Can Windies players be lured out of a cash pool?

Barbados Less than a year as West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron has set himself and the West Indies Cricket Board WICB what appears to be nothing less than a mission impossibleKieron Pollard during a Big Bash League match for Adelaide Strikers at Sydney PicGetty ImagesHe asserted in a newspaper interview last week that his board considers West Indies value to be based on the teams Test status so that the plan is clearly to get us back to the top not just the top three but number oneIt was a Uturn since its cancellation last year of two Tests each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in favour of a couple of oneday the first also involving India Now Cameron said that if the West Indies can be a force again in the Test arena I would feel that strides have been made under my tenure It was understatementTo produce such a transformation calls for a rapid rise standards on the field at the same time reigniting the flame among a passionate public so depressed after years of an unrequited love affair with Test cricket that it has found a new infatuation in the glamorous attraction of the Twenty20 versionThe West Indies presently languish at No 8 on the ICCs Test rankings below all the major teams Since toppled by Australia in 1995 from the top spot they held for 15 years in which they did not lose a series they have rarely risen above halfway on the tableThey havent won a Test against India in their last five series only one each against Australia and England in their last six So how can Camerons goal be achievedThe boards directors are to discuss setting up professional structures at a meeting in PortofSpain this weekend Cameron regards this as a priority So does new director of cricket the widelytravelled Englishman Richard PybusPybus formerly in coaching positions in Pakistan twice Bangladesh briefly and South Africa arrived last November to find obvious talent but a system that is well behind those of West Indies competitors At its forthcoming meeting the board is to thrash out how best to implement his proposal to professionalise the game properlyThe brevity the firstclass season is a longterm problem especially since opportunities with English counties dried up and more recently as the top men were lost to overseas Twenty20 franchises One round leading to semifinals and final limits teams to a maximum of eight matches each it is hardly ideal for developing Test cricketersHandicapIt is a handicap compounded by slow turning unsatisfactory pitches sometimes doctored to provide home advantage They flatter bowlers and drain batsmens confidence In the 2013 tournament eight totals were below 100 34 between 100 and 200 just one over 400Four of the highest wickettakers were spinners Nikita Millers 52 were taken at eight runs each Even with a longer season properly marketed and promoted in a fully professional set up combined with more attention to pitches there remains the predicament of how to retain players lured by the lucrative contracts of domestic Twenty20 tournaments across the globeMore and more are concentrating primarily on sixhitting and tight bowling The latest prodigy is Nicholas Pooran 18 a slim lefthander from Trinidad He belted 54 off 24 balls in his first match in the Caribbean Premier League CPL last year his 143 off 160 balls with six sixes and 14 fours against Australia was the innings of Januarys Under19 World Cup in Dubai He is yet to play a firstclass matchChris Gayle a batsman with a Test average of 42 from 99 Tests and a couple of triplehundreds is now universally acclaimed more for his Twenty20 exploits Sunil Narine ranked by the ICC No 1 bowler in Twenty20 and No 3 in 50overs ODIs comes in at No 68 in Tests Shivnarine Chanderpaul doesnt get a game in the abbreviated stuffBarbados and Trinidad and Tobago are the oldest and fiercest of sporting rivals A couple of hundred diehards turned up for their current firstclass clash at Kensington Oval where there used to be thousands They were confined to one stand the others closed to save on security costsWhen the Twenty20 CPL comes around in July and August every gate will be open every seat taken as they were last year The situation is not surprising When they triumphed in the World Twenty20 championship in Sri Lanka in 2012 the Trinidad Express declared that it had lifted the spirit of the entire region as one It was a sentiment not heard since the days of Test dominance under Clive Lloyd It would apply again with a turnaround over the next two years and fulfill Camerons impossible dream