“Culture shock – get me out of here for the cricket!”

Feb 02, 2014 Sports

Colin E. H. Croft
Having not been to Trinidad & Tobago for some considerable time, I suffered real culture shock for one of the few times that that has happened in my life, after arriving to participate, as a media practitioner, in the new NAGICO West Indies Cricket Board 50 Overs tournament for 2014.

Keddy Lesporis (WICB), Tamar Lambert (WICB), Andre McCarthy (WICB)

Firstly, it seemed that no-one at all knew that the cricket was on. Not even my favorite people at Piarco International Airport, taxi-drivers, knew that there would be quite serious regional cricket being played at Queen’s Park Oval from last Thursday to February 15 next.
It is relatively close to Carnival 2014, so one could understand the respective media houses doing the normal thing, neglecting cricket for bacchanal, carnival being the most substantial part of culture in T&T. Hence, reserves, man-power and resources are spent on that celebration than on cricket.
But I could not understand the massive traffic grid-locks on the main roads of Trinidad, from Piarco Int’l Airport to my place of abode near Valsayn, and then a similar distance from there to Queen’s Park Oval, for the cricket itself. That drive to QPO was easily the most hazardous I have ever done!
In another life, I had driven a bus for Walt Disney World. To get to work in Central Florida, a journey of 28 miles, as the crow flies, I had to pass through Orlando, which, in December 2012, took me two hours.
But, nowhere in my life-time have I seen traffic so chaotic and continuous as my drive to the QPO last Thursday. From start to finish, the distance from home to cricket ground must have been no more than 15 miles, yet it took me almost three hours, aided and abetted by thick smog from burning debris.
Everywhere, in every direction, one could see extremely long snaking lines of traffic. There was nowhere to turn to, nowhere to hide. And this was not even rush hour, but mid-morning traffic.
One wonders how anything gets done anywhere in T&T, since, from very practical recent experiences, it takes ages to get from any one point to another. And the culture of the country is such that most people operate from offices. Hence maximum individual vehicular use being so horrendous.
In this day and age, when smart phones are so good that they could launch satellites, and computers can hold entire countries’ budgets, why is it always necessary, in our 3rd world, to go to an office to operate properly? Why not stay at home, tele-commute, and, at your own leisure, probably get more done?
But, the drive and hassle to get to QPO was really worth it for that first game in the West Indies 2014 season; Jamaica v Windward Islands, the defending 2013 50-over champions. What a game we had!
By the end of game one of the tournament, five hundred and fifty runs had been scored in 100 overs, for the loss of only thirteen wickets, and, in the end, Jamaica just eclipsing Windward Islands by 14 runs.
That does not tell the entire story at all.
Batting first, Jamaica were wobbling badly at 32-3, courtesy of the strongly built Dominican Mervin Mathew, whose tough out-swingers and off-cutters had Jamaica in a confused tizzy.
Then the “old man” of Jamaica, Tamar Lambert, perhaps a bit heavier, former captain extraordinaire, who had led Jamaica to several consecutive four-day tournament triumphs, came to the crease.
With a surprisingly inexperienced “young pup”, Andre McCarthy, playing in only his eight ‘List A’ game, Lambert pulled Jamaica from the abyss with a typical, dogmatic example of intelligent cricket.
The pair put on 179 for that 4th wicket stand, both falling when in sight of a century each; Lambert for a thoughtfully constructed 88, McCarthy for an enterprising 93. But Jamaica were not done yet.
Andre Russell and Carlton Baugh, both former West Indies players, clouted the tiring Windwards for a quick-fire 50 run partnership in only 3.4 overs, to take Jamaica to an impressive, if not impregnable, 282-5.
Windwards started briskly, Devon Smith and Johnson Charles, former and sometimes present West Indies players, beating Jamaica’s fast but sometimes wild opening spells for 62 in only 11 overs, a good start.
But the best innings of the game was still to come, that from another relatively new name, Keddy Lesporis of St. Lucia. Playing with a maturity that belied his only 12 “List A” games, he and Smith, for a time, looked like they could marshal Windwards for an unlikely win, until Smith went for a relatively laborious 52.
Lesporis then commandeered the bowling with authority, losing partners along the way, as he batted, and battled, to his very first “List A” century, 100 not out, as Windward Islands managed a respectable 268.
Lambert was named “man of the match” for his indomitable contribution with bat and ball; he also got two wickets; but that innings of Lesporis was sheer class, even worth the effort of dancing with the dangers of T&T’s traffic. What a start to the competition, if only the traffic was more manageable! Enjoy!