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AT THE CRICKET

Mar 24, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Let us look on the positive side of the mistake made by the West Indies coach last Friday. Yes, there are positive dimensions to it.
For one, had it been the government of Guyana calling in the West Indies team, the mistake would have been blamed on the global financial crisis or on climate change. So we should not be too hard on the West Indies coach for what happened.
I am disappointed to have heard many persons opine that had the team not been instructed to accept the offer of “the light” that West Indies would have been one up in the series. We cannot make this prediction because we do not know what would have happened had the West Indies continued to bat. It is possible that they may not have been able, even with the one run deficit, to keep up with the revised par scores which change with each ball and after every wicket falls.
At the time of the acceptance of the bad light offer, the West Indies were in dire straits and would have required a big effort to overtake England’s score in the remaining balls left. So theoretically the match could have gone either way but England surely had the upper hand, and at least in my estimation, had the better chance of winning before the West Indies management called them in.
The final positive is that regardless of what happened we had a good game. We had virtually a partisan crowd on hand. There were quite a few English supporters on hand but their cheers for their team would have been drowned out by the fantastic support that the regional team enjoyed.
It matters not which team you support, there should always be appreciation for a good game. And what we had in the two days of cricket this past weekend were enthralling contests, close matches that went down to the wire and which therefore proved memorable. This is the sort of cricket that is enjoyable and while most wanted West Indies to win, such a win is better savored when the games are close and exciting.
To want your team to win is good but your team should also win fairly. In the second one day international, strangely the lights were turned on. I found it surprising that this was done when it was clear that West Indies were winning but during the first one day international when the Englishmen were having the upper hand, the lights were not turned on.
I am not accusing anyone of being unfair. But the fact that the lights were turned on during a day match to facilitate its completion needs an explanation. Did the captains of the two sides, along with the match referee agree to the use of the lights should the place become dark? And was it lawful for artificial lighting to be used?
I dread to think what would have been the situation at the ground had the lights been turned off during the second one day international, and of course I did not hear too many persons clamoring for the lights to be turned on during the first match.
That first match had its moments. But it was the first time that I and I suppose thousands of cricket fans, left the ground of a cricket match without knowing who won. No one via the public address system informed the fans, up to the time I departed the ground, as to the result of the match. And I think this was good because we could have had a terrible situation on our hands had the announcement come indicating that the West Indies team had accepted the light at a point when they were one run behind the target set under the Duckworth/ Lewis system which is used to determine the outcome of shortened matches.
A piece of history was made on Friday. Almost ten thousand cricket fans left a stadium clueless as to the result of the match. Now is that not also something that is memorable, even though it is not as pleasing an experience as one could wish.
Only in Guyana they say! Only in Guyana!

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