Tony Becca Misses the Boat

What is to be West Indian? Is it a visual thing? Must one look black? Is it to look mixed? To talk with a twang in your voice?

To be West Indian in my mind is a cultural infusion of many influences -- African, Indian, Dutch, Portuguese -- and to use those influences to reflect our culture in everything from our art and music to our politics to our sporting identity.

Therefore, when Tony Becca insists that to hire a foreign coach for the West Indies would be an embarassment, he is way off base. In fact he misunderstands what it is to be West Indian entirely.

Was it an embarassment when our cricketers played Northern League cricket in the years before the 1970s and tightened up their games accordingly? Was it an embarassment when everyone from Viv Richards to Ian Bishop went to the Alf Gover school in England to fine tune their game?

Is it an embarassment when the West Indies is captained by a man who lives in Australia and who bypasses representing West Indians at the captains summit in England to be with his family in Australia?

Anyone who suggests that a foreign coach or indeed foreign influences are not part of West Indian life is simply one eyed and redundant. Whilst Becca is making his commentary, millions of Jamaican dollars are being spent to convince foreigners to sustain the Jamaican economy with their tourism. It is no more reflective of the need to become foreign than a foreign West Indian coach is an insult to our cricket history.

It is a means of engagement with an end goal. To sustain our West Indian way of life.

The same Tony Becca had little to say whilst his colleagues (in Jamaica) hired Bobby Simpson two years in a row to bolster Jamaican cricket. Is Simpson a West Indian? Does he coach the "West Indian way"?

We have suffered enough at the 'buy local' queue with our physio presiding over disaster after disaster. Was Dennis Waite a foreigner only when he was shown the door? Are the pronouncements of our greats on the unifying factor of Packer cricket and the influence of Kerry Packer false?

My cue for embarassment would be a foreign coach who tries to stifle the West Indian way of playing. In true fashion of short memories, many are ready to proclaim that Roger Harper is finally getting through to the players, after beating India in a One Day series and winning against Bangladesh.

What many seem to forget is that India prepared a docile wicket with a series already won and based on that charity, and without Kumble and Singh bowling grenades at them, West Indies batsmanship, and coaching, flourished. Yet, in the rubbers again England, Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan away, and South Africa nad New Zeland at home, Harper was always devoid of blame. It was the non listening players who suddenly had their ear plugs removed allowing a brilliant mind to become uncovered.

The truth is West Indies cricket is still in bad shape, and as such we need to set criteria for success. We really do need for panache and entertainment at the top of the priority tree as a legacy of our culture. But, for us as a people who are continually migrant, continually taking in foreign influences whether it is the new Chinese or African migrants or our own Haitian compatriots, pretending that foreign is by default an embarassment to our history is to know nothing of the learning processes and influences that shaped West Indian cricket and culture.

Becca should ask himself why he doesnt see the official West Indies Web site being owned by BSkyB as embarassing.

A foreign coach will have less of an influence on the face of West Indies cricket. And, hopefully, he'll produce more.