“West Indies cricket – Strange and embarrassing happenings – Something is seriously wrong here!

Jun 12, 2011 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
By now, you have heard the rumors.  By every account, they are true and the news is not good at all!
For the very first time in my lifetime, and beyond, since 1928, West Indies is not scheduled to play any Tests matches at all in London next year; not at the extremely prestigious Lords Cricket Ground, or at the equally popular, especially with West Indies supporters, Kennington Oval.  That is very sad indeed!
There is a very slight chance that that might change, but it is not as easy as that, from what I hear.  Apparently, this came about because of their bidding system, with both Lords and Oval being outbid; that is, under-bid.  Hosting a Test match at either ground would cost more than it would elsewhere.
Tentative schedules have West Indies possibly playing England in Tests, in 2012, at Swalec Stadium, Cardiff, Wales; Trent Bridge, Nottingham; and Edgbaston, Birmingham, Warwickshire; all good cricket arenas.  If factual, some, like Darren Bravo and Kemar Roach, would miss out on very much!
The only life-line that a change of venues has is that the ground in Wales recently hosted Sri Lanka v England, Test 1, with the Lankans capitulating on Day 5, to lose embarrassingly.  Despite that England win, the cricket authorities in Cardiff lost much money.  With that in mind, there could, remotely, be a change about West Indies and playing at Lords.  The debate goes on, but things look quite dark, for now!
Any player worth his salt wants to, probably needs to, play a Test match at Lords, the ‘ancestral home of cricket’, even if he or she does quite badly in that game.  In 27 Tests, I got 125 wickets; avg. 23.3; 4.6 wickets per Test; very good statistics by any standards anywhere.  However, my worst Test returns ever were at Lords; match figures 0-101.  I would not have changed it for the world.  It was quite exhilarating!
Further, I spent the entire last weekend at Lords Cricket Ground; Sri Lanka v England; Test 2.  It was truly a most splendiferous visage.  One would struggle to see better in any sport, let alone cricket.  Lords was resplendent, courtesy of the spring rains, and the very hot early summer sunshine.  The ground glowed!
The great irony was that on Saturday, Day 2, with a very full house, I was invited, courtesy of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), to have lunch in MCC Committee’s Room, very adjacent to the Long Room, where, traditionally, the participating cricketers exit to the playing field.  That was just a start!
On Sunday, Day 3, I went one better.  I was invited to the private box of current MCC President, none other than my sometimes BBC Test Match Special broadcasting colleague, the encyclopedic, well-known journalist, Christopher Martin-Jenkins.  According to him, ‘You deserve it!’  I was totally astounded!
If you wonder what I was doing at Lords at all, I was there promoting that West Indies film; circa 1975 – 1985; “Fire in Babylon.”  I even visited friends and associates in the futuristic media centre.  It was from there that I gleaned, as if I did not already know it, that West Indies had fallen so badly that English cricket authorities had decided that our team could not account to play at those prestigious venues!
Mind you, all of this fuss was for a guy who has played; some say very well; for West Indies, but who cannot get a complimentary ticket to go to cricket anywhere in the Caribbean.  Had I not been a Sports Journalist myself, I would have had to pay, like everyone else, to see cricket anywhere in the Caribbean.  But, the MCC, in all of its obviously stunning wisdom, invited me; twice; to Lords.  Can you believe it?
Oh, FYI, the last time that I asked anyone for a complimentary ticket in the Caribbean, was for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, in Guyana.  According to one of the highest ranking officials of Guyana’s Cricket Board, “who the hell do you (me) think you are?”  That, for all intents and purposes, was fully that!
I am sure that I would never ask another WICB person for any tickets again in my lifetime.  Ironically, the official who refused me tickets was my ‘friend’, at least, so he openly claims.  As the saying goes; “with friends like those, I do not need enemies!”  Yes, still we wonder that our cricket is in bad order!
Anyway, the now aging, but still highly vocal supporters who represented so well under Tavern Stands in Lords, and especially Oval, are almost all gone.  No more are places in the stands reserved for raving West Indies supporters, those places are now corporate boxes or extremely expensive seats.  In any case, these West Indies supporters are so very down-spirited these days that it does not really matter.
But that massive pass from the English cricket authorities is not the only visible rejection of our cricket!
Have you noticed that even with West Indies Cricket Board’s senior officials, its President and Chief Executive Officer, and team captain, all hailing from St. Lucia, that the stands were not more than half full for any of the three games; a T-20 and two ODI’s, v Pakistan, when the teams met in St. Lucia?
People are not that stupid anymore.  As one St. Lucian, a real cricket buff, who was actually in St. Lucia when the games were being played there, told me outside Lords; “Crofty, I could not pay to go to see that thrash.  I cannot take that crap!  Smart people will not pay good money to see bad cricket!”
Trinidad & Tobago also hosted three games against India.  Only the T-20 was sold out, not the two ODI’s, despite the tremendous noisy rhetoric from all concerned.  Try as they might, no-one is being fooled by the shadows forming around us.  I do not know about you, but something is seriously wrong here!
India, effectively, has a “semi-B” team in the Caribbean, for the T-20 and ODI series.  Yet, our cricketers, including Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Ramnaresh Sarwan, collectively, cannot get 250 in any ODI.  Indeed, ‘India – B’, for want of another name, has looked so unruffled that they seem almost comatose.   Not once in three games, to last Wednesday, has India even looked like losing any game.  It is pathetic!
In the real world, teams make 350 these days in ODI’s, but at No. 8 ranking in the one-day world of cricket, no one who really understands excellence should expect anything else.  Yet, like the emperor who could not understand his nakedness, West Indies cricket marches on, regardless of the tremendous shouts from everywhere about having no clothes on!  Folks, something is very seriously wrong here!
“Fire in Babylon” is supposed to inspire our present and next generation cricketers.  So far, it has failed!    Our cricketers should be able to do better.  It is no wonder that we are eliminated from London’s façade for 2012.  With London’s Olympics 2012 scheduled mostly for that great city too, in the summer, perhaps it is prudent, but not acceptable, not by me, that West Indies cricket is treated thusly.  Enjoy!

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