The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

Sir Rebel with a cause

Mon, Sep 15, '14

by FAZEER MOHAMMED

Commentary

Before he became a “Sir,” Frank Worrell used to give real, real trouble.
Imagine a contemporary West Indies cricketer, in his very first year in the regional side, refusing, on his own, to go on a tour because he wasn’t being paid enough. Think about a star player of the modern era leaving his homeland and making it public that he was doing so because of the narrow-mindedness and insularity, not just of the ordinary folk, but of the influential, privileged class who were doing very little to promote Caribbean integration, politically as well as socially.
Consider for a moment what would be the reaction if a nation, swept up in the euphoria of a significant achievement and therefore a sense of its own importance, were to be openly admonished for their imminent expression of chronic short-sightedness by a former West Indies cricket captain living in another island.
Frank Worrell was a rebel, but with a cause.