PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) wants to introduce tougher selection standards as it seeks to restore the region's status in international cricket.

Delivering the feature address at the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board's distribution of certificate and awards function for graduates of its High Performance Centre on Sunday, the WICB's CEO, Donald Peters, suggested that selection to the West Indies team should be based "on international standards of performances", with statistics being the key.

Batting average

"If you decide that you are an opening batsman, we will expect you to occupy the crease for a good while, for at least 75 per cent of the time you go to bat and your batting average will be between 40-60 over at least 10 first-class matches," Peters said.

"If you are a top order batsman," he added. "We will expect you to have a batting average that is consistent with international players at that level."

Peters declared that West Indies players of the past had shown they could lead the world, and current players must strive for these high standards.

"Your average at that first-class level should be similar to that of Michael Hussey, Ricky Pointing,

Kumar Sangakkara, Kevin Pieterson, Virender Sehwag and Shivnarine Chanderpaul," he told the gathering at Plaza de Montrose, Chaguanas.

"I know that we are asking a lot, but remember that we are going to be competing against those very same players and, in fact, we used to be the team with those same averages. We had Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Rohan Kanhai and Brian Lara, so we know it can be done."

Peters said in order to be a great cricketer, a player has to live, breathe, play and think cricket at all times. He added that the West Indies players in the (recent) past have complained that the trainers were too hard on them and the tours away were too long when they want to come home instead of playing cricket.

"These values indicate that some of our players have not been prepared, disciplined for international cricket," he said.

There is hope

The CEO said that having Chanderpaul being at world number one in the batting rankings and players like Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle in the Top-10 all-rounders list means that "there is hope".

For almost two decades, from the mid 1970s, West Indies ruled world cricket and were among the most dominant teams all-time in world sport, but they have plunged to number eight in the world in the past decade.

Peters said the TTCB's youth cricket development programme is critical to the development of young players and stands out as a model that all cricket organisations in the region should emulate.

He said the region can no longer depend entirely on talent to get to the top. He added that young players need to be taught how to think, strategise, maintain physical health, manage their time and analyse the game.