The Sports
Psychology Blog
Today's Sports Psychology blog follows the West Indies swift departure from the the Twenty-20 World Cup.
Cricket: The West Indies - Sloppy!
An early exit from the cricket World Cup for the West Indies. Shoddy displays in the field, in their two games, letting them down. The improvements that we witnessed on their recent trip to England, offering no sort of foundation for success.
Sloppiness in the field has its roots in lapses in concentration and focus. But it also hints at habits and patterns being allowed to fester in the West Indies 'domain'. The off the field 'domain' that is. Habits and patterns that promote sloppiness.
Such as poor timekeeping, or breaking a dress code, or weak practise sessions, or a casual attitude to team-meetings. Somewhere along the way to the Twenty-20 World Cup, bad habits were allowed to go unpunished. Unpunished by management; unpunished by colleagues.
Remember - the habits and patterns you build off the field, will manifest themselves on the field. Whether you like it or not. Right now the West Indies won't like it. Maybe it will be the wake up call they need. The wake up call that alerts them to the fact that World Cup success requires World Cup level preparation. In mind as well as deed.
Can they change? Of course they can. But they have to want to. Then have to go through the rigours of applying the discipline comensurate with those changes. It may not be easy. It may not be for everyone. But unless they do so, the West Indies will never break the stop situation they are currently in.
