In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket Roger Seymour delves into the mystery of the Patterson Report. In the first of two parts, the writer looks at the origins and the report.
“The pen is mightier than the sword” – first used in 1839 by English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The films, “The Valachi Papers” (1972) and “The Post” (2017), examine the intrigue generated by the written word in two critical areas of American life. In the first instance, la Cosa Nostra (commonly known as the Mafia) is the subject of a non-fiction book by Peter Maas, which explored the inner workings of the underworld through the eyes of the first ever government witness from within the Mafia. “The Post” examines the ramifications surrounding the Washington Post’s determination to expose the government’s role in the Vietnam War by publishing the ‘Pentagon Papers.’
Here in the Caribbean, our source of intrigue created by the plume stems from a straightforward review of the management of the game of cricket. Why did the Patterson Report create such bitter resentment from the West Indies Cricket Board of Control (WICBC) – and still does – that it steadfastly refused to implement the major proposals?