Dear Editor,
I have been in Grenada for several days (not for cricket) conducting a survey, but almost everywhere my accent betrays my nationality, and the name of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and cricket quickly replaces a discussion on politics or elections. Grenada holds a national election on July 8. Grenadians love Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul. Chanders, as he is called, is respected, praised and admired throughout Grenada by people of all backgrounds. Every Grenadian says he is the most reliable West Indian batsman. And at the hotel where I am encamped, guests refer to the West Indies as a one-man team – “only Chanders can bat,” they would say when poking fun at the team.
As I move around the island with my team of interviewers to supervise a NACTA survey on the elections, I meet people from several islands. I met a Trini whom I was about to interview on how he intends to vote only to hear him say, “You are a Guyanese conducting a survey here.” Eventually the conversation turns to cricket, the reason he was in Grenada. “I get to like your Guyanese man Chanderpaul; he can bat.” And the same kind of language was uttered by other islanders settled in Grenada – St Lucians, St Kittians, and Jamaicans – of Chanderpaul.
The general feeling of West Indies cricket among people around rum shops, bars, the streets and hotels is the West Indian players are complacent and have a major attitude problem.
The players don’t take their cricket seriously and are not playing to their potential. Many of the batsmen throw away their wicket and at times their fielding is sloppy. People feel the batsmen are not disciplined when they bat poorly or behave irresponsibly.
One person told me he saw some of the players up late around 11pm around a bar the night before they played. My taxi driver said the West Indies players went to practise the day before a match and after two hours they were complaining they were tired and left back for the hotel, whereas the Aussies practised a full day and still wanted to remain on the ground to continue practising and exercising. One team has players who are lackadaisical and the other team has players who are self-motivated, disciplined and hard-working. You don’t find Aussies around a bar in the evening when they have to play next day. The Aussies were seen lapping up local Grenadian nutmeg medicines that they were told eased pain – nut rum or ‘ladies.’
The West Indies is the butt of jokes around Grenada and among tourists who came to the spice island to watch competitive cricket. They are disappointed but have decided to move on to St Kitts for the final two one-dayers. Al-though the West Indies is failing, I’m glad people love and respect our Chanders and hope he will remain focused on his cricket and not be influenced by those with deviant behaviour. He is a player committed to his potential and has made encouraging progress while the team fails miserably. Over the years, the man has displayed the kind of grit not seen by any other players in recent times. He has single-handedly taken on powerful opponents. The West Indies is in dire need of good leadership to motivate and influence the youngsters. The team should look to Chanders again if he would be willing to take the job having turned it down before.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram