WHEN IS a boycott not a boycott?
When almost no one was going to turn up anyway, as in the case of the third Test between the West Indies and India in St Lucia.
Yes, there may be legitimate reasons for wanting to make a clear statement to the regional game’s administrators over the sacking of Daren Sammy as captain and omission from the West Indies squad to face India in two T20 Internationals in Florida at the end of the month. Surely though, the aspiring protestors would have realised the occasion was going to suffer for attention.
Deserted arenas for Test matches are nothing new throughout the cricketing world. In fact, when the West Indies travel to the United Arab Emirates next month for the series against Pakistan, that sense of desolation will be even more acute.
However the reality that the last two matches of the series against India run concurrently with the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro diminishes spectator interest even further. Add to that the facts that we are very much into the rainy season while many parents are busy getting their children ready for the start of the new academic year, and you have a confluence of events conspiring against that fixture in Gros Islet and next week’s series finale in Port of Spain being seen as even remotely attractive to anyone other than the absolute diehards of Test cricket.
Back to the protest thing though. Were the supporters of the national sporting hero in St Lucia really expecting any sort of response from the West Indies Cricket Board? Do they believe it will force the selectors to think twice in making any decision in future that may be perceived to be a case of discrimination or victimisation?
There is more than ample evidence over a very long period of time to suggest that these actions, however well-intended, are exercises in futility. Those deep-seated systemic problems in the administration of West Indies cricket will not be solved by the occasional protest or even a successful boycott.
Did the boycott of the historic first Test between the West Indies and South Africa at Kensington Oval in 1992 achieve anything that translated into a measurable improvement in standards of West Indies cricket, either administratively or performance-wise?
Over the years many Barbadians have explained that action as not merely a parochial response to the then uncapped Anderson Cummins being omitted from the final 11 for the match (the fast medium-bowler subsequently played five Tests, taking eight wickets at 42.75 runs apiece) but a broader statement of discontent over the general administration of the game.
In the more than 24 years from that action, has anything improved? Isn’t the selection of Carlos Brathwaite, as excellent and committed a cricketer as he is, to succeed Sammy as T20 captain reflective of that continuing dysfunctionality where senior players are overlooked because they are perceived to be troublemakers while promising younger ones find themselves unduly burdened with leadership to the detriment of their own personal development?
Just to be clear, it should never be assumed that West Indies cricketers are entirely blameless and only the victims of the many shenanigans and machinations that define the regional game. On the contrary, the evidence of statements and pronouncements on their own careers and the wider game suggest that more than a few are just as unrealistic as the administrators who repeatedly come under fire.
Five-time Olympic swimmer George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago made a protest statement of his own last Thursday when he lashed out at the international governing body of swimming’s handling of issues related to performance-enhancing drugs in the sport, describing the Olympic competition as more akin to a reality TV show and a media franchise.
On the surface he could be accused of sour grapes, given that he was just eliminated in the heats of the 50-metre freestyle in Rio. However the Athens 2004 bronze medallist (200-metre individual medley) has been making these noises consistently for years and also highlighted the controversial body suits which made such a difference to the times in Beijing in 2008 and the World Championships a year later.
Yet even that consistent advocacy has left him questioning the value of his sport and the impact corruption and compromise have had on the entire Olympic movement.
Protest action is often a knee-jerk reaction to an immediate concern and it is too much to expect that all of the consequences and ramifications of such activism will be properly thought out before individuals, who genuinely want to stand up and be counted, take up the placards.
Often though, as in the case of St Lucia, it is not even a mild inconvenience to those against whom the protest is targeted.
Fazeer Mohammed is a regional cricket journalist and broadcaster who has been covering the game at all levels since 1987.