DOES WEST INDIES CRICKET FACE DEATH?

On Monday, September 26, I watched Trinidad and Tobago play their hearts out in a losing cause to the Mumbai Indians in the T20 Champions League. After being bowled out for 98 runs in their turn at bat, the Trinidadians fought so bravely Mumbai must have felt like they were chasing 980 runs.

Mumbai toiled in their quest to get the 99 runs required for victory and only managed to get there off the very last ball of their 20 overs after wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin missed a run-out opportunity that would have given Trinidad a remarkable victory. It wasn’t to be because after playing with such fire and grit Trinidad were left to rue what might have been. As the Mumbai players ran off in celebration, several of the Trinidadians lay face down on the field, their faces buried in the grass and in their hands, the chests heaving as if they were crying. Others hung their heads in despair, the souls hurting over the loss that could have so easily been a sweet and incredible victory.

Mumbai captain Harbajhan Singh said it afterwards; Trinidad deserved the victory. They may have deserved it but fate had the final say. But when you look at this Trinidad team over the past few years this is how they play. Once they don their red uniforms Darren Ganga and his band of cricketers play with a kind of passion rarely seen when some of these same players wear the maroon and gold of the West Indies.

We also see that kind of spirit from Jamaica, who has won the regional four-day competition six out of the last 10 years. Under the leadership of Tamar Lambert (for the most part) Jamaica plays with a singular focus and will that generally overcomes all that is put before them. We have also seen similar fight from the Windward Islands, the team that was usuallly the whipping boys of regional cricket.

Why is it then that we don’t see that kind of fight when these same players turn out to represent the West Indies? It could be that the players – young and old – are tired of the seemingly endless war of attrition between the West Indies Cricket Board(WICB) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), maybe it is that they just don’t that spirit of teamwork playing for the West Indies. Maybe they’re just tired of playing for a team that nobody seems to care about anymore.

Let’s face it, cricket in the region is dying. The sport no longer pulls people out of their homes and into the seats at the many cricket venues across the region. The sport can barely attract sponsors. The regional tournaments have no sponsors and one can only wonder how long it will be before Digicel finds a better way to spend the US$20 million it has committed to an organization that over the past few years has come to be known more for its bickering than for winning.

It was only a few years ago that former West Indies wicketkeeper Derrick Murray, now an administrator in Trinidad, suggested that Trinidad make a move to go it alone as an independent cricketing nation. Just recently, sports columnist Hartley Anderson made a similar call for Jamaica to go it alone as well. In part, his call has come against the background of the ongoing impasse between the WICB and hard-hitting opener Chris Gayle. Gayle has not played Test cricket for more than 10 months now and there are no signs he willl be included in the West Indies test set up anytime in the immediate future. This, despite the fact that he is one of the world’s most exciting batsmen and at 32, still a powerful force opening for the Caribbean team.

However, getting International Cricket Council recognition doesn’t immediately solve the problem. For all the vim and vigour Trinidad has demonstrated, it would be foolhardy to believe that they can take on the mighty Australians, England, and South Africa with any degree of success. The same can be said of Jamaica. Those teams have far better resources, facilities and management than we do here in the region. It would take many years of being battered for us to get the message that there are just not enough of us to produce the kind of quality cricketers that would make it worth the while to go it on our own. For the time being the answer still lies with the West Indies, but for the West Indies to survive, the bickering has to stop, the madness must become a thing of the past. More importantly, for cricket to matter anymore, the West Indies need to start winning and soon.

This cannot be a process that is going to take another generation to achieve results. Kids these days have video games to distract themselves with as well as other sports – track and field and football – that have yielded far better results and much less drama than cricket has over the past decade.

Notwithstanding the territorial teams doing well on their own – the key will be to get the players playing with the same passion they do for their countries for the West Indies. Passion is infectious and if the players can do that and get the odd win more often than not, then maybe there is a chance Windies cricket can survive. If not, cricket will go the way of the Do-Do bird; never to be seen again.