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.

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