Submitted by Pachamama
We have always blamed the West Indies Cricket Board, of Control (WICB)(C) and their regional members for the persistent failures in West Indies cricket and we intend to continue in this vein. The successes, we shamelessly attribute to the players, and the players alone. That trajectory of management failure is now likely to lead to the early exit of our team from the ICC World Cup of Cricket 2015. We will be asking what has to happen for us to jettison this culture of persistent failure in a form of the game where we are supposed to have a competitive advantage. An advantage based on our natural approach to the game. An approach which predates the commercialization of limited overs cricket. An approach not always accepted by the so-called regional cricket connoisseurs. Those who would want to be more English than the very English!
Over the last 24 hours both Ireland and Pakistan won their respective matches. Leaving the West Indies in fifth position and on 4 points after 5 matches – two wins and three losses. We are now above the UAE and Zimbabwe in the standings. Based on net run rate (NRR) there maybe some hope providing the West Indies could win their last match against the UAE and do so with a superlative NRR, thereby eclipsing Ireland, currently in the fourth position. Also we would have to depend on Ireland terribly losing their two (2) remaining matches against India and Pakistan. These odds appear, from the general performance of teams involved, to defy a reasonable judgment that this rare alignment of the stars will occur, but cricket is still supposed to be a game of ‘inglorious’ uncertainties…….Keep dreaming diehards!
The long odds that Ireland could lose both their remaining matches and in doing so fail to improve their NRR by more than 0.32 seem remote. We know that the armchair, not statisticians, but diehard (pundits) will have all kinds of permutations. These could include possibilities which are from remote to the intervention of some divine force to save the misguided management structure currently in place. Other will be motivated by who the current captain is. Which country he comes from. These petty loyalties have always militated against regional projects. To them it is alright to follow others and have international relationships, entanglements, traditions, but when it comes to regional unities there is to be a different standard. A mindset of insularity which belies otherwise reasonable stances.
We can’t say what has to happen to remove the collective scales from the eyes of Caribbean people. We have no idea what it would take to decapitate the leadership of the WICB(C) and other boards, either figurative or literally. We are at a lost why this pending humiliation will again be easily absorbed into the culture without the ultimate price being paid by the managements and directorates of all regional boards. We will never be able to comprehend how an abyssal failure, like this, a set of circumstances we saw coming, could be again papered over by the cricketing establishment. And why Caribbean people must continue financially supporting structures not of our making…..Like have happened in the past.
Those failures are well known and have been written about or discussed ad infinitum. They include, the recent debacle in India, the re-tweeting of comments derogatory of a senior player, the high-handed removal of senior players to prove political points, actions anathema to good governance, the elevation of a young but talented Jason Holder as captain primarily as an insult to other senior players. Certainly, any system run like this must fail. That we as Caribbean people cannot correct this maybe the best determination as to what/who we are as a people from this small region.
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