The Caribbean has tuned out. For the first time in half a century, a West Indies Test series in Australia cannot be heard on the radio in the Caribbean.
‘’It speaks for itself, that people have become increasingly disillusioned with the way the West Indies have performed, especially at Test level,’‘ said Fazeer Mohammed, whose bright analysis can be heard on ABC Radio in Australia this summer, but will not make its way back home.
He is one of only two media representatives visiting from the West Indies for the three-Test series, which thus far has not captured the public imagination here or abroad.
Veteran broadcaster Tony Cozier, the most recognisable voice in West Indies cricket, has stayed home for the first time since Garfield Sobers’s side toured in 1968-69, while ball-by-ball radio coverage of the West Indies in Australia stretches back to 1951-52. Nor has Michael Holding made the trip, meaning there is no West Indies voice on television commentary for the first time since the Packer years.
Mohammed says the wane in Calypso interest has much to do with the modern infatuation with the short forms of cricket, which reached fever pitch when Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the final of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 in India last month.
The financial squeeze on radio stations, which would ordinarily take an ABC feed, has played a part.
“There is always the feeling that we are more competitive in the shorter forms of the game. In the last [world] Twenty20 tournament we did pretty well, making the semi-final, in one-day cricket we are always there and thereabouts, we are hosting the Twenty20 [world championships] in April in the Caribbean,’‘ he said.
‘’Also this is being played at night-time in the Caribbean … What it really reflects is that all of our radio stations – we are not like a national broadcaster – rely on companies to sponsor the broadcast and at least up until the first day’s play there didn’t seem to be that corporate support to justify bringing on the commentary.”
There was little support, too, at the Gabba, where 14,774 people turned up to see Australia bat against a young West Indies attack that showed some promise but could not sustain its assault.
This is the West Indies’ first appearance since senior men such as Chris Gayle, Shiv Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo made peace with their board after a dispute that further eroded interest in the once-dominant West Indies, who are ranked eighth internationally and in danger of sliding off the edge of the cricket world if their stars are not playing Tests.
Only this week Gayle pointed to poor Test attendances around the world as evidence he was not alone in being seduced by the shorter forms. Since then, Bravo, the embodiment of Calypso cool, has admitted he would have to weigh the benefits of a freelance role against a West Indies contract if the option was presented to him.
‘’It’s sort of like the baseball strike in the [United] States where the baseball fans said, ‘How could these guys who are living so well abandon us?’ “ Mohammed said. ‘’It is the same thing with cricket and I think why people are more and more switching off is they are tired of it.”
No one expects the West Indies to regain the Frank Worrell Trophy, but Mohammed says Caribbean fans are so emotional that even a spirited performance could prompt them to phone their radio stations and demand the cricket be switched back on. (reprinted from the Melbourne Age
