NEW YORK, USA (CMC) - Grenada's Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell says West Indies cricket must be better nurtured if it is to return to the pinnacle of world cricket. Mitchell, the chairman of the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Sub-Committee on Cricket, told reporters here that the problem with the regional cricket team is that its talent has not been properly "harnessed and nurtured". "Something is wrong with how we have nurtured, attempted to nurture and built the talent we have," he said. "And I'm convinced that if we change that attitude, and take some very serious decisions, we will be helping to revive West Indies cricket, because West Indies cricket is too tied up with the psyche of the West Indian man and woman. "If you notice when the West Indies is doing well," he added, "we all walk with our chests a little higher than when they're embarrassing us. So I think we have to do something about that." Mitchell, a former Windward Islands cricketer, said "super talent" is not necessary for the West Indies team to do well. "I don't consider the Australian team has all that super, super talent," he said. "There's no Gary Sobers nor Viv Richards on the Australian team, but they're doing well." The Grenada leader urged the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to adopt the English success story. "Look at their story," he said. "The technology, in advancing their cricket, is something we should emulate. We have not done it. We just believe you're going to see the emergence of a Gary Sobers or a Viv Richards. It does not work that way." In addition, Mitchell called on the WICB to grant contracts to all players, stating that it would ultimately reap huge dividends. He cited players on contract in the Australian and English teams, who, unlike some players in the West Indies, do not have to return to menial jobs when dropped. "You can't build cricket talent in that way," he said, referring to West Indies players. "This guy, if you know he has talent, he should be contracted, provided with training facilities and all the necessary support systems." Mitchell's comment came amid controversy over the Lucky Report in which the Sponsorship Negotiations Review Committee took exception to the WICB president Teddy Griffith and some WICB members, rejecting findings in the Lucky Report. "The committee is firmly of the view that the board has acted as judge and jury in its own cause," it said, "having appointed and confirmed that the committee is an independent committee." The commission, headed by Trinidadian-born Justice Anthony Lucky, included Gregory Georges and Avondale Thomas. Mitchell, who has been closely involved in the protracted contractual dispute over players' contracts between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), said all stakeholders in the game must do more for the success of West Indies cricket. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com