The latest furore within the camp that is now the renowned West Indies cricket fraternity should come as no surprise to anyone who has been able to stomach the proceedings within this sordid grouping over the past several years.
Unfortunately, it does appear that things will certainly get much worse before they get better.
The England Tour
The West Indies Cricket Board, WICB, has continued to show the peoples of this Caribbean region every reason why the current crop of administrators of the game should all immediately demit office, even without an explanation.
It would be a most just move for the entire cadre to leave the game and allow for a fresh start to what was once our most popular sport.
At best the current crop of WICB administrators can boast of ensuring the death and burial of the game in the Caribbean.
The England tour marks an important stage in the funkiness of the WICB. It is as though the Board did not do its homework in respect of the tour. There seemed little by way of planning.
The impasse between the West Indies Players Association, WIPA, and the WICB only proved the total incompetence of the administrators of the game. The Arbitration Panel, headed by the Chief Justice of Barbados, seemed rather surprised at the case brought before it by both parties. To even the ardent follower of developments in the region it certainly seemed strange that the WICB could have failed to interpret the situation and avoid the embarrassment that eventually flowed in its direction. Once more Ramnarine and the WIPA emerged victorious.
It also seems important to state here that while many may decry the performance of the team on the field, the WIPA continues to hold fast to its mandate to secure the best deal for its members. All power to Ramnarine for his achievements thus far in this particular area of endeavour.
Samuels Et Al
The WICB then added to the confusion when Marlon Samuels, the replacement for captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, found his travel plans delayed by the visa issue. By this time everyone should know that Jamaicans need a visa to enter the United Kingdom. This should have been factored into the travel plans.
More embarrassment was to follow. The WICB made another major blunder when it organised the replacement players who were to feature in the 20/20 and One Day Internationals against England.
The entire Caribbean became the laughing stock of the cricketing world when the travel plans for the replacements were so badly organised that the players failed to arrive in time for the first warm-up game prior to the commencement of the second phase of the series against England. The embarrassment was further heightened by the Board having to secure the services of Caribbean cricketers playing in England, to add to the team for the warm up match.
Perhaps Fazeer Mohammed’s comments are worth stating here.
Gordon is a failure, of course, while the integrity of some members of his inner circle at the board must be open to question given the ease, speed and regularity with which information from confidential meetings are leaked into the public domain.
This betrays a house divided unto itself, with grown men pretending to accept collective responsibility only to be sneaking around like rats trying to undermine each other for their own parochial purposes.
On principle alone, they should all go, but that would still leave the same complex, an archaic structure that is unworkable in a flourishing culture of selfishness and shortsightedness.
Who’s the Boss?
The WICB seems a blighted organisation and Ken Gordon may well have taken his exit when he offered his resignation following the conclusion of the embarrassing Cricket World Cup 2007. The only people who seem to think it was a success are the leaders of the game in the region. The very ones who continue to embarrass us everywhere.
The selectors informed the WICB of their decision to have Chris Gayle appointed captain of the team for the 20/20 and One-day competitions. The Board ignored the selectors’ decision and appointed Darren Ganga captain. The only problem here was that Ganga was not among the players sent to the Board to participate in the two competitions.
The regional media made the truth known and the embarrassment once more came to the fore. Unashamedly the WICB had to recant and Ganga was released and Gayle installed as captain.
Of course, Gayle had to have his say in public and so the embarrassment took on even greater dimensions. His criticisms of the Board emerged in his diary and we are hearing string suggestions that there was some input from the team’s manager, Michael Findlay.
Then came the strongly-worded caution from the WICB following an apparent meeting between Gayle, Ken Gordon, and Michael Findlay. Of course, the WIPA intervention was most appropriate since the organisation needed to know whether Findlay was seeming to play both sides in this unsavoury affair. If indeed Findlay did have an input into what Gayle was saying in his diary how could he also be involved in the meeting that yielded the caution to Gayle? Of course, the matter will be swept under the carpet even as snippets will be fed to the media, as is now the norm.
At the end of the day, Gayle has been emboldened by the rather untenable stance adopted by the leadership of the sport in the region. Some seem quite uncertain as to precisely who is leading the WICB ship. One wonders whether Gordon had secured the advice of the Board’s Disciplinary Committee before the letter of caution was delivered to Gayle.
One may also wonder whether the team manager is not the one with the authority to effect discipline while the team is on tour.
Wherever the responsibility lies the fact is that Gayle and the WIPA are standing on solid ground and the WICB is in quicksand with no one in sight.
On Field
We can always boast of the consistency that is West Indies cricket. We continue to expect the kind of embarrassment currently being endured across the globe from the WICB. We can also expect that on the field of play the West Indies team will do likewise.
The performances in the test series were little more than putrid. It is perhaps even more embarrassing for us in the region to dare to suggest that we almost won a match. Nonsense! Both teams performed as expected of their low ranking in contemporary cricket. That the paying public had to contend with such abysmally poor cricket is to our undying shame.
The 20/20 game is no dissimilar to softball cricket. The strokes are the same and so too is the bowling. It is designed for enjoyment and perhaps to take our minds away from the seriousness of what we once called cricket.
Despite the introduction of the 20/20 series at home by Stanford last year the West Indies team claimed much inexperience in its nuances. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The block or bash mentality of so many of our players should have allowed them to relish this version of the game. Unfortunately, the series tied. Even that we did not win.
On the field of play, nothing has changed for the West Indies team. Who’s to blame?
The truth is that we are all to blame. We are too weak to stand up and insist on the sweeping of West Indies cricket with a bass broom that is expansive enough to remove the administrators and current crop of players alike.
There has to be a new start made.
Even the likes of Richards, Holding, Croft, Bishop and Lloyd perhaps need to step aside for a while and allow for something new, something innovative and dynamic to emerge.
