-says Scyld Berry
The breakup of West Indies cricket, increasing with every bitter dispute between board and players, “might prove better for all concerned in the long run”, an influential English writer has suggested.
Scyld Berry, editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, considered the game’s most authoritative annual publication, wrote in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph that the demise of a once strong and iconic entitity could lead to a manageable world Test championship.
He noted that “nobody has yet come up with a really workable schedule” for such a championship under the present setup.
One leading to semi-finals and final would be too time consuming but, if the West Indies territories went their separate ways, as mooted recently by Forbes Persaud, chief executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), and others, it would allow for the more convenient arrangement of a league of three divisions.
The champions would be determined on a regular league basis, rather than a drawn out itinerary leading to semi-finals and final.
It might come to pass “sooner rather than later,” Berry stated, referring to the continuing turmoil in West Indies cricket.
“West Indian cricket seems to have a death wish, to judge by the inability of its administrators and players to pull together,” he continued. “Not even the ultimate humiliation of being beaten at home by Bangladesh has sparked any common sense, purpose or sanity.”
He noted that only a “common culture” kept the now independent, former British colonies together and “this no longer appears to be strong enough”.
While he felt that the West Indies might assemble “decent” teams for World Cups and Twenty20 tournaments he declared that their incompetence at Test level “is now a sorry fact.”
In that case, he asserted, “it might prove better for all concerned, in the long run, and after a painful separation, if the West Indian territories were to do what Trinidad proposes”.
That would allow a league of two, or three, of what Berry called “natural divisions”.
Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka would be in the first division, playing each other home and away in series of at least three Tests with two points for a series win and one for a draw.
There would be a winner at the end of every three or four-year cycle so that every match had a context.
Berry envisaged the second division starting off with Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and the five main West Indian territories (Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and “perhaps” Combined Islands).
“There would be a real incentive for them to top their division and play off against the bottom team in the first division at the end of the cycle,” he wrote. “National, not regional, pride would become the driving force, with the aid of governments and without the West Indian board getting in the way.”
Berry’s mooted third division would consist of Ireland, Scotland, Kenya, Canada “and the like” with the top team at the end of the cycle playing off against the bottom side of division two.
“Statisticians might say the whole corpus of Test records will be devalued but that cannot be a prime consideration – and the standard would rise if only the first division had Test status, and the second division played first-class internationals,” he added.
“Besides, the historical corpus has already been devalued by Bangladesh – and by the West Indies’ reserve team who have just been beaten by them.” (TC).
