Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 04, 2011 Editorial
The West Indies held off India to secure a draw in the second test at Kensington Oval on Saturday. It is important to look carefully at that simple statement. It was the West Indies playing against India. And this is not just the hyperbole of a commercialized sporting event.
Cricket is a peculiar game that spread in the countries where it is played under the flag of colonialism. While the field of politics might have been the arena where the struggle for independence from Britain was waged, the cricket field played a not inconsequential role in that process also.
CLR James in his masterpiece, “Beyond the Boundary” captured this process with great wit and erudition. Cricket then, is not an ordinary game for West Indians. Our hopes and aspirations as a people that experienced slavery and indentureship are bound up with it.
At a time when most of the politicians seem to have given up on the forging of a closer political and economic union among our territories, only West Indian Cricket has literally kept that flag flying. We cannot afford to have that flag also fly at half mast.
Today, unfortunate developments are threatening to accomplish just that eventuality. We refer to the ugly impasse that has developed between the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) and several senior players – now represented in the form of Chris Gayle. But this standoff is just the occasion for the war between the Board and players, not the cause.
The cause also harks back to the history of the game as it developed specifically in the West Indies. Representing the British ruling class, the early Cricket Boards were firmly imbued by the elitist premises of that class. The ordinary people, scorned as the “hoi polloi”, were instructed in so many ways that they did not belong in the “gentlemen’s game.”
But they refused to “stay in their place” and by the sixties had fought their way onto the cricket field. They took on and began to dominate their erstwhile masters on the cricket field, through their unique style.
The Boards continued to be dominated by elements that looked down on the players – but they were caught between the desire to win and generate money for their Boards and their disdain for the players. They ended up insisting that they must have it both ways.
They would run the game and make all the decisions while the players were supposed to doff their caps, keep their eyes firmly on the ground and mumble, “Yes Sir.” This is the essential drama that is now playing out in West Indian Cricket.
When the players decided to form a players association – the West Indian Players Association (WIPA) – the board was furious: how dare the peons believe that they had rights? When the rise of the WIPA coincided with the huge increase in the finances of the game, the pecuniary interest of the WICB became exacerbated.
The contradictions intensified and relations between the two bodies deteriorated commensurately. The arrogant and high-handed attitude of the present CEO of the WICB, Ernest Hillaire, is therefore not an anomaly – it is the quintessence of how his Board envisages the “proper” relationship with the players.
This newspaper has on numerous occasions in this space called for this nonsense to be brought to an end. The present depressed state of WI Cricket is an inevitable offshoot of inequities in power between the Board and the players.
With their investment in cricket at all levels including undertaking massive debts to construct stadiums, the governments of the region have a vested interest in the game that goes beyond sentiment. They must heed Chris Gayle’s poignant plea for them to get involved to take back the game from the old oligarchy.
We note with appreciation President Jagdeo of Guyana’s support for reform and his proposal that the WICB have fixed term limits. We believe that reform must go deeper and must incorporate the Patterson Report that was commissioned by the WICB but has been shelved because it would have curbed some of their excesses.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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