Caribbean Cricket in grave crisis
For how long will Caribbean cricket remain the laughing stock of the international cricket community?
That is the question that has plagues the sport-loving public of the Caribbean space. The challenge is finding appropriate answers to the aforementioned question.
To the students of the sport in the Caribbean, we have gone through major disappointments since the exit of the once-powerful contingent led by Guyana’s Clive Lloyd and which featured the awesome ‘speed merchants’ that left the rest of the cricketing world on awe.
Today, some are ashamed of what has become of West Indies cricket, given the fact that the only aspect of the region’s game is its inconsistency. There is hardly any cricket commentator in the world today who can commit to the challenge of seeking to predict the fortunes of the West Indies team in any game, let alone in any series.
The current fortunes of West Indies cricket leave the leadership facing the tragic reality that few countries are anxious to compete against them, if only because fans no longer possess any genuine interest in the shifting sands that are the woeful players who dare compete for the regional side.
A shameless lot
In 2007 the region hosted the Cricket World Cup, much to the disappointment of aficionados of the sport.
To begin with, as happened with Boston and the bid to host the Summer Olympics of 2024, the West Indies sporting public were never consulted relative to whether or not the Caribbean should have submitted a bid to host the prestigious competition.
The region’s cricket leadership engaged in the creation of a wild illusion, fancying their own perceived incredulity of the sport’s supporters in the region.
Armed with the aforementioned grand illusion, the administrators and technical personnel in charge of the preparations, did what the region’s politicians did in respect of the failed project – the West Indian Federation. Leaders marched forward with their heads buried in the sand, thinking only of the potential of success of the undertaking in dollar-terms. Simplistically and perhaps driven by the same false ambition, the politicians of the Caribbean followed suit, impaling themselves on the altar of an illusory grand desire imbued by a decadent passion fuelled by an historical epoch long lost, never allowing science to be their guide.
To this day not a single Caribbean politician, especially those who have been advocates of independent thought, has been able to explain their decisions in one country after another to formally introduce the abysmal Sunset Legislation.
We live in a region that brought a very special kind of celebratory entertainment to the sport of cricket, initiated by Antigua and Barbuda’s inimitable Gravy and ‘Chickie’s’ Hi FI’s infectious Caribbean rhythms. Yet Caribbean politicians colluded with the leadership of West Indies cricket and of the Cricket World Cup 2007 to rob the passionate loyal fans of the sport in the region of their control over the way the game is supported.
We watched in dismay as children had their boxed drinks taken away from them on entry to the competition arena. Indeed, it got worse. In St Vincent and the Grenadines, that wasted already scarce, valuable resources on a ‘brown-paper-bag’ package of matches that we labelled ‘goat-cook’ events, children had the same unacceptable experiences, much to the chagrin of long-standing supporters of the game. The end result was a deliberate commitment on the part of many to boycott the events, especially since they had no impact on the actual competition.
The insensitivity led to low fan turnout and the eventual embarrassing decision to change the ‘rules of engagement’ of the regional fans, albeit much too late to make a difference in gate receipts.
An honest evaluation of what transpired with the region’s hosting of CWC2007 should declare that it was a significant watershed for the sport in the region. It marked the determination of the leaders of the sport in the region to return to an archaic approach to sport management, even while laying claim to making fundamental changes to what obtained for decades before.
The ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’. That being the case, the performance of the leadership of West Indies cricket and the actual several cricket teams we have seen assembled over the past decade and more after CWC2007, reveals the dismal failure to change the fortunes of the regional team to arrive at a position anywhere near what obtained in the past.
Prime Ministers’ misguided resolve
Some may recall the ‘huffing and puffing’ some years ago in respect of a comprehensive review of the state of the game of cricket in the Caribbean. Caribbean politicians seemed eager to get involved. The reason? Essentially to feed their over-inflated egos. This is not the view they presented officially but everything they said and sought to do suggested another reality.
Of course, the then leadership of West Indies cricket resisted the overtures of the politicians but, at the same time, botched what could have been an opportunity to engage the peoples of the Caribbean in a sport that they have transformed into a vehicle for social change.
Our politicians being what they are, ended up taking their own course of action. They sat in CARICOM and agreed the establishment of a Cricket Committee. The incredible short-sightedness of their decision ought to have been anticipated.
The failure of our politicians to understand the role that sport has played in the struggle of the Caribbean peoples for genuine liberation has been exposed by their ridiculous decision.
Instead of establishing an institution that could benefit from systematic analysis of the sporting history of the region, not just cricket, they allowed their narrow-mindedness and pitiful arrogance to lead them down a path where, after several years in existence, the CARICOM Cricket Committee has nothing to show for itself by way of positive achievement and impact on the sport in the Caribbean.
They are yet to understand the impact that Brand Bolt has had on Jamaica’s location in the global marketplace. Indeed, it may be safe to say that this is not only the case for Caribbean politicians. It is also the case of the Jamaican political leadership and even of the leadership of the sport in which Bolt featured so prominently and for so long.
Instead of there being a Caribbean consensus in respect of Bolt and what he could easily do for the region’s international marketing strategy, the rest of the world and many international agencies are doing that in tandem with Bolt directly while we languish in self-pity.
Not surprisingly therefore, we are all sitting at home watching Bolt being taken here and there and everywhere by whomsoever, whenever. There is no necessary link made by the various institutions to deliberately link his achievements and all that they want him to do for and with them, to the Caribbean and any developmental strategies that our politicians may have dreamed up.
Our politicians’ interest in cricket allowed us to witness the spectre of one Prime Minister almost cavorting for an don behalf of Chris Gaye, having the latter sent a private jet to come to the table. In the end, Gayle was back in the good graces of the leadership of West Indies cricket, much to the dismay of those who understood the reality at the time. The game has suffered immensely because of decisions and actions such as the aforementioned.
Pathetic
This writer has declared, without fear of contradiction, on several previous occasions, that the decision by the then new leadership of West Indies cricket to apologies to the former now returned coach of the regional team, Phil Simmons, was wrong. It sent all of the wrong signals and smelt of a kind of back-room agreement that could not bode for anything good.
The current leadership of regional cricket continue to detail the several measures and personnel being put in place to take the team out of its slumber. However, whatever about rebuilding West Indies cricket, the geriatric team selected and allowed to embarrass themselves and the entire Caribbean should leave us good reason to be decidedly worried about the future of the sport in our part of the world.
We have never cultivated a culture of professional sport in the Caribbean. The few who have made it to the level of professional sport in different parts of the world have never been able to show that they have been able to lift themselves to allow the world to know where they are from and what their own achievements have and ought to mean for the peoples of the Caribbean.
Our limited number of professional athletes are yet to bring themselves together to forge and understand of and appreciation for what they achievements in their respective sporting fields should mean for us as a people. Not one of them can as yet be identified as having used their international celebrity status to market the Caribbean and fashion a pathway for others to follow.
For the most part they remain insular and particularly selfish. But they ought not to be blames.
All of us involved in the sport movement in the Caribbean must shoulder the blame for having failed these athletes and continue to do so. We have allowed ourselves to have joined the politicians in riding their backs without ever giving due consideration to offering training pathways of enablement.
The likes of Learie Constantine, Frank Worrell and others were schooled into an understanding of the dire consequences of colonialism for the peoples of the Caribbean. With ample help from CLR James, they brought themselves together as professional cricketers playing country cricket in England, to forge an alliance in support of independence for the Caribbean islands.
Contemporary Caribbean cricketers have not taken the time to understand the history of the sport in which they have financially lucrative career options. They see the financial returns as an end in and for itself. They seem incapable of looking further than their bank accounts.
Sport administrators in the Caribbean must engage in a sort of compulsory and inevitable catharsis if change is to emerge. Until such time, the sport of cricket will die, adding to the chaotic landscape that our politicians have unfortunately created when they destroyed the West Indian Federation.
