West Indies Look to Rudi Webster to Rescue Ahead of Second Test versus India

The West Indies cricket team may be ruing the opportunity lost during the first Test against India that they eventually lost. Now the West Indies Cricket Board is attempting to turn around the scenario by roping in the famous psychologist to help the team withstand the resurgence of the no.1 ranked Test team.

Darren Sammy, West Indies captain

The Indian cricket team, or at least some of the members of the Indian cricket team, are aware of Rudi Webster’s profile given that the high profile psychologist has worked briefly with the Indian cricket team around 2006. However, this time round Webster will be working with the West Indies to help prop up their confidence ahead of the second India West Indies Test at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

The subject of psychologists has always been controversial with some teams realizing that the mental aspect of the sport is perhaps far greater than the physical exertion on the field while others more boisterous have mocked the idea of having a psychologist or psychiatrist working the team. To each his own perhaps, but players who have had the opportunity to work on their weaknesses with the psychologists have attested to their role in reshaping their cricket career.

The WICB is certainly hoping that the latter is the case. The West Indies slipped to a disappointing sixty-three run defeat in the first Test after they had India on the ropes very early into the first day of the first Test. From that perspective, there are obvious concerns that while the West Indies team is capable of shock value, they perhaps lack the motivation or sustenance to carry that performance through the endurance test.

It has not helped the West Indies cricket cause that the problems that have plagues West Indies cricket have often toyed with their team composition, player dynamics and leadership hierarchy. The lack of security, purposefulness and sustained and continued efforts have left West Indies a rather bleak prospect, mercurial once in a blue moon and generally a picture far away from their image as world leaders more than two decades ago.

In that light, the WICB have perhaps done the best thing for the players by allowing the outside in the psychologist, although Rudi Webster has worked previously with the West Indies cricket, to glance into the mindsets of the players and provide them with some insight that would see a more robust West Indies cricket team make a name for themselves and to be able to sustain those interests to rebuild their future. Webster certainly has his task cut out for him because of the many problems revolving around West Indies cricket and the fact that despite at half strength, the Indian cricket team is still formidable and with a 1-0 lead, is going to go into the second Test looking to seal the series while West Indies are going to have to fight their way back from behind.