Discipline is the only way forward for West Indies cricket and if the current crop of young players can remain disciplined then the future looks very good.
This is the view of former West Indies opener Philo Wallace and former team manager Omar Khan.
According to Wallace: “Discipline is any sphere of life is a necessary ingredient in making one successful. We saw indisciplined batting in the first Test against England and the embarrassment that followed.
Then we saw a much more disciplined approach in the next game and victory came. What our players need is to carry that discipline with them all the time.
This coupled with hard work will take them to where they want to go. We have a young bunch representing us in Test cricket and if we continue to instill in them the importance of discipline when we would see the difference.
As they always say talent is not our problem. However, talent coupled with indiscipline will get us nowhere. I would like to see these cricketers benefit from a lot of mental work, mental preparation as well in order to push themselves to realize their best.”
On the point of mental preparation for cricket Khan said during his time as manager it was dominated with this kind of mantra. “I always preached mental strength to the players. They have the ability but at times when put under pressure they buckled.
That showed me that they were not ready mentally for the challenges.
Test cricket tests your mentality to the fullest with the natural ebbs and flows and we need to have our players ready for that. I have always said the role of the manager these days is more than just making sure the logistics are right for the team.
The team manager has a role to play in making sure the players are mentally prepared for battle. People tend to underestimate the mental aspect of the a player’s game when it comes to cricket.
I am one who thinks that at the highest level this is a very important skill set.