The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

Message Board Archives

Myth is that cricket is a unifying institution

 
Narper 2017-04-16 21:21:45 

Politics and cricket are like oil and water. The two have never mixed well and should never be mixed. Politics will summon the death warrant for West Indies cricket, which is already half-dead, not because of the administrators of cricket, but because of the historic lack of support for cricket and the poisonous role of politics in cricket.

Cricket is no unifying force in the West Indies. It has always been wrecked by political insularity. Cricket demonstrates our divisiveness, just as how the collapse of the West Indian Federation reflected the break-up and mirrored the small-mindedness of the political leadership of that time.

It was shallow and narrow self-interests, mutual suspicion of each other, and personal political ambitions and rivalry, which broke up the West Indian Federation.


The political leadership of the Caribbean is part of the problem with West Indian cricket. The decline in West Indian cricket coincides with the disintegration of economies and the levels of despair among young people. Young people want to get out of the region, not to stay and play cricket. They are seeking a visa to greener pastures, not economic liberation through high-paying cricket contracts.


Peeping Tom- Kaieteur News

 
outside_edge 2017-04-16 22:41:35 

In reply to Narper

Rubbish article from a rubbish newspaper. If anything, in as much as it is currently in a sorry state, Cricket is the only unifying force in the Caribbean (and South America).

The author must have never had the privilege to read CLR James whose thesis is that “Cricket is a game of high and difficult technique. If it were not it could not carry the load of social response and implications which it carries, The game of cricket continues to be a unifying force within the Caribbean, It is common knowledge that besides the University of the West Indies, Cricket which has been identified as one of the creative arts by an outstanding Caribbean intellectual, has acted as a bridge connecting the many islands which make up the Caribbean archipelago."

 
Kay 2017-04-17 00:18:50 

In reply to outside_edge

CLR proses may have been apt 30 or 40 years ago but no longer speaks to a true Caribbean entity as a whole. We are now several parts rooting for our own and always pulling down someone from another territory who even shows a glimpse of getting in the way....

You apparently don't follow the posts and reasoning on this MB

 
Narper 2017-04-17 01:14:35 

In reply to outside_edge

Cricket is the only unifying force in the Caribbean (and South America).


Where is the evidence?

the Guyana bench in Bim? wink

The reality is WI cricket is far more popular outside the Caribbean than inside.