The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), in response to the unprecedented mid-tour termination of the series in India and the decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to suspend all bilateral tours to the West Indies and to consider legal proceedings against the WICB, has decided, among other things, to “establish a task force, comprising critical stakeholders, to review the premature end of the tour to India” and “request a meeting with the BCCI”. The WICB statement, reading rather like a CARICOM communiqué, did not give any specifics as to how the Board intends “to repair the damage that has been caused and to ensure that similar events do not recur.”
Unfortunately, this particular stable door flew wide open a long time ago and continues to bang forlornly in the winds of change. The players have picked up their bats and balls, washed their dirty cricket maroons and whites in the full glare of world opinion, with a complete lack of respect for the cricketing public in India and the Caribbean, and have well and truly bolted. It is hard to think that many in the region are now holding their breath in the hope of a satisfactory outcome, such is the lack of confidence in the WICB and now, the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) and the players themselves.
The truth as to what really transpired, though, perhaps depends, as Trinidadian cricket journalist Fazeer Mohamed has suggested, on whom you wish to believe. We maintain, however, as we opined in Monday’s leader, that “greed and ignorance” have prevailed and brought unprecedented shame and embarrassment on the entire region.
But whilst we deplore the ill-advised and completely unprofessional decision to abort the tour by the West Indies players, under one-day captain and lead spokesman Dwayne Bravo, aided and abetted by his unseen counsellors and ghost letter writers, we do acknowledge that there were issues with the players’ contracts that the WICB and its president, Dave Cameron, should have attempted to resolve instead of disingenuously insisting on dealing only with the discredited head of the WIPA, Wavell Hinds.
Indeed, the fact that the BCCI holds the WICB and not the players responsible for the whole, disgraceful debacle speaks volumes. And it is interesting that the BCCI does not intend to pursue action against West Indies cricketers in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It has been suggested that the players with IPL contracts had themselves consulted with their franchises before taking their stand, which only serves to give credence to the widespread belief that the players are mercenaries with no real loyalty to the maroon cap.
By their self-serving and short-sighted actions, the WICB and the players have between them only served to bring the regional game into disrepute and to allow West Indies cricket to be viewed around the cricketing world with a mixture of sadness and contempt. Heaven only knows what craven position the WICB will now have to adopt to appease world cricket’s superpower and heaven only knows how they intend “to repair the damage,” the precise repercussions of which will be, by general consensus, far-reaching and as yet unknown.
Competitive sport is meant to entertain the senses and arouse wonder at humankind’s mental and physical capacities. Sport, at its best, has the power to uplift the soul, fuel dreams and inspire ideals. Team sport, above all, has repeatedly shown that, with a shared vision, it can transcend personal selfishness, petty politics and narrow nationalism, even as, paradoxically, it often does so through the single-mindedness of individual athletes, fired by visions of glory and the acclaim of their compatriots. Cricket, for these reasons and others, has therefore always held a special place in the history and social development of the West Indies.
Nothing in West Indies cricket over the past week has reflected any of the above. Indeed, the whole unedifying spectacle has far outstripped any the abject performances witnessed on the field of play during the past two decades. This is, moreover, the lowest low in a long catalogue of blundering and embarrassment inflicted on the cricket-loving public of the region by the WICB, which has for too long eschewed the best practices of good governance and has not concerned itself with being answerable and accountable to its major stakeholders, the people. That the players should have been willing parties to this disgraceful episode is perhaps the unkindest cut of all. The only good that can come of it is if certain heads roll and reform of the WICB is brought about, even if it has to be at the behest of outside forces – further embarrassment, yes, but a necessary evil given our own failure to manage what was once our greatest regional asset.
