Dear Editor,
With respect to what the Trinidadian Prime Minister said about cricket and Caricom it might be helpful if he reflects on what the first leader of his party, who was, perhaps, more important as an academic than as a politician, wrote:
“To the formidable contributions that sugar had made to the contemporary Caribbean psychology must be added this one, not by any means the least important, that it engendered and nurtured an intercolonial rivalry, an isolationist outlook, a provincialism that is almost a disease, which are among the most striking characteristics, as they are among the most difficult to eradicate, of the 20th century”.
I think I heard enough in Antigua to confirm my suspicion that Mr Cameron and the WICB have a great deal of support from influential West Indians for their disdain of veteran cricketers. It was, however, very encouraging to hear Carlos Brathwaite, the captain of the Twenty-Over team express admiration for those veterans and his conviction that they could be very helpful to the younger players, thereby endorsing the view I have tried to express so often in your paper, of the need to blend youth and experience in going forward.
I hope the Five-Day and Fifty Over captain will follow Carlos’s example with regard to selection for those formats.
West Indian cricket fans have the right to believe that being Five Day World Champion would make them happier than being Twenty Over World Champion, but speaking for myself I would derive as much pleasure from the one as from the other. Today was a good day for our cricket.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt