Gibson: West Indies must forget past glories

St. John's:

New head coach Ottis Gibson has urged the West Indies to forget about past glories, while prioritizing nurturing emerging talent.

Gibson quit as England bowling coach earlier this week after being handed the challenge of reviving all of the West Indies' representative teams

"Things were going well with England, but the call to come back, and try to do my part to resurrect West Indies, was one that I couldn't say no to," Gibson told the BBC. "There will be a lot of challenges. The first one is to get the team playing as a team, I suppose, and especially for the players to forget the glory days.

"A lot has been made about that and the young players have a lot to live up to. It sometimes can be a bit of a burden for them."

The West Indies were winners of the first two cricket World Cups in 1975 and '79 and runner-ups in '83.

Gibson, who turns 41 in March, was a fast-bowling allrounder for Barbados who played two tests and 15 ODIs for West Indies from 1995-99.

The biggest challenge for Gibson is the grass roots level.

"The future is in the youth," he said. "We have to try and invest some time, money and effort in those guys. That's the area where we need to spend most of our time."