Friday, May 04, 2012
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CARIBBEAN CHAOS: A CRISIS IN WEST INDIAN CRICKET
As they arrive for the Test series against England, the West Indies are average on the field and a shambles off it. There is even talk of regions going it alone. The Independent Stephen Brenkley assesses the damage West Indies arrived yesterday (Wednesday, May 2). They were utterly unheralded where once they would have been feted and feared in equal measure. Their formal unveiling as the first tourists of the summer will take place in Hove this afternoon, though the most excited response will barely rise above a shrug of the shoulders. Click http://www.scribd. com/doc/92153684/WestIndies-Graphic#fullscreen to view graphic Cricket in the Caribbean, once so joyous and victorious, is in an unholy mess. It is not simply that the team are losing too often but that the game is being so woefully run that there is a serious danger of
the world passing it by. The recent domestic firstclass cricket competition was an embarrassment and a shambles. It lacked both a sponsor and quality, with match after match being done and dusted in three days. There is talk of secession in the air and going it alone, whether it be in Jamaica, or Trinidad, or Guyana. Talk is one thing, action another and a split by one or more seems unlikely. If for no other reason than it would leave any breakaway country without international cricket for at least a generation, while it regrouped and sought full membership of the ICC. Throughout the region the game in the individual countries which make up the West Indies Cricket Board is in turmoil. Government intervention in Guyana, supported by the former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, has brought virtual meltdown and court action yet to be resolved. In Jamaica, the Prime Minister, the highly
regarded Portia Simpson Miller, became involved in a testy exchange with the not so highly regarded WICB. In Trinidad, there has been a rapprochement recently between the board and the country's government but there are still bitter disputes between opposing factions in the game which threaten to undermine progress. The Windward and Leeward islands seem to be in worse disarray, with no elections having been held for five years and no annual reports made either to the central governing body.
Antigua, in the Windwards, was where so many great players – Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Curtly Ambrose – came from. Were it not for it being the headquarters of the WICB it would now be a cricketing backwater. The WICB has made several misjudgements. Chief among them was commissioning an inquiry by B J Patterson, a former Prime Minister of Jamaica, who made a series of recommendations about the future direction of a game in a thorough, wide-ranging report. None has been implemented. If everyone agrees that the present system is unsustainable, no one agrees how it can be changed. Meanwhile, the team struggle on. For much of the past decade the players have been in conflict CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT BANK with the board and Chris Gayle, the former captain, has not played JOB OPPORTUNITIES international cricket for more than a year. Although there are clear signs of more friendly relations generally, $SSOLFDWLRQV DUH LQYLWHG IURP VXLWDEO\ TXDOLILHG QDWLRQDOV RI WKH %DQNœV PHPEHU FRXQWULHV the way ahead is fraught. WR ILOO WKH IROORZLQJ SRVLWLRQV DW LWV KHDGTXDUWHUV ORFDWHG LQ %DUEDGRV Too many players are being lost too often to Twenty20 competitions around the world for the board is perpetually cash-strapped, having LEGAL DEPARTMENT scant television income. Apart from General Counsel Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell Legal Counsel and Sunil Narine are plying their trade in the IPL when they should be in England. ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT It is widely expected that they Director will lose the three-Test series (prob ably 3-0). The squad of 15 is far 7KH %DQNœV PHPEHU FRXQWULHV DUH WKH &RPPRQZHDOWK &DULEEHDQ FRXQWULHV WRJHWKHU from hopeless. It contains players of ZLWK &DQDGD &RORPELD *HUPDQ\ +DLWL ,WDO\ 0H[LFR WKH 3HRSOHœV 5HSXEOLF RI genuine talent, five of them no older &KLQD WKH 8QLWHG .LQJGRP DQG 9HQH]XHOD than 23. It also possesses, in the 37-year-old Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the batsman who is officially the APPLICATIONS world's best. Chanderpaul returned to the top place in the ICC rankings )XOO GHWDLOV RI WKH MRE RSSRUWXQLWLHV JXLGHOLQHV IRU WKH VXEPLVVLRQ RI DSSOLFDWLRQV DQG with his stoic displays in the recent JHQHUDO LQIRUPDWLRQ DERXW WKH &DULEEHDQ 'HYHORSPHQW %DQN &'% PD\ EH REWDLQHG home series against Australia. IURP WKH %DQNœV ZHEVLWH DW KWWS ZZZ FDULEDQN RUJ But as a whole they lack nous. Too often they have failed to last the &'% LV D PXOWL ODWHUDO GHYHORSPHQW ILQDQFH LQVWLWXWLRQ WKDW ZRUNV LQ FROODERUDWLRQ ZLWK LWV distance in Test matches, putting %RUURZLQJ 0HPEHU &RXQWULHV WR SURPRWH VXVWDLQDEOH VRFLDO DQG HFRQRPLF GHYHORSPHQW themselves in positions of control ZLWKLQ WKHVH FRXQWULHV DQG HFRQRPLF FRRSHUDWLRQ DQG LQWHJUDWLRQ DPRQJ WKHP which have been too easily wrested
from them. Many of their players, especially but not exclusively the batsmen, look ill-equipped for the peculiar, stringent demands of longform cricket. It cannot be easily rectified, although Ottis Gibson, the coach, who was formerly England's fastbowling coach, has introduced more discipline. He has also been loyal to his preferred captain, Darren Sammy, which may prove costly. Sammy is a resolute character but his ability at the highest level is in doubt. Yet the playing aspect of the operation is in rude health compared to the administration of the game across the Caribbean. In almost every territory there is either discord or disruption. Guyana, Chanderpaul's home country, provides the most extreme example. The Government has intervened in the running of the country's cricket board, forcing the resignation of the board's president after police raided his home looking for computer files which may yield evidence of misdeeds. An Interim Management Committee was set up, under the chairmanship of Lloyd, the great Guyanese batsman. But the ICC condemned the Government interference, albeit half-heartedly. This leaves Lloyd in a peculiar place: chairman of an apparently renegade IMC, yet also still chairman of the ICC's cricket committee. In an unexpected turn of events, the Guyanese High Court found in favour of the board and the case reaches its next stage on 16 May, the day before the first Test at Lord's, in the Caribbean Court of Justice. To be continued: (Go to www. themontserratreporter.com)