By now, you have heard the rumours. By every account, they are true and the news is not good at all.
For the very first time in my lifetime, and beyond, since 1928, West Indies are not scheduled to play any Tests matches at all in London next year; not at the extremely prestigious Lord’s Cricket Ground, or at the equally popular, especially with West Indies supporters, Kennington Oval.
That is very sad indeed.
There is a very slight chance that might change, but it is not as easy as that, from what I hear.
Apparently, this came about because of their bidding system, with both Lord’s and the Oval being outbid; that is, under-bid. Hosting a Test match at either ground would cost more than it would elsewhere.
Tentative schedules have West Indies possibly playing England in Tests, in 2012, at Swalec Stadium, Cardiff, Wales; Trent Bridge, Nottingham; and Edgbaston, Birmingham, Warwickshire – all good cricket arenas. If these schedules are confirmed some, like Darren Bravo and Kemar Roach, would miss out on very much.
The only lifeline that a change of venues has is that the ground in Wales recently hosted the first Test of Sri Lanka vs England, with the Sri Lankans capitulating on Day 5.
Despite that England win, the cricket authorities in Cardiff lost much money. With that in mind, there could, remotely, be a change about West Indies and playing at Lord’s.
The debate goes on, but things look quite dark for now.
Any player worth his salt wants to – probably needs to – play a Test match at Lord’s, the “ancestral home of cricket”, even if he or she does quite badly in that game.
In 27 Tests, I got 125 wickets; avg. 23.3; 4.6 wickets per Test – very good statistics by any standards anywhere.
However, my worst Test returns ever were at Lord’s; match figures no wicket for 101 runs.
I would not have changed it for the world. It was quite exhilarating.
Further, I spent the entire last weekend at Lord’s Cricket Ground watching the second Sri Lanka vs England Test. It was truly a most splendiferous visage.
One would struggle to see better in any sport, let alone cricket.
Lord’s was resplendent, courtesy of the spring rains, and the very hot early summer sunshine. The ground glowed.
On Day 3 of the Test, I was invited to the private box of the president of the Marylebone Cricket Club, none other than my sometimes BBC Test Match Special broadcasting colleague, the encyclopaedic journalist Christopher Martin-Jenkins. According to him: “You deserve it!”
I was totally astounded!
If you wonder what I was doing at Lord’s at all, I was there promoting that West Indies film, circa 1975 to 1985, Fire In Babylon.
I even visited friends and associates in the futuristic media centre.
It was from there that I gleaned, as if I did not already know, that West Indies had fallen so badly that English cricket authorities had decided that our team could not account to play at these prestigious venues.
Mind you, all of this fuss was for a guy who has played – some say very well – for West Indies, but who cannot get a complimentary ticket to go to cricket anywhere in the Caribbean.
Had I not been a sports journalist myself, I would have had to pay, like everyone else, to see cricket anywhere in the Caribbean. But, the MCC, in all of its obviously stunning wisdom, invited me – twice – to Lord’s. Can you believe it?
Anyway, the now aging, but still highly vocal supporters who represented so well under Tavern Stands in Lord’s, and especially the Oval, are almost all gone.
No more are places in the stands reserved for raving West Indies supporters; those places are now corporate boxes or extremely expensive seats. In any case, West Indies supporters are so very down-spirited these days that it does not really matter.
But that massive pass from the English cricket authorities is not the only visible rejection of our cricket.
Have you noticed that even with the West Indies Cricket Board’s senior officials – its president, chief executive officer, and captain – all hailing from St Lucia, that the stands were not more than half-full for any of the three games – a T-20 and two ODIs – against Pakistan, when the teams met in St Lucia? People are not that stupid anymore.
• Colin Croft is a former West Indies fast bowler who comments regularly on West Indies cricket.