Carl Hooper has had a ringside view of Caribbean cricket's two extremes – the sublime and the ridiculous. West Indies are plumbing new depths in international cricket and Hooper provides refreshingly honest answers to some puzzling questions: what ails the team? Where does the fault for the decline lie? What happened to the great West Indies fast bowling legacy? After being part of the great West Indian teams of the past, how does it feel to lead a squad which is having an extended run of embarrassments?
I was lucky to be part of the winning West Indies team in the late 80s and early 90s. But since the mid-90s it's been downhill for us and that's disappointing. We should have put a system in place when we were dominating to ensure a stream of quality young players coming into the side. We are paying the price for our failure to act then. It hurts to lose so much. We are just short of being the laughing stock of international cricket. At the moment, we are just above Bangladesh and Kenya. We will bounce back, but that will take time.

Would you say that a firmly settled bunch of great players actually kept fresh talent from getting in?
One reason why we declined was we lost almost half of our great players in a span of three or four years. We had a clutch of youngsters replacing them, but they had inadequate first-class experience. Marlon Samuels, for example, made his Test debut in Australia after playing just around five first-class games for Jamaica. Also, I don't think our board took steps to nurture young talent like the Australians did with their academy. They just took it for granted that we would continue to produce good cricketers.

How is it that even with giants like Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall heading the team management, West Indies cricket has floundered?
There is only so much a coach, manager or captain can do. It all boils down to the quality of stock you have. Basically we just don't have the kind of players that teams like Pakistan and Australia have.

Do you believe some players in the present team lack the pride to wear the maroon?
If I were to answer that honestly, I would have to say yes. I could give a number of excuses, but I won't. For a lot of our younger players it has been easy come, easy go. They didn't have to work hard to get into the team, so they don't realise how important it is to represent the aspirations of the Caribbean people. Most of our players have come into the side when we have been on a losing spree. When they see so much negativity, they think it's par for the course. But yes, the sense of pride is certainly lacking in some of our players.

What has hurt you most about West Indies's slide?
When I played under Viv Richards, we used to be upset for days after losing. The disappointment doesn't seem to last now. And the same thing happens all over again in the next game as well. That hurts.

Brian Lara says that he doesn't find himself being badgered by young team-mates for advice the way he nagged Viv Richards in his formative years.
That doesn't happen because once they get back to the hotel there are so many distractions like chatting on the net. It's disappointing, but that's the way times have changed, that's the way the game has changed.

Has the character of West Indian wickets changed since you came in?
They have. There are very few good cricketing wickets in the Caribbean. I played in Jamaica (first Test against England in 1998) where the game was called off after an hour because the track was very poor. The wickets we have now neither encourage bowlers to bowl fast nor help batsmen to play their strokes. The pace is inconsistent and they are not good for cricket.

Why did you pack your bags and leave for Australia in 1999?
People said I quit because I had lost the desire to play cricket, which is not true. There were a few things happening off the field, which I don't want to go into, that I wasn't happy with. I am a very family-oriented person and at that point in time my son, Carl Jr., was unwell and I wanted to be there for him and for my wife. It was a question of various things coming together at the same time. It was a tough decision, but I had to make it.

What made you come out of retirement?
I was playing club cricket in Australia and I realised I needed to give something back to West Indian cricket. It hurt to see the West Indies in the state they were and I thought I could contribute a bit, if not by playing for the West Indies then at least by helping younger players in the Caribbean.

People like Garry Sobers and Michael Holding did not react very favourably to your comeback…
It didn't really bother me. If they hadn't reacted that way someone else would have reacted in some other way. It's disappointing that such reactions came from two icons of West Indies cricket, but that's life.

It used to be said that if you shook a tree in the Caribbean, a few fast bowlers would fall out. What has happened to that awesome assembly-line?
If you come to the West Indies and watch a first-class game you will notice that the tracks are lifeless. The only track which has the pace and carry of Sharjah, which is really not very quick, is Barbados. And maybe Jamaica. Most of the wickets in the Caribbean are very flat and unresponsive. We can certainly produce a Shoaib Akhtar, but we need to produce wickets that encourage bowlers like him. Kids get excited if they generate fizz from the wicket and if they can get the ball to fly around. The key to producing better fast bowlers, spinners and batsmen lies in producing good wickets.

The West Indies are certainly missing Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. How do you see the situation once Brian Lara and you also leave the scene?
We have a clutch of players who are very young: Ramnaresh and Gayle are both 21, Ganga is 23, Hinds 25; among the fast bowlers Corey Collymore is 24, Pedro Collins is 25 and Merv Dillon is 27. The nucleus of our side is very young. These are youngsters with natural talent who will serve West Indies cricket in the years to come.

H Natarajan is senior editor of Wisden.com India

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