Cricket Cracks

May 18, 2011 Editorial

Far be it for us to throw a damper on our WI cricketing fans’ exultation in the team’s win over Pakistan at Providence. A win is a win; especially for a team that had not accomplished this feat since 2009. But it would be foolhardy to ignore the cracks – some may say yawning chasms – that had been exposed in the relations between the WICB and Coach Gibson on one side, and the senior players Gayle and Chanderpaul on the other.
After the two players were not picked initially for the ODIs, it became very evident that communications from the coach and the Board to the players left very much to be desired. There appeared to be a complete unwillingness to deal with the players as equals and the Board seemed determined to continue with its historical paternalistic and condescending behaviour. The Board and its coach would bark its orders and the players would respectfully doff their caps, cast their eyes downwards as they murmured, “Yess sah” respectfully.
The players only heard they were being axed when they picked up their morning newspapers. Chanderpaul might have had an inkling when he later revealed that the coach had earlier demanded that he resign. The Board then had the temerity to express disappointment with Gayle when the latter answered a call from the IPL’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. The whole episode now seems to be a not-so-clever ploy to make Gayle appear as a mercenary in the eyes of the fans.
Behind all of this, it appears that Gibson and WICB CEO Hillaire are working in tandem to execute a macabre plan to make automatons of players, in what we believe to be a misguided attempt to resolve disciplinary problems in the team. Either players toe the line on the most picayune of issues as laid down by the Board or “off with their head!” Gayle appears to be too outspoken.
Back in December 2009, the newly appointed Hillaire had expatiated on a number of issues surrounding WI cricket, in front of the cricketing fraternity and governmental officials in Guyana. As we reported then, he took a swipe at the WIPA for their “confrontational style” – but what was most noticeable was his own pugnacious determination to take them on. It is obvious that Hillaire has not yet gotten rid of that bee in his bonnet. Reacting to his mistreatment by the WICB, Gayle exclaimed: “They want to get rid of me. They want to get rid of WIPA. That’s all this is about… to get rid of WIPA.”
Hillaire had been scathing about the “cultural attitude” of Caribbean youths. In his opinion, they had “very little regard for hard work, discipline, authority figures and nationalist values.” He pledged to reverse that trend.
And it is in that context that we find his treatment of Shivnarine Chanderpaul most disgraceful. If there was anyone on the WI cricket team in the last decade that had demonstrated the greatest “regard for hard work, discipline, authority figures and nationalist values,” it was this humble man.
Not flamboyant or given to histrionics, Chanderpaul put his head down, played up and down the order to compile one of the most stellar records in the entire history of our game. Discipline and grit were his trademarks.
And he demonstrated these qualities once again in the test match that the team just won.
But how did Gibson, representing the stance of the Board, react? According to the T&T Express newspaper, asked about his relationship with Chanderpaul ,who had complained about the coach messing up his batting style, Gibson responded, “He’s come back into the team. I’ve sat down and spoke to him. I told him what I expected from him. He understands what it means to be a part of the team, or that team that I’m trying to create and hopefully he will buy into that. If he chooses not to buy into that, then that’s his problem, but my work is building a team.”
It would not appear that the WICB and the coach have not gotten off their high horse. It does not bode well for WI cricket.

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