Self-Determination, W.I Style
Tue, Oct 26, '04
musings with PERCY PATSON
Percy Patson back here chaps. Still not yet recovered fully from the Test series humiliation, but good ole Percy was the toast of Oxfordshire after the West Indian boys spanked the English in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Walking around in a West Indies shirt suddenly became less of a bait for bad jokes. One woman even offered to wear my shirt the morning after, but Percy, in the new manner of disciplined West Indian, took a phone number and promised to call. Plus, she wasn't all that fit -- this new Percy has standards.
It's good to see the back of Logie. I'm not too much into name calling but when I think of Logie, one word comes to mind. Starts with 'w', ends with 'imp' and has no letters in between.
Methinks the biggest problem of West Indies cricket is the cowardice of the people involved. Good ole Percy could see that Logie and Lara never got along. Logie had no power. And this isn't the kind of power that can be administered or created. Quite simply, two short men cannot run the same team. Napoleon Syndrome, they call it.
Anyhow, I hear the WICB is about to hire a new coach, preferably not from the Caribbean. Right on, says Percy. All coaches in the Caribbean are lumbered with the same problem. They have no credentials of having turned around anything. I argued with my Jamaican friend Winston, a known purveyor of all things local, except his women, food, drink, car and general life.
Yeah, you know Winston. Everyone lives next to one.
Winston believes that West Indies Cricket has such a rich tradition that self-determination is the key. Good point, except that this constant affirmative action has done nothing to help the cause of West Indies Cricket.
Anyway, it's not like West Indies Cricket is in a vacuum. I reminded Winston that a foreigner coming to the Caribbean is not exactly Christopher Columbus. Irony of ironies, as the tourist boards beg the same foreigners to come sustain their self-determined economies. Winston switched topics very quickly, considering Air Jamaica has a promo for Brits.
The basic truth is that West Indies cricket needs help. Like my friend Winston, a noted Pan Africanist who limits his African experiences to the Discovery channel, the time for playing games with the populace is long gone. This is international cricket and the time for old time sentiment is gone. Our identity is being erased by the mediocrity of our cricket and a coach who can take the cricket standards upward is needed.
Years ago it was normal for most of our West Indian young stars to go to the Alf Gover cricket school. Not once did I hear fans say that it was detrimental to the development of West Indies Cricket that an old white man be the first formal coach for most of our young talent. But now, in a fit of pique, the Winstons of this world blow hard whilst literally living out the lie of self determination.
Well, I am being consistent. And Logie, nice guy as he is, recent ICC Champions Trophy winner and all, was frustrated not by the lack of tools, but by the fact that he did not matter to this team. In fact, they upped their performance just when they knew he was about to buzz off. The revisionist history being touted about: Under-19 results meant nothing whilst England peppered us all summer.
You don't need Percy to tell you how big the difference between nothing-counts cricket and professional cricket is, right?
Anyway, I hope for the sanity and comfort of those who are already vexed with their inability to chart their own course in life, that they stop using West Indies cricket as their last option for self determined glory, as false as it is.
Percy is off to the pub to drink good ole English beer and to generally assert his Caribbean manhood. See you chaps.
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