Dear Editor,

It is widely believed that sport encounters at the highest level are often determined by the degree to which the contestants can resist pressure.

In the first innings of the ongoing second test in Sri Lanka those who watched would have been heartbroken to see Taylor given out in error, and not use the review available to him, Samuels immediately before lunch being caught in the slips from an ordinary delivery without moving his right foot an inch, and Ramdin running down the wicket for no apparent reason and being bowled by a straight ball. I suspect most West Indians would angrily dismiss all three as undeserving of their places on the team, but on reflection those same people will concede that there are not many better players available to the team.

What happened, in fact, was that these players wilted under pressure. They and others do not always wilt, although they do so often enough.

No one is absolutely certain about the best remedy for coping with pressure. The consensus of reasoned opinion, though, is that of all the known tools, psychology is the most likely to succeed. Psychology is not necromancy. It is a field of study pursued at all recognized universities, and just so I am not misunderstood, psychology is not psychiatry.

Psychology is as well-known as Physiotherapy. All successful international cricket teams retain the services of both a physiotherapist and a psychologist, the latter dealing with the organ we call the mind, but is in fact the brain. Sports psychology is a branch of psychology. One of the world`s leading sports psychologists is a Caribbean man Rudy Webster who is probably semi-retired. He worked with the greatest West Indian team, although for some reason, his past involvement with the team is hardly ever mentioned.

If all the successful teams retain the services of a sports psychologist, why does not the W.I. team? I have already said that a psychologist is not a psychiatrist, and the W.I. has always used the services of a physiotherapist. A psychologist who helps to improve performance by even twenty percent would have earned his pay.

What is there to lose? Can the W.I.C.B at least retain such a professional for the Australian tour and see how it works. Perhaps precisely because of the long period of losses, the W.I team needs a psychologist at least as much as the strongest team.

Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt