A YEAR that began in turmoil ended in turmoil for West Indies cricket. It’s a recurring refrain.
The repeated squabbles between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) were previously the reasons. They led to strikes by the leading players in 2005 and 2009 and threats of strikes on an almost monthly basis.
The earlier strikers have either gone into peaceful retirement or to whatever widespread, lucrative T20 league they can find. The new disruptive disturbances now involve different characters, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the selectors, the head coach and, ultimately, Caribbean Community (Caricom) governments. Throughout, WICB president Dave Cameron has been to the forefront, ruling his organisation with an autocratic rod, living up to his defiant dictum: “They’ve criticised you. They’ve doubted you. They’ve lied on you. They’ve done all they can do, but one thing they can’t do is stop you.”
In all the chaos, there were certain points, not all negative, that attracted my attention.
BEST TEST WIN: Options are limited to the only one but the three-day, come-from-behind triumph by five wickets over England in the third test at Kensington Oval in early May that levelled the three match series was one to savour, especially after incoming England’s board chief Colin Graves’ dismissal of the West Indies as ‘a mediocre’ team.
BEST INNINGS: Jason Holder’s unbeaten, match-saving 103 in the opening Test against England in Antigua. His first Test hundred confirmed earlier evidence of his batting ability; as much as anything else, its maturity prompted the selectors to install him later as ODI and then Test captain.
TOP BOWLING SPELLS: Davendra Bishoo and Jerome Taylor against Australia in the Caribbean in June.
Bishoo’s bowling in the first Test in Dominica included yet another leggies’ ‘ball of the century’; it pitched outside leg and hit Brad Haddin’s off-stump. It left the Aussies reeling at 126 for six in reply to 148 but the West Indies couldn’t follow up; Bishoo ended with figures of 33-10-80-6 as Australia posted 318 and won by nine wickets.
Taylor’s new ball burst in the second Test on his home ground of Sabina Park in Kingston counted two wickets from five consecutive maidens. His final figures were 25-10-47-6 but there was little else from the rest of the bowling as Australia totalled 399 on the way to victory by 277 runs.
ONE FOR THE FUTURE: At a time when West Indies’ fast bowling stocks are low, Alzarri Joseph is at least one of undeniable promise. A strapping, six feet, 4 inches 19-year-old from Antigua, he satisfies the stereotype of the West Indian pace men of the past. So does his pace and his tendency to snare early wickets with the new ball. He left the Caribbean for the under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh with 17 wickets in four matches at 15.88 in the first-class Professional Cricket League. Kagiso Rabada rose to prominence for South Africa in the last tournament; it’s Joseph’s first test at international level.
EMBARRASSMENTS: Several qualify but none more so than the loss by 10 wickets in the opening match of the Australian tour to a Cricket Australia XI manned by a group of apprentices, six on first-class debut.
FALSE STARTS: Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach got the series in Australia underway in Hobart, each with first-ball no balls. It set an immediate pattern for what was to follow.
MOST FRUSTRATING OPPONENT: Adam Voges, Australia’s 36-year-old No.5. compiled scores of 130 not out, 37, 269 not out and 106 not out in the four Tests in the Caribbean and Australia. Nothing more to add.
CRITICISM AND CONSEQUENCE: Head coach Phil Simmons’ claim of ‘outside interference’ in the selection of the ODI team to Sri Lanka that brought him the WICB’s immediate suspension.
GONE MISSING: To use the Australian aboriginal expression, Marlon Samuels went walkabout, in the Tests in Hobart and Melbourne. He appeared on the field in body, not in spirit.
JAMAICAN U-TURN: Jamaica Cricket Association directors supported Joel Garner, rather than Jamaica Dave Cameron, for WICB president in the March election; the JCA membership overturned the decision 67-22 at the annual general meeting soon afterwards.
FALSE ALARM: Cameron told the press in Jamaica that there was ‘a matter’ before JCA president and WICB director Billy Heaven and that the ethic committee would ‘meet shortly on the way forward’. Heaven was never informed and nothing more was heard of the ‘matter’.
FAVOURED APPOINTMENT: Carole Beckford, a former aide of Dave Cameron and his campaign manager in his re-election to the presidency, replaced Imran Khan as marketing and communications manager. Most WICB directors were unaware of the appointment.
AN ALL CARIBBEAN CONFLICT: The only three existing pan-West Indian organisations were involved in the decisive debate over how best to reverse the prolonged decline of the regional game and restore its tarnished international image.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) governments initiated a review of the WICB’s structure and governance and appointed the principal of the University of the West Indies (WICB) Barbados campus, Dr.Eudine Barriteau, as its head.
The report’s recommendation that the WICB be immediately dissolved and its members resign in favour of a new, differently structured board was predictably rejected, leaving the issue unresolved and the future of uncertain.
FAVOURITE QUOTE (for obvious reasons): “There is no ban on Mr. Cozier. The challenge is Mr. Cozier has gotten to an age – and everyone needs to agree – that he is not actually seeing very well any more. And we are being very, very frank about that. It has nothing to do with him as a person. And we don’t believe the quality of the commentary benefits from having him on television. He still continues to do radio.” WICB president Dave Cameron at a town hall meeting in Barbados when asked from the floor whether there was any ban on television commentary for yours truly who did radio commentary on BBC Test Match Special for England’s three Tests a few weeks earlier.
FORECAST FOR 2016: More of the same.
