Local cricket has now been firmly launched into orbit. It took a while but once the political administration took off the velvet glove and decided that the way forward was to simply bludgeon the Board out of existence the GCB simply didn’t stand a chance. The earlier trumpeting of the Attorney General were more or less the precursor to the final countdown. Once the police were pressed into service and the homes and the offices of the Board members were searched the writing was on the wall. And who can blame the GCB members.
So the political administration gets its way. The bullying has paid off and Clive Lloyd’s IMC is now large and in charge.
The way the Board has been scattered to the winds is remarkable. It just goes to show that there is no messing with a government that insists on having its own way and perhaps the message that reposes in the Cricket Board saga is intended for a much wider audience.
Funny enough no one appears particularly interested in the ‘fine, fine’ details of the saga. True enough, it might have been an internal power struggle but there is no doubt that the side that could have mustered the most potent political forces to its side won. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation the GCB found itself up against crack political detachments and the outcome was inevitable.
Perhaps the WICB might have helped more. But then Dr. Hunte and company have their own headaches though now that the Cricket Board has been scattered to the winds, perhaps the ICC may have a few choice words in the ear of Dr. Anthony, whom, one gets the feeling, would have preferred not to have this kind of dogfight on his hands. Frank comes across as more of a Queensbury Rules man.
How will the ICC handle this? The problem with these engagements between governments and international organizations is that sovereign powers always win out. Incidentally, Syria is a sovereign power never mind the fact that its favorite past time these days is slaughtering its own people. Guyana is a sovereign power too, never mind the fact that the political administration has become increasingly heavy-handed in its dealings with some issues.
So that the ICC might well decide to be nice about this. It might dispatch two or three men in Armani suits and silk ties with a draft MOU in their pockets the language of which will probably be designed not to make either side look too bad. A compromise will be struck which will set a Board aside for a while at least and life may go on.
On the other hand the ICC might choose to play hard ball to pepper Dr. Frank with bodyline bowling, to make him understand that the cricketing powers that be are quite prepared to turn Guyana into a pariah state unless it makes the IMC disappear. That, of course, is the less likely of the two options but there is no harm in dreaming; is there?