They do not understand

Wed, Aug 5, '09

 

commentary by DAVID HINDS

The last few weeks have been traumatic for those of us who embrace the Caribbean as more than a political idea. Coming on the heels of the anxiety caused by in Barbados’ new immigration policies, the abandonment of West Indies cricket by both its “stars” and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) struck deep and hard. What the players’ representatives and their sympathizers have called a strike is in many respects a betrayal of all we have -- ourselves, our Caribbean selves. What hurts more than ever is that our cricketers and the board do not understand the far-reaching consequences of their actions.

Every West Indian, except our stars and the WICB, understands that cricket represents one of the few mediums through which we can express our collective self as global equals. Cricket represents tangible evidence of our triumph over slavery, indentureship and colonization and the real possibility of freedom. Yet our mercenary players and the authoritarian WICB have combined to destroy this noble institution.

The irony is that the least conscious group of cricketers ever to represent the region has made the most demands. It is this lack of consciousness of their location and function in the Caribbean civilization that prevents them from seeing that something is absurd in their demand for super compensation for substandard work. Here is a bunch of young working class men who have been so utterly de-proletarianized by greed that they cannot see their own absurdity. I submit that, for all its backwardness, nothing that the WICB has done warrants the reckless action of the cricketers. In the final analysis they work not for the WICB but for the Caribbean people who have put up with their lack of commitment and production for the last decade and a half. If they felt aggrieved, then why not take their case directly to the people by winning some games.

The WICB is an authoritarian outfit - pure and simple. It is worse that our worst dictatorial regimes. At least Burnham, Gary and Patrick John had to face the people either at the ballot box or in the streets. The WICB is accountable to nobody. It treats a public product as its private domain. It foolishly feels that the answer to mercenary behavior is dictatorial behavior.

Some people have referred to the team which played against Bangladesh as scabs. Do they know what a scab is? Scabbing presupposes a strike, industrial action, labor taking action against capital to improve the condition of labor. Anyone who looks at those millionaires and semi-millionaires fighting for more millions and calls their actions a strike needs to “wheel an come again”. It’s not a strike -- it’s public extortion in the name of industrial action.

So what now? Shridath Ramphal is trying to get the two parties to resolve their problem. But if he succeeds will that amount to a resolution of the real problem? NO! As Professor Beckles warned, our cricket problem goes to the heart of our general problem as a region of post -- plantation societies in a world which according to David Rudder “don’t need islands no more.”  The silly talk of the individual islands playing as separate teams is the ultimate folly of our time. As Rudder also observes, “Caribbean man yak, yak, yak/ That’s the root of our trouble.”

Some say fire the WICB. Sounds good. But replace it with what and whom? Our cricket cannot be renewed outside of a region-wide socio-economic, political and cultural renewal. Yes, I can hear the narrow cricket analysts ask -- what does cricket have to do with politics as economics? These are the people who chat about which cricketers should not get into the team as if cricket is simply about who can bat or bowl well for a session. They can’t see the one West Indian cricketer who is conscious of his identity and relationship to the Caribbean space -- Darren Sammy. He may not hit the ball as hard as Gayle, or bowl as fast as Taylor or bat as stylishly as Sarwan, but he is more intelligent and conscious than all of them together. The point is that he has the capacity to lead a renewal more than the so called stars.

I suggest that that is a possible place to start.

* David Hinds lectures in Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University in the USA. More of his writings can be found on his website at GuyanaCaribbeanPolitics.com.