Dear Editor,
Why is it that we remain silent when our most beloved cricketers are maligned by outsiders? You will recall some time ago, Mr Hayden of Australia opined that Brian Lara was selfish when he batted on to score 400 against England and that an Australian would never have declared and gone on for a win. Now we have Mr Kevin Pietersen of England doing the same to beloved West Indian, Shiv Chanderpaul.
We know that we have problems with our cricket administration, and that West Indies cricket has seen better days, but the silence by our own commentators is deafening when it comes to this kind of eyepass. Take our world renowned cricket commentator, Tony Cozier for example.
He does not miss a beat in criticizing the WICB or the WIPA. Yet Mr Cozier was one of the first to jump on Mr Allen Stanford’s bandwagon (like many of us) and in one article spoke glowingly of the fact that Mr Stanford is so accessible and recognizable to the fans in the Caribbean, whereas the WICB President was exactly the opposite. Mr Cozier did not waste any time in piling it on the WICB and the WIPA in the recent fiasco (in Antigua) and this developing threat of a strike by the players. Yet, for all his ranting and raving, I have never heard him once suggest any real solution except to call for the WICB and WIPA to sit down and work things out and I have never heard him once defend any West Indian cricketer against unfair criticism.
I remember a couple of commentators comparing Sajid Mahmood’s face with that of a certain animal. Had some of these remarks been made on an American TV or radio broadcast, the commentators would have been fired pronto. To say that the English commentators are biased in favour of their countrymen would be a huge understatement.
Anyway, this brings me back to my original point. We need people like Tony Cozier and Michael Holding and Fazeer Mohammed to stand up and say enough is enough when it comes to the West Indian players being maligned by the Pietersens of the cricketing world. They need to take a cue from Gavaskar, who is never shy in pointing out the hypocrisy by the umpires such as when they took the word of the Australians against the Indians in the Andrew Simmons/ Harbijan Singh incident and in a catch claimed by Pointing off Dravid (replays showed that the ball hit the ground first).
Obviously the West Indian players are playing with more confidence and it was heartening to see the skipper, Chris Gayle stand up for Shiv.
This proves that he is growing nicely into his position as captain and earning his players’ respect. As for Shiv, well we all know that he is best when he feels that he has something to prove and I have a feeling that Pietersen and company better walk with a lot of suntan lotion on Friday. It could be a long day for them.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Z Rahaman
