West Indies Cricket Conference Good luck to Dr. Keith Rowley

Apr 23, 2024 Sports

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By Colin E. H. Croft – Former Guyana, Lancashire CCC and West Indies International Cricketer (1970 – 1983)

Kaieteur Sports – Dear All involved in the progress of West Indies cricket: Greetings!  Hopefully, the upcoming, very important meeting in Trinidad & Tobago, on West Indies cricket, would bring severely needed openness, and much better changes in communications and involvements for all concerned – present and past players, politicians, business men and women, sponsors, organizations, conglomerates, schools and universities.

Very good luck to Dr. Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, in hosting this meeting, as this is a very good initiative.  Thank you, sir.

The normal practice in West Indies cricket, even before I had played for West Indies in 1976/77, through my entire cricket career, and which has continued to this very day in April, 2024, has been that ONLY a few selective personnel and former players, could be included; really very few; along with many massive exclusions, even severe, very open, very hostile victimization too, to so many of us who really want to contribute fully to the cause of the further development, enhancement and success of West Indies cricket.

As a former, extremely prominent, unnamed WI player once told me: “Crofty, WI cricket is like incest.  They only deal with a few others like themselves!”

Since 1992/3, with my experiences, knowledge, qualifications and skills in both International Cricket and Education / Teaching, and many other situations too, I have tried desperately to be intimately involved in the operations of West Indies cricket.  Outside of very few appearances as a “West Indies Legend” (What???), nothing else has ever been mentioned, much less offered.

Those scenarios have existed in our cricket over several decades, even though, very note-worthily, one past President of Cricket West Indies (West Indies Cricket Board back then), Jamaican Businessman and Lawyer, the late Mr. Patrick Rousseau, had, in the early 1990s, almost immediately after achieving that position, actually endeavored to bring ALL then present and former WI players, all who could have attended – hundreds attended – to a convention in Kingston, Jamaica, for open discussions and communications about WI cricket.

Notably, Honorable P. J. Patterson, then Prime Minister of Jamaica, also attended, and he, soon afterwards, penned a wonderful document, with the hopeful improvements and objectives of West Indies stated therein.    After several such documents in the following years, “PJ’s” document must have cobwebs by now, as apparently, so I am told, none of his suggestions had ever been used.

Anyway, not only was that event quite enlightening, it was actually unique, as it was the first, and last, such fully inclusive event, as hosted by CWI (WICB) and / or the Governments of the Caribbean, to ever take place, as far as I know.

When Sir Everton Weekes, Seymour Nurse and David Holford, all former stalwarts and servants of Barbados and West Indies cricket, and Joseph Solomon, also a stalwart for Guyana and West Indies cricket, passed away not so long ago, I thought long and hard that the West Indies cricket fraternity MUST institute a “CRICKET HEROES DAY” as soon as possible, since many of our REAL cricketing heroes, those who REALLY brought about our REAL LEGACY, and inspired all of us who followed in the cricket world, from the 1950s, 1960s, even 1970s and 1980s, have been leaving us, permanently, at very regular intervals.

I have even attended such similar events in the United Kingdom a few times, courtesy of the UK Professional Cricketer Association.

Anyway, since the Pat Rousseau undertaking, in the early 1990s, if anything, the entire scenario and facade in WI cricket has regressed, when it comes to open communications, becoming even more closed off from so many.

NOTE PLEASE:  It has become such that even vacant employment situations at CWI are never published publicly, much less to be applied for.  Yes, I can state many such instances over the last twenty years, including over the present CWI’s remit, but that would be wasting more time.

It is now time, however, to clear that air fully, and remove all obstacles, if West Indies cricket is, indeed, going to really progress as it should.

That thought also emanates from my most recent aviation employment situation, at Delta Air Lines (Orlando, Florida / Atlanta, Georgia, USA), since 2015, an entity, which, incidentally, has over 85,000 employees worldwide. (Aged 62 years old when hired, B.T.W., Do you think that ANY Caribbean entity, in ANY sphere of professionalism life, would hire someone, off of the road, since I had never previously worked for DAL, even with my extensive aviation experiences elsewhere, at 62 years old?     Naah!!     I do not think so!    The Caribbean pensions off its Classroom Teachers at 60 years old.  What a waste of talent).

Anyway, ALL DAL employees, without exception, have DIRECT and FULL access to the CEO and the Management Operational Team(s).  Per many seriously encouraged suggestions and concerns, including several from me, many changes, internal and company universal, have been openly discussed and implemented since I have been employed at DAL, especially over the trying and tiring times of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, and the aviation emergence since.

B.T.W.  Thank you Mr. Philip Ayoung-Chee (Retired Urologist), for your narrative earlier today.  Excellent points, sir.  Thank you very much.

So, as the West Indies, the rest of the Caribbean and USA, and diaspora around the world await the exciting ICC WT-20 2024, there are few additional things to note and consider that have irked me, and many other former, probably more important former West Indies cricketers, for years, even over decades.

WEST INDIES CRICKET LEGACY & HISTORY

Many of the especially younger people, and even many older, supposedly knowledgeable heads, in cricket and politics, who really should know better, now involved in our cricket, have absolutely no ideas as to the histories of West Indies cricket.  For most of them, their knowledge begins in the mid-1990’s, about 30 years ago, when superlative batsman, former Trinidad & Tobago and WI Captain Brian Lara, twice broke the Test batting records of that incomparable cricketing genius, former Barbados and WI Captain Sir Garfield Sobers, and his own record too – Lara’s 375 (v England, Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua & Barbuda, 1994), and 400 n.o. (v England, Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua & Barbuda, 2004), eclipsing Sir Gary’s 365 n.o. (v Pakistan, Sabina Park, Jamaica, 1958).

As my favorite Calypsonian of all time, the late, absolutely great Dr. Winston Bailey – simply “The Shadow” (without the normally incorrectly added ‘Mighty’) – suggested in his fantastic effort “Jump Judges Jump!” (Album “Dreadness” – 1977):
Quote:  “Deh bring people to judge meh; who have degrees in stupidity!”

If you think “Dr. Shadow” was wrong, then read the following:
One of the Caribbean’s supposedly most learned historians, with degrees from everywhere coming out of the ass, once openly suggested that the MOST successful quartet of WI Fast Bowlers ever, were the late Malcolm Marshall, Sir Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Joel Garner, who, playing together, only played six Test games, realizing just over 50 wickets between them.

Meanwhile, Michael Holding, Sir Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Colin Croft played eleven Tests together, realizing 172 wickets from the possible 220 available wickets, with some of those 11 games drawn, but at least the VERY BEST West Indies fast bowling, combined together, efforts ever.

“Dr Shadow” was not wrong: “Deh bring people to judge meh; who have degrees in stupidity!”     

Quite so!!

F.Y.I. West Indies cricket has existed, in its international Test form, since 1928.  That is 96 years ago.

Many today involved in WI cricket even suggest that “that history is before their (my) time”.  Well, so are the histories of playwright William Shakespeare, scientists Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, and musician / composer extraordinaire Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

I would wager that more people in the West Indies cricket fraternity know more about those erstwhile gentlemen than they know of, for instances;  (a)  “Massa” George Headley, the former Jamaica and WI batsman, and the FIRST Black man to captain the West Indies Test team, in 1948 – (NO, it was NOT Sir Frank Worrell, in 1960/1), or  (b)  that in 1979-80, the West Indies cricket team, led by Sir Clive Lloyd, and including yours truly – most wickets on that tour – beat Australia in a Test series, played in Australia, for the very first time ever, or,   (c) even more recently, and pertinently, for the upcoming ICC World T-20 2024 tournament, that, in the 2012 tournament, in Sri Lanka, and the 2016 tournament, in India, both won by West Indies, that Jamaican all-rounder Marlon Samuels had been “Man of the Final Match” in 2012, with 78, from 56 balls, in a winning total of 137 – 6, and also “Man of the Final Match”, in 2016, with 85 n.o. from 66 balls, in a total of 161- 6?

But all you hear about is about Darren Sammy, the team’s captain, Chris Gayle and Carlos Brathwaite.  Well, F.Y.I., those three DID NOT play by themselves!

(Please read, fully digest and understand those Marlon Samuels statistics again, to fully appreciate his fantastic inputs in those two tournaments successes.)

These are just some of perhaps thousands of pieces of information missing from our present, standard normal cricketing information and education.

As I have heard many times: “If one does not know one’s history, one cannot aspire to emulate and enhance that history!”

QUESTION 1:  So where exactly is either a full museum or library, specific to West Indies cricket, held anywhere in the Caribbean, even at the supposedly welcoming University of the West Indies?

(NOTE:  Delta Air Lines was also inaugurated in 1928, as Delta Air Services.  Right now, anyone can visit, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the Delta Air Lines Museum – massive area – which includes, among some truly magnificent displays of the company’s aviation history, that very whole, in every way, the very FIRST, Boeing 767 wide-bodied airliner ever used by DAL, in 1982, and named “The Spirit of Delta”.    THAT Boeing 767-200 airliner had actually been BOUGHT BY THE EMPLOYEES ONLY, then present and former, and friends, and DONATED by them to their employer, DAL.)

So, as a stupid comparison, where are the trophies won by West Indies in ICC CWC 1975 and 1979, and those from ICC WT-20 2012 and 2016, displayed?

While the Cricket West Indies website has recently improved, it is still one of the most difficult to negotiate, and to get information from thereof, as regards the probably much less than 1000 people who would have played for West Indies in any cricket format.

Even today, in April 2024, with much technology around, there are still minimal descriptions, and many photographs missing, of many past and present regional and international cricketers on CWI’s website.  Indeed, if anyone wants to get information on West Indies cricket, one normally goes to ESPN-CRICINFO.

How can that make sense to anyone involved in West Indies cricket?

PRESENT AND PAST PLAYERS – MALE & FEMALE

QUESTION 2 (a):  Where is the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) in all of this?  What exactly is their true role for the players, past and present?  Whom exactly do they represent, only the present players, and perhaps a few known former players?

QUESTION 2 (b):  There is also a relatively new past player association in the Caribbean – The West Indies Retired Players Association (WIRPA) – as presently partly fronted by the present President of the Queen’s Park Cricket Club in Trinidad & Tobago, Dr. Nigel Camacho, WI Team’s Dentist in T&T.

From what I can glean, some financing has been recently released to the WIRPA that had been on hold for some time, for whatever reasons.  What exactly are the aims, plans, outlook and inputs into WI cricket by WIRPA, as regards the well-being of present and especially former West Indies cricketers?

In other words, who does ANY former WI or Regional player have to BEG, and probably be publicly embarrassed by, to get ANY assistance at all, if one had played for WI or one of the Regional countries?  Just check on what the NFL and NBA and MLB do for their veterans in the USA, or even by my airline, DAL, for that matter.

Also, is it YET widely known that EVERY past player, for India, as far as I was informed, gets a monthly stipend – I was even told a number amount; quite substantial, too – from the BCCI?

QUESTION 3:  What about a UNIVERSAL PASS, not unlike a driver’s license, which both present and former WI cricketers could carry, to identify themselves, at regional and world-wide cricket grounds?

Ironically, and luckily, on my many free-lance Cricket Journalism travels around the world, except for Bangladesh, where I have never been, I have always been quickly accepted and accommodated, and immediately issued with relevant documentations, might it be in Australia, UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand or elsewhere.

NOTE THIS PLEASE:  Right now, with about 40 days before ICC WT 20 2024 begins, I, Colin Croft, have neither the applied for Official Accreditation for that tournament / competition, or a ticket / pass to attend any of the scheduled games.

Must former WI players continue to beg for complementary tickets.  Surely, all past WI cricketers who helped build this supposed LEGACY deserve better.

ALSO NOTE THIS PLEASE:  Recently, I received notifications from BOTH the England and Wales Cricket Board, (ECB), and the UK Professional Cricketers Association, (UK PCA), that ANY FORMER INTERNATIONAL OR COUNTY PLAYERS, who want to attend ANY County games or ANY County cricket grounds in the UK – International games have different criteria – ONLY have to access a certain given operating website, complete the registration, and then input one’s request, to gain access to whichever cricket ground in question.  TWO free tickets are thusly allocated for each day of ECB County Cricket.

Anyway, the first time that I actually heard of a UNIVERSAL PASS for former West Indies cricketers was in 1972, when he was playing for Warwickshire CCC,  when I first met former WI official Vice Captain / Acting Captain, Ambassador Deryck Murray, whom I met at WCCC while I was on a cricketing scholarship.

NONE of the ensuing WICB / CWI Officials have even tried to make this possible, but, remember, they claim that they have the LEGACY of WI cricket to heart.

I doubt that 20 past players, per WI territory, would attend the cricket, even if allowed, so why can there not be passes available for those who so desire?

CWI and respective Caribbean Governments suggest that they have the LEGACY of West Indies cricket in mind.  That LEGACY started in 1928, NOT in 1994.

(F.Y.I.:  My ALL Airports Accreditation, through DAL, allowing me FULL clearances and accesses for ALL airports in the USA, after FULL security checks by the FBI, CIA, Orlando Airport Authority, all local, regional, State of Florida, and national USA police entities, was issued to me within, NOTE PLEASE,  72 hours – three days – after I heard the words “You are hired”, as issued by my DAL Manager, Mr. Lee Boots, at Orlando International Airport (MCO).  Remember, DAL has over 85 000 employees.)

Another wager here. I would bet anything that I have that the present WIPA or CWI do NOT even have the present, correct contact information of ALL present and former WI players, male or female, which probably number less than 1000.  Right now, I can contact ANY one of the over 85,000 personnel at DAL directly.

So, here are a few examples where a UNIVERSAL PASS for each former WI or Regional cricketer would have sufficed very well.

(a) During my sojourn into Sports Journalism from 1993/4 to the present time, many former Regional and West Indies international players have accosted me, as one of the operating media, as to HOW can they get a complimentary ticket, just to attend the games themselves, in their respective islands / countries?

(i)  I will never forget late former T&T and WI off-spinner, Jack Noreiga (the man who still holds the best innings bowling Test record for West Indies – 9 for 95 v India, Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad & Tobago, 1971), late, former T&T off spinner Leo John, and late, former T&T all-rounder and WI tourist (1969 West Indies Tour to the UK), Pascal Roberts, begging me, with open tears in their eyes, either for tickets, or for a means to ascertain said tickets, just for themselves, to see cricket at the QPO.  Incidentally, this happened so often in 2007, when WI hosted ICC CWC 2007; seriously embarrassing and quite disappointing.

(ii)  In Antigua & Barbuda, in 1992/3, during Pakistan’s tour of West Indies, I had made arrangements with the West Indies then Coach/Manager, my friend and former team mate, Sir Andy Roberts, to get a set of tickets, for me only, for daily entrance into the ARG.  As I approached the gateway for the Players pavilion, and on inquiring about said tickets, the gate-man then accosted / abused me with the following (exact prose):

“All yuh f…ing people does try all kind ah f…ing ting.  I know who is Colin Croft, and YOU is NOT he!”

That was, effectively, that.

Had the then WI captain Sir Richie Richardson, not looked out of the window just then, and identified me, I probably would not have gotten into the ARG that day.  Said the said gate-man afterwards:

“Oui. Yuh is Colin f…ing Croft feh true?!”

(iii)  This following incident, which I have repeated many times, was the worst, really, as to this very day, I still cringe when I think about it.  Read on please.

The late Sir Everton Weekes and I (He is / was one of my batting heroes, as MY middle name was given to me because of him), were part of the commentary team covering Pakistan’s Tour to the Caribbean 2000, at the Kensington Oval, Barbados.  As we approached the main, northern entrance to KO, jostling with the crowds, with a plan to proceed to the newly renovated Media Stand at the southern end of the ground, we were both asked for our Media Accreditation.

I had a Media Accreditation, but Sir Everton did not have any accreditation, or tickets, to enter the ground.  (Please note that this is/was the SAME Sir Everton Weekes, one of the best batsmen WI cricket ever had, and whom had represented Barbados in at least TWO sports – Cricket and Bridge / Cards).

I tried to explain to the gate personnel that THIS was indeed THE Sir Everton Weekes, of West Indies cricket fame.  The gates personnel thusly insisted:

“Mr. Croft, I KNOW who Sir Everton is, but he CANNOT come into the ground WITHOUT a pass or accreditation.”

I stood there and cried like a child, since I could not believe what I was hearing.  That, folks, is HOW we treat our LEGACY!!

Sir Everton was as gracious as ever, suggesting to me: “Everton (he always called me that) please do not worry about me.  Please go ahead, as I will sort this out.”  

I did not move, as I decided that, come what may, I would stay with MY hero to the end that situation.  Eventually, about 30 minutes later, one of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) personnel had to come to the gate to allow Sir Everton Weekes entry and access to the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Until the day I die, I would NEVER forget that situation, and the way we actually treated our LEGACY.

Believe me, I can go on and on, about the rank stupidity and asininity that entails in West Indies cricket, but I would be wasting time.  As “Old Lady” Sylvia used to say often:

“Hitting your head regularly against a brick wall will not do anything but give you a massive headache, as the wall would probably never break!”

Sylvia Celestine was also correct.  Nothing really changes, regardless as to whom suggests, with so much fanfare, that they will indeed change!

Time will tell.  Cheers.

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• Colin E. H. Croft, Dr. Keith Rowley, Former Guyana, important, Lancashire CCC and West Indies International Cricketer

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