Colonisation in Reverse

The great Trinidadian historian CLR James, who wrote the definitive book on West Indies cricket, Beyond a Boundary, argued that true West Indian independence, self determination and the national consciousness it required would be impossible until the West Indies had taken on the colonisers at their sacred game and mastered it sufficiently to defeat them at home in open play.

This they did in 1950. This moment was immortalized in the song "Cricket, Lovely Cricket" written in the reflected glow of victory by Lord Beginner and sung and danced to by thousands of transplanted West Indians around Piccadilly Square.

Fast forward, if you will, to March 23, 2004 and to the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad, the birthplace of both CLR James and Lord Beginner. I wonder what they would have been moved to write.

How hurt would CLR James be to experience this new "colonisation in reverse," to use a phrase of the great Jamaican satirist Louise Bennet. What funereal dirge would Lord Beginner have been tearfully moved to write on witnessing the West Indies team capitulate meekly under the less than astute leadership of his countryman Brian Lara?

It is not the mere losing that would have hurt these fine gentlemen, but the total abject capitulation while losing, the total lack of discipline while batting or bowling. Case in point, in the recently concluded second test between South Africa and New Zealand, South Africa bowled 148.5 overs, and conceded a total of 16 extras, ten of which were leg-byes, and six were no balls. Conversely, in the first test against England, West Indies bowled 103.2 overs and gave up a whopping 60 byes. Yes folks, 60!!

This is an example of the indiscipline that has become de rigueur in the Caribbean, not only on the cricket field, but in all strata of society.

So as we stare down yet another whitewash, this time from our erstwhile colonial masters and one time whipping posts England, one has to ask, what happened? Where did it all go wrong, and how can we reverse this? Would CLR have an answer? Would Beginner be able to put some witty advice into song?

His modern day counterpart David Rudder tried. His wonderful anthem "Rally Round the West Indies" invokes images of "flannelled knights, flashing their willow and leather." Yet, if these particular knights were protectors of any Caribbean virtue, I daresay from the blue mountains of Jamaica in the North to mud flats of Guyana in the South, there would not be one virtuous soul left undisturbed.

In any event, events over the past two weeks should have had a galvanizing effect on those who are tasked with managing our cricket. By now they should have realized that our game is in dire straits and in need of life support. Where that will come from is any one's guess. Rudder asked for patience when he wrote:

"We already know who brought us here
And who created this confusion
So I'm begging, begging my people please"

Yet it has been ten long years, a period when the dearth of strong veteran leadership has deepened, when the chasm between the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) and the WICB has widened, and WIPA does not seem to see the sense in them working with the WICB towards strengthening our cricket. Rather, the de-facto union seems more intent on filling the pockets of a chosen few.

Our first class competition, once the strongest of its type in the world is now a mere shadow of itself and completely irrelevant. It is a period when we are now picking players who have played all of one first class match to play test cricket. When we see as our savior a player only months removed out of under 19 cricket. When some players careers can be measured in months instead of years. There is no discernible light at the end of the tunnel, no apparent plan to haul us out of the doldrums, just more misery for the diehard fans far into the foreseeable future.

So even as England continues to grind us down, and give us a lesson in the art of playing test cricket, an art which we seem to have irretrievably lost, as another trophy that we owned in the 70's and 80's is kept from our grasp, we're left to console ourselves with the thought that in a few weeks Bangladesh will be on our menu and hopefully we will score a bellyful of runs and take a surfeit of wickets.

I'm only left to wonder what CLR James would have written, or what songs Lord Beginner would have sung.

Truly this is colonization by cricket, in reverse!