Line and Length cricket commentator, Maurice Foster, crossed the line in his initial assessment of Barbadian opening batsman Kraigg Brathwaite on the first day of the first Digicel test between West Indies and Australia at Kensington Oval.
To put it in context, I would say that as a former West Indies player too, the public would be willing to hear Foster’s take on Brathwaite or any other player. Therefore, we expect to hear objective analysis from people of his standing rather than statements that bordered on flippancy and in some instances mock sport about Brathwaite.
In his first stint as pundit, Foster went on and on about what he perceived as the young opener’s weaknesses and even went on to suggest he wasn’t the kind of player you would pay your money to see.
And to make matters worse, in my opinion, his tone was very condescending which could have conveyed to his worldwide audience that he had no time whatsoever for Brathwaite or that he shouldn’t be considered for West Indies selection.
While nobody is above criticism, I believed it would have been more pertinent at that stage of the game to reflect on the fact that Brathwaite was being his obdurate self in trying to help give his team a solid start having won the toss and decided to bat.
Not only that, far from giving Brathwaite and fellow opener Barath credit, Foster and others were heard saying that the Australians had a poor bowling attack. This was their way of depreciating the work of the West Indies players.
It sounded as though they would have preferred to see the West Indies five wickets down with few runs on the board, despite the fact that the Australian captain Michael Clarke said he would have batted if he had won the toss.
Everything pointed to a pitch that was good for batting so the West Indies should have been capable of resisting whatever their opponents delivered in the conditions. That’s what Brathwaite and Barath proceeded to do before being parted with the score on 38. The former continued to do the same in a 100-run, second-wicket partnership with vice captain Kirk Edwards.
In a subsequent interview after scoring a solid 57, Brathwaite commented on the swing and movement some of the Australian bowlers were getting, which didn’t sound possible based on the commentators’ comments.
In other words, he painted a far different picture from what we were hearing from the voices in the commentary booth.
Mind you, it was only after criticism about his handling of Brathwaite presumably via text messaging, that Foster started to be more clinical and objective about the opener’s technique and his approach to batting. We even heard belatedly about Brathwaite’s renowned powers of concentration and how he was frustrating the Australians.
Honestly, it was more along the lines this time that we would duly expect from someone employed to give an expert view on any aspect of the game.
The comments of a former test player are supposed to have greater weight and credence than the ordinary fan, who may have a very sound knowledge of the game as well but whose views for obvious reasons will not be seen in the same light as someone who would have played at the highest level.
Substance and balance are demanded from those placed in esteemed positions to give enlightened comments.
Foster has a right to speak his mind about Brathwaite but his opening verbal attack came over to me as a listener as being too brutal, bordering on the personal when the opener was doing his job successfully in helping to build a strong foundation for those to come.
On another matter, I am happy that significant ground has been made in mending fences between the West Indies Cricket Board and Chris Gayle, thanks to the mediation efforts of the CARICOM Sub-Committee For Cricket.
The issue has been in the public domain for more than a year and the lack of diplomacy on both sides may have caused it to be blown out of context.
West Indies cricket needs all of it’s best hands on deck if we are to surge again and regain lost respect. I count Gayle among that number but he must be committed to the cause like everybody else and from the board’s end, justice must be seen to be done in matters like the one they had with the talismanic opener.
