WHAT DO THEY KNOW OF CRICKET THAT CRICKET ONLY KNOWS

By Richard Blackford - Guest Blogger
To my mind, one of the greatest pieces of Caribbean literature is the seminal “Beyond a Boundary" written by the legendary Trinidadian writer C.L.R. James. First published in 1963 the book traces C.L.R. James’ passion for the sport as a boy in his native Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean where he spoke his passion for the game, of the players that he knew and loved even as he dissected the psychology and aesthetics of this great game. James’ great work laid bare the ethos of being West Indian and the extent to which West Indies Cricket provided that cementing that West Indians needed at that period of our development as we moved as a people onto more distant shores. I recommend this book as required reading for all of us as West Indians especially to those who would dare to don the colours of the regional side and especially to those who aspire to represent the game as administrators. I say this as my Fortis alum Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron reclaims the chair as President of the West Indies Cricket Board for a second two year term and with the hope that he may surprise me by actually doing something different than his previous two years where his stewardship has only succeeded in dragging the administration of the sport to newer lows and in lock step with a team that has made itself completely comfortable in the cellars of the sport.

By voting Cameron back into the seat as President the “old boy’s network” that characterizes the voting process has not only succeeded in thumbing its collective noses at the people in the Region who makes the sport but in the process they have also rubber-stamped incompetence as well as provided unbridled support for the continuance of the culture of indifference and insularity within the Regions game. The West Indies Cricket Board answers to no one (as is the requirement of the sport’s governing body the ICC) and as such relationships within the region are maintained by considerable “horse-trading” manoeuvres between island representatives and in essence the result of the vote known long before the ballots are casted. In the end camps will win or lose while the game and its future is vanquished with succeeding votes and in the process the great legacy that was once West Indies Cricket is trampled underfoot.  

Surely now that the farce of voting has passed the WICB has to decide on how to address the BCCI’s bill of $42 million caused by Cameron’s decision to pull the plug last year on the Indian Tour. How this issue is dealt with will have significant impact on how the WICB funds its various programmes going forward and certainly any plans for laying a foundation upon which we can raise up a crop of players capable of representing the West Indies.
I want to be magnanimous and say congratulations to Dave Cameron but that would be hypocrisy on my part. To my mind Cameron has won because of the paucity of management talent within the sport. The omnipresence of the sugar plantation structure from which the game originated provides a buffer against attracting people capable of making the type of change necessary to reorient the decadent thinking that now embraces the sport’s management and has become even more entrenched in the last twenty years. He has won because as a people we have all become accustomed to not taking responsibility for our actions to such an extent that we are equally unprepared to hold others who we know are culpable for their own misdeeds. 

So where do we go from here? What tricks does Cameron have in his bag that will at least attempt to halt the slide? What will the administration bring to the sport that will cause West Indians like myself to begin to fall in love with Caribbean team’s participation? What will this administration do differently to make C.L.R. James famous words ring true throughout the region and the wider Caribbean diaspora…”what do they know of cricket that cricket only knows.”

As always, one love and walk good until next time!