"BAT ON TEMBA BAVUMA...BAT ON"

It has been a little over 22 years since South Africa’s Apartheid system gave way to a participatory democracy which allows its Black majority population as well as South Africans of mixed-racial background to participate in their electoral process and South African life in general. The political transformation may have given its Black population the vote but this transition of its majority population has been a slow and tedious process. Racial discrimination has been a part of South Africa’s history since its colonization in 1652, and even with the events of 1994 the levelling of the playing field has been long in coming with the expected dismantling of the exclusionary policies that characterized that country grinding slowly but still in the favor of the Whites.
In South Africa, playing sports provide participants with a huge platform from which they are able to improve their life’s chances and the best way in which this development can be assured is through the school system.
Rugby and cricket are the premier sports in that country and given its history of apartheid where sport is for the white elites and at all times they enjoyed the best of available facilities. For its majority Black population precluded for generations from equal access to such facilities, this represented an institutionalized stunting of their development.
It is for this reason why the maiden Test century made by Black South African batsman Temba Bavuma earlier this week becomes so special.
Bavuma is the first Black man to play for South Africa as a batsman and he did so 17 years after Makhaya Ntini became the first Black man to play Test Cricket for the country as a bowler. Since then only Mfuneko Ngam, Monde Zondeki, Lonwabo Tsotsobe (all bowlers) and Thami Tsolekile (wicket-keeper) have won a South African Test cap and after that, Kagiso Rabada, another bowler, was capped. Born in 1990, (the same year Nelson Mandela was released from prison) Bavuma best epitomizes the change that is really possible in South Africa even after having struggled through an unfair quota system that is largely designed to minimize the participation of Blacks in the sport.
On the back of this century by Bavuma rides the opportunity for other Black players for whom he has demonstrated that if they were to be allowed (as he was) to attend the best schools where the seeds of transformation can be planted, a hundred at the wicket is just a start. Hopefully Bavuma will continue to ‘bat on” as his presence in the side and especially at the wicket provides a solid base on which the potential of more than 40 million other Blacks in South Africa can dare to hope.

WEST INDIES CRICKET'S FLOUNDERING INNINGS

The developing Mexican standoff between the President of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Dave Cameron and the chairman of CARICOM’s Cricket Governance Committee, Grenadian Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell is taking an interesting turn. This as the CARICOM cricket review panel has now submitted its report given the terms of its appointment.  The panel was appointed by the Prime Ministerial Committee to review the governance and administrative structure of the WICB in the wake of the disaster that engulfed the board after the abandonment of the West Indies tour of India in 2014 and BCCI slapping the WICB with a $41.97 million fine.

Dr. Keith Mitchell

The panel interviewed various stakeholders including the management of the board, renowned former West Indies players, current players, territorial boards and a host of other key personalities attached to the game in the region. In its report, the panel essentially labelled the current governance structure as antiquated and obsolete and was even more damning of the WICB in the findings it submitted in a fairly sizeable report which listed among is conclusions that the WICB's governance structure had failed to evolve and that it did not prioritize accountability and transparency. The panel suggested that "It is now past the time to accept that the current governance structures are obsolete and that there is an inherent and as yet unresolved tension between the evolution of the game of cricket into a powerful, professionally driven, entertainment and sporting industry and a system of governance predicated on an earlier, more simplified set of requirements. In this regard, the Panel strongly recommends the immediate dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board and the appointment of an Interim Board whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework. These two key measures are absolutely necessary in order to transform and modernize the governance, management, administration and the playing of the game."

Dave Cameron

WICB president Dave Cameron has been all but accused by Dr. Mitchell of avoiding a proposed meeting to discuss the report, a move which most observers can appreciate as the report literally recommends that he and his board be sacked. After all, Cameron now in his second two year stint as president of the WICB can hardly avoid the stain of the regional teams’ ineptness as it continues its pathetically long spiral of insipid performances in the global game. It would be extremely difficult for any reasonable person to disagree that the current boards’ stewardship provides very little (if any) hope for renewal or revival of the regional game at either the local or international level as the current management and operational approaches of the regional game is incongruous with growth and development. After all, the problems in West Indies cricket have remained the same over the last 15-20 years and this Board has been unable to address the issues central to which are: the lack of cricket development throughout the region, poor on-field performance and the deepening of the team’s unfavorable international reputation which must be of tremendous concern at all levels.  It is against this background that the panel’s recommendations must be considered, especially its conclusion that it was now “extremely urgent that a modern, transparent and accountable system of governance replace the existing model."

It is notable that the panel has recommended the reviewing of the Australian model as an example of restructuring the game in the region and suggested further, that going forward, new management and members of the WICB should be chosen based on certain criteria and skill-sets and that recruitment should be overseen by a head-hunting firm so that individuals of the "highest caliber" are chosen.
What makes this entire development even more interesting is that CARICOM itself has in its forty plus years not had much of an impact as a regional group and its interest in the regional game has been viewed with the same suspicious lens as has been its stewardship over regional political and economic affairs. CARICOM’s failure to unite the region as an economic grouping has been due in part to the same insularity and territorial one-upmanship that has dogged the region’s cricket and hindered its growth and development for more than three decades. One wonders if the current leadership of the regional grouping has finally begun to come to terms with not only the commercial value of West Indies cricket to the region from a sporting perspective but also its value to the region as a marketing platform for the region's tourism product. No other sporting or cultural event in the region has the advertising and marketing impact that cricket has and the regional leadership has been rather shortsighted in not moving earlier to see to the strengthening of the game at all levels and at the same time secure that value.
It is anyone’s guess as to where this saga will lead or better yet, how it will end as this is the second time in the WICB's recent history that recommendations made for changes in its structure and operations namely the Patterson Report in 2007 were largely ignored. I for one have as much hope for this report as I have for the teams return to success….any time soon.

**** Richard Hugh Blackford is a self-taught artist, writer and social commentator. He shares his time between Coral Springs, Florida and Kingston, Jamaica. See his work at: www.yardabraawd.com

West Indies Cricket… Jamaica, it is time to go it Alone!

“What do they know of cricket who only cricket know” [C.L.R James; Beyond A Boundary]

     West Indies cricket begun inauspiciously in 1898 when an assemblage of players were drawn from the “Big Four” territories Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad to play matches against a Marylebone County Club (MCC) team led by Slade Lucas. The mixed successes of the “West Indian” colonists over the visitors served as a foundation for the development of a joint colonial team and by 1907/8 this team had begun tours of the mother country England. By 1928, the team had so progressed in the sport that the sport’s governing body officially recognized the group of players, designating them with Test Cricket status joining England, Australia, and South Africa as the world’s fourth Test playing nation.
The team served different purposes for different groups as it represented a triumph for British Colonial powers as part of their socializing of the colonists and providing the planter/merchant class with a contact point with British society in the period 1928- late 1940s. Equally, the sport provided Black West Indians with an outlet for demonstrating to the aforementioned group their growing assimilation in the socio-cultural setting of the period. By the 1950s Caribbean societies had begun to come into their own and taking their cues from the political developments that came with the end of the Second World War begun to clamour for their own political independence. This development would not be without consequences.

     The independence movement was pitted against an alternate proposal for the creation of a West Indian Federation which was favoured by Britain as well as some members of the political leadership within the territories. Independence eventually won out, and with it, individual socio-political identity. This identity sowed the seeds of “Insularity” among the islands, and as the team’s success grew so did the clamour for representation among its ranks by individual islands. West Indies cricket saw huge successes between 1976 and 1989 with the team under Clive Hubert Lloyd’s leadership conquering all comers. The success continued under the Antiguan Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, even as the significance of the teams’ continuous victory streak became more symbolic socially and less so from a geo/socio-political identity perspective.

     Broader island representation opened the team to a larger talent-pool and at the same time broadened the participation of usually outlying territories to representation on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) which governs the sport in the region. In the old days the WICB’s membership was centered around the “Big Four” territories. This element changed considerably over the period 1989-1994 as did the political landscape of the Caribbean region. Regionalism which became the rallying cry after 1974 was replaced by the Individualism and unfortunately this spilled over in the region’s game and its current governance. Current voting structures within the WICB supported by the benefits of individual relationships have shifted the power base of the game away from Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad & Tobago. Equally, millions of regional dollars have been spent to raise up facilities in islands which has populations that are marginally greater than the seating capacities of these facilities. In these circumstances self interest is what is now being served. Keep in mind too that Caricom heads have no power over the structure of the game in the region and the ICC’s position against government involvement provides the active ingredient to maintain this state of affairs. The case of the forced resignation of Clive Lloyd from the WICB  over his role with the Guyana cricket’s Interin Management Committee (IMC) is a clear example of how entrenched this situation is.

     Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller's recent call for a speedy resolution in the impasse between Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board has spurred not only the interest of Jamaicans, but also its previously spineless and out of touch Jamaica Cricket Association. However, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller’s call that Cricket is too important to the people of Jamaica and the West Indies for this to be left down the wicket” is not new.  Guyana’s President Bharrat Jhagdeo speaking in Basseterre, St Kitts in July 2011 had called on Caricom governments to focus their attention to the call from embattled West Indies opener Chris Gayle and intervene in the impasse between him and the West Indies Cricket Board. Nothing happened, and my sense is that Simpson-Miller’s cry apart from receiving the disrespectful response will elicit nothing else.

     West Indian society has moved into the 21^st century where “Individualism” is the dominant culture. Cricket culture is no different and while we try to cling to disappearing alliances, the opportunities present in the modern game is eluding the West Indian community as a whole. Jamaica has demonstrated its ability to produce winning teams and significant participants in the sport from George Headley in the 1930s to Christopher Gayle in 2012. We need to embrace the change that is in front of us and applaud the current WICB executives for providing us with a much needed “Wake-up Call”

George (Atlas) Headley -Richard Hugh Blackford (c) 2008.

Visit my website at: http://www.richardhblackford.com/ for a wide selection of original paintings and prints.

West Indies Cricket… Is It Now Time To Go It Alone?

          Over the last couple of weeks West Indies Cricket has occupied local as well as international sporting headlines despite the regional side not having a team on the field of play. In the first instance there was the demand from Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller that a resolution in the impasse between Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board be found quickly. Speaking at the Jamaica Cricket Association awards, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller said that Gayle was being treated unjustly and deserved a place in the West Indies team. "Justice delayed (according to Prime Minister Simpson-Miller) is justice denied and we demand that a resolution be found as quickly as possible as Cricket is too important to the people of Jamaica and the West Indies for this to be left down the wicket.” Prime Minister Simpson-Miller’s position is not dissimilar to that expressed by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jhagdeo in Basseterre, St Kitts in July 2011 when he called on Caricom governments to focus their attention to the call from embattled West Indies opener Chris Gayle and intervene in the impasse between him and the West Indies Cricket Board.

       Less than two weeks before Mrs. Simpson–Miller’s comments there was the story of iconic former captain Clive Hubert Lloyd’s resignation as non-member director of the WICB, after being forced to take sides between the board and the Interim Management Committee (IMC) appointed by the Guyana government to run cricket in the country. Lloyd was appointed by the Guyana government following the disputed July 2011 Guyana Cricket Board elections to head the IMC which it established after locking the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) out of its office premises following the elections. The IMC is not recognized by the WICB, which as a result issued Lloyd an ultimatum asking him to choose between the two parties. Lloyd, obviously gutted by the ultimatum alluded to not only his role and status in the global cricket community but also as a former Test player and captain. Accordingly Lloyd stated [“I would have hoped that my decision to answer my country's [Guyana's] call would have signaled a message to you that all was not well with Guyana's cricket and therefore had your support and cooperation. However instead I have found myself caught between my loyalty to my country and loyalty to the WICB. After much deliberation, with a sad heart I had no other option but to tender my resignation as director of the board. I hope that my resignation would act as a catalyst for the members of the board to ask soul searching questions and take a hard look at what could be done differently to get our cricket back to the glory days." ]

Lloyd's letter also touched upon his concerns about the health of the game, in Guyana and in the Caribbean at large. "As one of the most successful West Indian captains in the history of our game, I have to say that I am very concerned not just about the state of cricket in my country but the state of West Indian cricket as a whole - the lack of accountability and consultation and limited discussion about the stagnant state of our cricket."

       The ultimatum issued by the WICB to Lloyd is consistent with the public position of the ICC for non-government involvement in the sport. However, this position taken by the ICC is to my thinking, completely “out of step” with the realities of regional cricket specifically and with world cricket in general.

I will place on record my own view that Gayle’s utterances were not only unfortunate but inconsistent with expectations of one who is the West Indies captain and does not have my support. However, the current modus operandi of the WICB serves as a tolling of the bells of West Indies cricket which as we knew it is now perpetually “Dead.” The spectre of insularity which has always plagued the region’s game since our beginnings in 1928 when the game was represented by the big four; Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago prevents the island from working together meaningfully. In addition, it is clear that currently, the region’s Board and Management seem more concerned about their own tenure and the obvious benefits that may accrue from this than they are about serious development of the region’s game. Equally, this insularity has seeped onto the players and in an era where the game’s lucre is being driven by abridgement and television revenues it is no longer business as usual. Gone are the days when the game meant as much to the players as they provided a fillip to fans in the Diaspora through the demonstrated examples of their sporting prowess. Today, money talks and everything else walks. Player’s loyalties are to their pockets. Thus the ongoing imbroglio between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association will only produce one result; one in which the game in the region is the loser.
Maybe, just maybe.... it is time for Jamaica and the other teams to apply for individual Test status and go it alone.

                                      George (Atlas) Headley Richard Hugh Blackford (c) 2008
Check out my website at: http://www.richardhblackford.com/ for a broader selection of great oil paintings and prints.

West Indies Cricket… Is It Now Time To Go It Alone?

         Over the last couple of weeks West Indies Cricket has occupied local as well as international sporting headlines despite the regional side not having a team on the field of play. In the first instance there was the demand from Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller that a resolution in the impasse between Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board be found quickly. Speaking at the Jamaica Cricket Association awards, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller said that Gayle was being treated unjustly and deserved a place in the West Indies team. "Justice delayed (according to Prime Minister Simpson-Miller) is justice denied and we demand that a resolution be found as quickly as possible as Cricket is too important to the people of Jamaica and the West Indies for this to be left down the wicket.” Prime Minister Simpson-Miller’s position is not dissimilar to that expressed by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jhagdeo in Basseterre, St Kitts in July 2011 when he called on Caricom governments to focus their attention to the call from embattled West Indies opener Chris Gayle and intervene in the impasse between him and the West Indies Cricket Board.

       Less than two weeks before Mrs. Simpson–Miller’s comments there was the story of iconic former captain Clive Hubert Lloyd’s resignation as non-member director of the WICB, after being forced to take sides between the board and the Interim Management Committee (IMC) appointed by the Guyana government to run cricket in the country. Lloyd was appointed by the Guyana government following the disputed July 2011 Guyana Cricket Board elections to head the IMC which it established after locking the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) out of its office premises following the elections. The IMC is not recognized by the WICB, which as a result issued Lloyd an ultimatum asking him to choose between the two parties. Lloyd, obviously gutted by the ultimatum alluded to not only his role and status in the global cricket community but also as a former Test player and captain. Accordingly Lloyd stated [“I would have hoped that my decision to answer my country's [Guyana's] call would have signaled a message to you that all was not well with Guyana's cricket and therefore had your support and cooperation. However instead I have found myself caught between my loyalty to my country and loyalty to the WICB. After much deliberation, with a sad heart I had no other option but to tender my resignation as director of the board. I hope that my resignation would act as a catalyst for the members of the board to ask soul searching questions and take a hard look at what could be done differently to get our cricket back to the glory days." ]

Lloyd's letter also touched upon his concerns about the health of the game, in Guyana and in the Caribbean at large. "As one of the most successful West Indian captains in the history of our game, I have to say that I am very concerned not just about the state of cricket in my country but the state of West Indian cricket as a whole - the lack of accountability and consultation and limited discussion about the stagnant state of our cricket."

       The ultimatum issued by the WICB to Lloyd is consistent with the public position of the ICC for non-government involvement in the sport. However, this position taken by the ICC is to my thinking, completely “out of step” with the realities of regional cricket specifically and with world cricket in general.

I will place on record my own view that Gayle’s utterances were not only unfortunate but inconsistent with expectations of one who is the West Indies captain and does not have my support. However, the current modus operandi of the WICB serves as a tolling of the bells of West Indies cricket which as we knew it is now perpetually “Dead.” The spectre of insularity which has always plagued the region’s game since our beginnings in 1928 when the game was represented by the big four; Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago prevents the island from working together meaningfully. In addition, it is clear that currently, the region’s Board and Management seem more concerned about their own tenure and the obvious benefits that may accrue from this than they are about serious development of the region’s game. Equally, this insularity has seeped onto the players and in an era where the game’s lucre is being driven by abridgement and television revenues it is no longer business as usual. Gone are the days when the game meant as much to the players as they provided a fillip to fans in the Diaspora through the demonstrated examples of their sporting prowess. Today, money talks and everything else walks. Player’s loyalties are to their pockets. Thus the ongoing imbroglio between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association will only produce one result; one in which the game in the region is the loser.
Maybe, just maybe.... it is time for Jamaica and the other teams to apply for individual Test status and go it alone.

See more of my paintings at: http://www.richardhblackford.com/

Jamaica 50 Souvenir Mugs

So it is 2011 and in both the USA and Jamaica the “Political Silly- Season” has opened. In both countries, elections are due in 2012. While we are sure of the USA contest occurring as scheduled, Jamaica is catapulting towards an earlier date with the electorate. Bets are that this will be before Christmas. That aside, Jamaica is on course for an even bigger celebration with the approach in 2012 of its celebration of 50 years as an independent country. Regardless of the negatives (and there are many) we have a great deal to be proud of.
I am using this medium to launch one of my Souvenirs for the occasion the “Jamaica 50 Souvenir Mug”                         

                      Get yours now at: www.richardhblackford.com
                  $7.50 each plus shipping. $171.00 case (36) plus shipping.

http://www.richardhblackford.com/