An embarrassment to West Indians
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH the West Indies cricket team looking to win the final One Day International against India to square the series, Prime Minister of Grenada, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Keith Mitchell, has called on Caribbean leaders to be more serious with the game.
Mitchell, who is an avid cricket lover, had strong words for his fellow Regional Heads when he addressed the Opening Ceremony of the 38th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in St. George's.
According to the Grenada PM, cricket, with all of its challenges, remains a unique West Indian enterprise worthy of support and promotion.
He stated that the legacy which was created on the field and the voice they had given throughout generations to expressions of West Indian identity have been well documented and chronicled over the years.
However, in the region, the game has found itself waning for greater support, with the management of Cricket West Indies finding themselves on the receiving end of harsh criticisms from all quarters.
Several recommendations were put forward to restructure the game in the region, but they were brushed aside by the current cricket administrators.
Included in those recommendations was a call for the dismantling and restructuring of the West Indies Cricket Board.
Many in the region are adamant that the Board, the selectors and the Players Association have no regard for the fans, as management continues to neglect the top players for selection.
Some of those top players include Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine, all of whom have been plying their trade in the overseas T20 leagues such as the Indian Premier League and the Big Bash in Australia.
Some cricket enthusiasts are of the view that the humiliation the current team suffers, with many junior players within, is due to the non-selection of the more experienced players.
Dr. Mitchell pointed to Gary Sobers, Learie Constantine, Frank Worrell, Michael Holding and Viv Richards, among others, as some of the cricketing greats who helped to forge a West Indian identity globally that impacted on all facets of Caribbean life.
“So when we get together to discuss the current challenges of the regional game, it is not merely a game of politicians dabbling in some useless pastimes. It is therefore greatly disheartening to me, and I know several other colleague Heads that after we would have taken common positions to assist in addressing the common crisis in West Indies cricket, other members, some members, of government publicly adopted different positions,” Dr. Mitchell said.
He also said, “You have to call a spade when we see a spade.”
The very vocal Prime Minister reminded his colleague that “there is an urgent need for us to get back on course, because the current state of affairs of cricket should be a complete embarrassment to all of us who call ourselves West Indians”.
He noted that the failure of the team to qualify for the recent Champions Trophy in England and the possibility that it now has to play a qualifying tournament “among the lowest to see if it can make the next World Cup, is the latest symptom of this crisis”.
The West Indies team is currently in a struggle to make it in the top eight positions in the ODI World Ranking by the cut-off point in September.
All teams outside of that ranking will have to play a 10-team qualifier and the top two teams will make it to the 2019 World Cup Championship.
