Ever since the first West Indies team toured England in 1900, cricket has been acknowledged as the one endeavour, above all others, that binds together and inspires the people of these tiny, largely inconsequential former British colonies.
In the course of a week, at the premier sporting event on the planet, that distinction abruptly shifted to another sport, driven by a towering giant from country Jamaica with a fitting surname and boosted by a host of other West Indians.
With the once proud reputation and dominance of West Indies cricket now reduced to embarrassing mediocity, Usain Bolt emerged on the track at the Beijing Olympics to fill the void as the world’s newest sporting star.
The ridiculous ease of his victories in the 100 and 200 metres and his part in the victorious sprint relay quartet, all in world record times, marked him not merely as the greatest sprinter of his time but arguably of all time.
For all the supercilious censure of the Olympics’ chief, Jacques Rogge, Bolt’s joyful celebrations revealed a personality unmistakeably Jamaican, unmistakeably Caribbean. So was the diet of the champion revealed by his father – yam, dasheen and sweet potatoes.
It was class and charisma to stir the coming generation of West Indians, accentuated through our tv screens by the first-rate Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) coverage.
Such motivation was once the almost exclusive preserve of our superior cricket teams and players, from George Headley to Garry Sobers, from Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards to Brian Lara.
No longer.
Betrayed by a dysfunctional administration, an ordinary West Indies team, now without an identifiable star, now flounders near the cellar of world cricket.
It is not difficult to imagine the long-term consequences for the sport that, more than any other, stamped West Indies as a brand name of distinction.
How many others with the advantages of Bolt’s height, physique and athleticism will now follow his path to the track rather than seeking to extend the celebrated legacy of West Indian fast bowling?
Bolt is exceptional but not an exception. Other West Indians, male and female, were all over the medals and the finals in the Beijing sprints.
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, always strong in these events, were most prominent but others, not least from the smaller islands that boast no cricket icons, are beginning to produce world-class competitors.
St.Kitts-Nevis rejoiced at the successes of Kim Collins, 100 metres gold medalist in the world championships in Paris five years back and finalist in both Beijing sprints. Grenada has Alleyne Francique, world indoor 400 metres champion.
Antigua won’t ever find sporting rivals for Sir Viv Richards, Andy Roberts and Curtly Ambrose but Brendon Christian sprinted to the 200 metres gold and 100 metres bronze at last year’s Pan American Games in Rio.
And more and more such athletes are making their name on the global stage. Cricketers are not among them.
Most of those who once promised so much – Marlon Samuels, Ryan Hinds, Narsingh Deonarine, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith – have fallen by the wayside.
Even in Barbados, home of more cricket legends than anywhere on earth of comparable size, the most recognisable sportsmen now are racing car drivers, jockeys and swimmers and more people turn up for a Caribbean volleyball final than for the opening day of a Test against Australia.
Such changes should be of urgent concern to those who manage the sport that was once the pride and joy of West Indians. Perhaps they might heed a few lessons from the Beijing experience.
One is that the Jamaican authorities have set out to develop their athletes at home and to institute a system to teach their own specialist coaches. Bolt and most of his colleagues train at home under Jamaican tutelage, rather than heading off to American universities as in the past.
Track is an individual sport, cricket team, so it may be comparing mangoes and oranges. But it is something to think about for those who have taken to employing Australians, worthy as they might be, to handle the West Indies cricket team.
Grace Jackson, herself an Olympic medallist for Jamaica in 1996 and, like Bolt, especially aptly named, made another strong point during her always succinct analysis on CMC’s coverage. It was that the Jamaicans were no longer intimidated by the Americans who had so utterly reigned in the sprints.
There was a time when opponents cowered before the cricketing might of West Indies teams under Worrell and Sobers, Lloyd and Richards. Now it is the other way round and there won’t be a revival until such insecurity is erased.
Ironically, a West Indian, Trinidad and Tobago’s four-time Olympics medal winner Ato Bolden, made observations on NBC tv about the Americans’ failures (Jamaica topped them 5-0 in the men’s and women’s sprints) that should have rung bells in the renovated office of the WICB president.
Boldon pointed the finger of blame at ineffective management. The chief executive of the US Track and Field had been replaced in an Olympic year, he noted, and there was no proper direction.
He was quick to point out that the 4×100 relay squad that dropped the baton had the letters USA on their vests scrawled by hand with a marker, not properly printed as everyone else did. And this was the US of A, the most powerful nation on earth that could have had them inscribed in flashing neon lights.
As West Indies cricket knows to its cost, such seemingly trivial matters are indicative of a deeper malaise.
USA Track and Field began an internal investigation as soon as the Games were over. The WICB did the same last year with the weighty report on the governance of West Indies cricket by a powerful committee headed by P.J.Patterson, the former Jamaican prime minister.
Typically, its main recommendations are yet to see the light of day.
It may be that the WICB is far too busy denying that its president ever took its money to spruce up his office and dealing with court action by its main sponsor and its dismissed corporate secretary to be sidetracked by such issues.
In the meantime, the eyes of our young sportsmen are firmly on Usain Bolt and the idols of other sports.
