd is also concerned about West Indies' selection policy and the output of the Sagicor West Indies High Performance Centre (HPC) based at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

"We don't have that cohesion at the moment. We seem to be a bit sporadic with our selection and so on and I think that comes from not winning," he said.