MAYBE it’s just as well that the Caribbean Premier League caravan has rolled into town.
A three-and-a-half-hour package of sixes and fours, noise, music, and a sell-out crowd all add up to the perfect blend of cricket and partying at Kensington Oval that makes the CPL such a watchable proposition. And not just for the “millenials”, who have no issue getting into the vibe of the experience, but even the diehards, the ones who are increasingly losing hope of ever seeing the West Indies even approaching the degree of dominance they once enjoyed in the traditional form of the game.
Not a day goes by without some issue or other coming to the surface to remind us that when the lights are switched off, the crowds go home and the cricket-party moves to another venue, we will be left with unresolved issues that may not be full-blown crises in themselves, but are symptomatic of an inability to deal with matters great and small with clarity and decisiveness.
Is Joel Garner to be appointed manager of the West Indies senior men’s team, with all the travelling that such an assignment entails, to make it difficult for him to coalesce even greater support than previously for another tilt at the leadership of the West Indies Cricket Board?
WICB chief executive Michael Muirhead has already responded in these pages implying that comment should be reserved until there is an official news release from headquarters in Antigua. But Caribbean cricket officials – both at territorial and regional level – tend to function like our politicians, providing information only on a need-to-know basis or when the timing is opportune.
Conflicting
So the challenge is to prise it out of them. Yet even when information is forthcoming, it is necessary to wait for a correction to erroneous information or additional data, or as in the case of the elevation of Courtney Browne to chairman of selectors, try to develop a cohesive stream of information from a conflicting communiqué.
In case you missed it, the WICB release advising of the former wicketkeeper-batsman’s accession to the position stated that he was taking up the job immediately (two weeks ago) and that he would succeed Clive Lloyd at the end of the outstanding former captain’s tenure in September. So which was it, now or then? Is the selection panel now one less than previously with no replacement for Lloyd? Why?
No clarity, no elaboration, nothing.
Well, at least we know now that Browne is in charge, at least if Denesh Ramdin’s Twitter rants from last Wednesday are accurate.
Ramdin’s intemperate comments are nothing new – almost everyone recalls the “Yeah Viv, Talk Nah” message when he got a hundred on his return to the Test side in England in 2012 . But his belittling of the former gloveman on the basis of his batting record is both demeaning and reflective of an attitude that betrays a level of immaturity which should not be expected from someone who has been the West Indies’ first-choice wicketkeeper across all formats for nine of the 11 years since he replaced Browne for the tour of Sri Lanka in 2005.
Questions
Still, questions arise. If Ramdin is correct in the substantive information dispersed through the viral outlets of social media, doesn’t it contradict the previously understood position that he was one of a handful of players who would not play in the CPL this year to focus on the four Tests against India? Has there been a change of policy with the change of selection chairman? If so, why?
Even politicians who value their constituents coming close to election time are quick to respond to rumours. But the WICB is really accountable to no one, not even the governments of the territories in which they function, so there is no need to say anything really. This is especially so now that a “breaking of the ranks” has been confirmed by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley over what was presented by the Caricom Heads of Government earlier this year as a unanimous position in support of the Barriteau Review, yet another report that called for the dismantling of the board’s top-heavy and dysfunctional administrative structure.
We seem to be fond of the dysfunctional and incoherent, though. Why else would there be CPL matches in St Lucia clashing with the first Test against India in Antigua and more in the ground-breaking United States schedule at the same time that the second Test is unfolding in Jamaica?
Is there no coordination, no communication between the respective organisers?
Is there any other instance in any other part of the world of already-suffering Test cricket competing for viewership with the attractive T20 franchise format?
Apart from placards to signal “6” and “4,” maybe there should be a few “?” amid the festivities bowling off tomorrow evening.