Today is a black day for West Indies cricket.
Why?
For the first time in the history of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) One-Day tournament, a World Cup competition will take place without the West Indies.
In 1975 the West Indies won the inaugural competition held in England.
They repeated as champions in 1979 and reached the finals in 1973. They even hosted the 2007 competition in the Caribbean.
The ICC held World Cup competitions in 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019.
Today, the West Indies are not among the 10 countries that have qualified for the ICC’s showpiece event.
The best teams in the world are in India and the West Indies is not among them.
For some cricket fans it is disheartening to see the West Indies miss out on the World Cup, given its rich history and while it’s not necessarily the death knell for the sport in the region, its time those in authority sit up and take notice.
At least that’s the opinion of Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley.
“If we do not get our act together now, we will struggle to beat the United States because they have now come into the game and their organisational skills, their resources, and management of sport, they will leave us behind,” Rowley said in a wide-ranging radio interview on I95 FM this past Saturday in Port of Spain.
According to the Trinidad Prime Minister, the governments should get involved once a plan is in place.
“Once there is a plan in place, there will be a role for the governments, and the governments should and could get involved in ensuring that the nursery (of the game) is kept alive, and that our boys and girls are properly resourced and trained, and then feed upwards.”
However, there is the thorny issue of the autonomy of sports bodies that Rowley and Caricom will have to tackle and overcome.
Cricket West Indies, (CWI) the governing body for sport in the region has in the past resisted attempts by regional governments, to try and straighten them out.
The issue of the autonomy of sports organizations is a divisive one with some being for and some against government intervention.
However, the autonomy of sports associations should be dependent on the associations fulfilling their primary responsibility which is the development of the sport and their compliance with the general principles and international standards of good governance.
If they are unable or unwilling to fulfill those objectives maybe the governments should get involved.
The situation that CWI finds itself in with the West Indies cricket team on the outside of this year’s World Cup looking in, is the culmination of a combination of factors.
Simply put CWI have been fiddling with the regional game while all the other countries were rushing full speed ahead with their development of the game such as improving the infrastructure, talent identification, coaching and the implementation of grassroots programmes just to mention a few of the initiatives that were rolled out.
While other countries were trying to professionalise the sport, the sport in the Caribbean was at a standstill with old, colonial type facilities still in use, poor ground and pitches and a first-class system that is only first-class in name.
The blame for today’s situation must be placed squarely at feet of the CWI.
They have lacked the necessary vision in their stewardship of the game to take the game forward and successive presidents have not been able to halt the decline.
Cricket in the region is crying out for financial investment but Cricket West Indies refuses to hear those cries.
It really is galling to see some of the teams who are in India at this World Cup while the West Indies are not.
Over the years the West Indies One Day teams have been losing simply because of, in some instances poor team selection, selections that quite often defy logic.
CWI has commissioned several reports on the state of the game here and while they are fiddling with one report after another, the fabric of West Indies cricket is being burnt on the altar of their procrastination and their inefficiency
The problem with the Caribbean people is that they are long suffering and accept mediocrity with just a shrug and move on. Until the cricket fans of the region begin to demand better from those who are in charge of the region’s cricket destiny the region’s cricketers will remain third world sportsmen.
Change often starts with the people, and it’s time to challenge the status quo for the betterment of West Indies cricket and beyond.
