Colonialism reeks over our cricket

The Cricket World Cup 2007 has come and gone and everywhere in the region there remains a buzz of disappointment at what we have done or failed to do, chief among these is our failure to plan with the involvement of the peoples of the Caribbean. We remain steeped in a colonial malaise from which we seem incapable of extricating ourselves. Nothing about the CWC2007 should have surprised us since throughout our history while we have attempted to govern ourselves we remain consistent in our failure to repose confidence in ourselves as a people. It always seems a better option to look outside of the Caribbean for persons to assist us in things we should be able to do for ourselves.Caribbean peoples have watched the failure of the Federation, the integration enterprise of the late 1950s that left Dr Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago insisting on a unique brand of ‘New Maths’, “one from 10 leaves nought.” The regional leaders at the time, much like those we now have, thought that they knew what was best for our peoples and never considered the wishes of the people in their decision-making, save and except for Jamaica where the people spoke in a referendum against the Federation and Norman Manley’s People’s National Party. Unfortunately though the referendum was conceived on narrow, somewhat selfish, nationalistic political lines and nothing more. Jamaicans were led to believe that the smaller islands would become too dependent upon its own resources.Today, decades later, it still seems that the Jamaicans remain hesitant about regional    integration, and the rest of the region’s political leaders toy with their respective populations about regionalism as it suits their particular and peculiar political strategies at any given point in time.
The Caribbean’s world of sport remains as divisive as is the case with the region’s politics. We truly reflect the legacy of slavery and colonialism. Small wonder that we cannot agree on a way forward in dealing with the many challenges facing West Indies cricket.