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.

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