Genteel Lord’s erupting, Guyanese must take note

Jul 04, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Life sometimes presents surprising reactions from people who believe that they were dealt with unfairly, that somebody took advantage of them. Even the most mannered, the most controlled, and the most concerned about appearances can lose it and throw caution to the winds, when it is felt they have been wronged. This was what took place at the majestic and storied Lord’s cricket ground during the Second Test match of the Ashes cricket series between archrivals England and Australia. The swells and the top hats lost their stiff British upper lip standard, incensed that what they believe is fair play did not prevail. They raged and they lashed out with uncharacteristic abandon. Manners maketh man, but sometimes matters become so unacceptable, according to one’s judgment, that the floodgates fall, and spontaneous human reactions erupt.

It may be huge disappointment about what is likely thwarted, which expresses itself in rage long not felt, almost never manifested publicly. But all this visited hallowed Lord’s cricket ground, the mecca and Himalaya, of the game. Even more unusual was that the outrage poured out from the members’ areas. When Jonny Bairstow was given out, unfairly and in an unsportsmanlike manner, it was thought, the dam of restraint collapsed. What followed was not likely seen before at stuffy, well-controlled Lord’s. It is the sacred sanctuary of cricket, Lord’s is, where even the applause for a great shot, an incredible delivery and wicket, a stupendous catch is greeted with murmurs and restrained applause. But on Sunday, the courtly and well-respected let loose with their tumultuous wrath in oral condemnation and almost physical interception of a few Australian players.

Australian cricketers have earned a worldwide reputation for being the fiercest of competitors: they ask for no favor, and they give no favor. In the view of the purists of the game, the action that led to the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow was within the rules, but not in their spirit. What this shows is that when everything is on the line, then spirit is readily sacrificed to gain the upper hand. This was in the mere matter of a game of cricket, where any advantage was fought for, and seized with ferocious ruthlessness and energy. This was what Australia did at Lord’s on Sunday, and they walked away the winner, and with some degree of satisfaction of a job well done in their hearts.

For Australia, it was a battle on the field of play, and they gave not one millimeter. In Australia, Guyanese see exploiters reincarnated: murderously predatory, always on the prowl for an edge, no matter how it has to be had, it will be had. In the incensed British, a people known for almost inhuman self-control under devastating fire, there is a lesson for the Guyanese people. Guyanese find themselves locked in a fight to the death for a level playing field, for not what is just sportsmanship, but about what is the quality of their very existence, their lives. For what Guyanese are locked in mortal combat over is not a game involving a sport, but the unforgiving game of life.

For Guyana, theirs is a war for fairness, theirs is a conflict for justice, and theirs is an intense sense of a horrible wrong that has been inflicted upon them, something that afflicts them to their souls. Guyanese operate with a state of affairs that they now see as one that cheats them of their chance to a deserved prosperity, a destiny due. But it is being snatched from them in the most callous of fashions by an adversary that pretends to be of friendly partner. Guyanese live, like the infuriated British at Lord’s, with the bitterness that economic ascendancy has been wrenched out of their hands by a crude and brute and barbaric opponent, which leaves them unimaginably angry at the injustice. Growing numbers of Guyanese now harboring all manner of raging resentments, and ferocious animosities about who is friend, and who is enemy. One hugely upset English cricketer said that ‘we don’t think that sharing a beer would occur anytime soon.’ This is where all Guyanese should be with those who use supposedly sacred legal constructs to cheat them.

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cricket, Editorial, erupting, floodgates, Guyanese

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