I MUST CONFESS that not being a great cricket fan, I am not inclined to watch the game on television. However, on Sunday, April 3, I was encouraged to do so, as the West Indies cricket team was playing England for the world championship in the T20 finals in India.
In the style of a true West Indian cricket lover, I settled down in my living room before my television set to watch the game everyone was talking about. I was soon caught up in the frenzy and then the nail-biting finish of this historic match.
Unlike most of my Caribbean brothers and sisters witnessing this display of cricket power, I saw more than a sport. I saw an entire history lesson; the descendants of former slaves and a territory colonised by the European powers of the time, now whipping their former colonial masters at the game which they had introduced to us.
I, too, fell into the celebratory mode when Carlos Brathwaite secured the win with four stunning sixes from the first four balls of the final over.
I could not help but feel the sense of pride evident by the loud screams of victory which echoed across the region. What a feeling to be part of this euphoric moment which united the Caribbean people, even if for a short while. We were all feeling the joy of victory as we watched our English opponents suffer the agony of defeat.
Our cricketers had done us proud and I wondered why we could not have this unity exemplified in our daily living. For these few precious moments the Caribbean region was one; cricket, lovely cricket had once again brought us together, rocking the region in the singing of the celebration song Champions.
This is the year in which two Caribbean states will be celebrating their golden anniversary of political Independence, namely Guyana and Barbados. I am now more convinced than before that as we approach our jubilee celebrations, we should do so not only with a sense of national pride, but also with a determination that we translate our feelings of nationalism into a drive for further consolidation of our regionalism.
Cricket and other sports, along with the arts, especially music, will continue to be uniting forces to bringing us closer together in the region. However, these must be accompanied by political will and self-determination to see this integration movement spread beyond sports and arts to embrace the economic unity which is so vital to maintaining and improving the standard of living for all our people.
The Caribbean has produced many sons and daughters of whom we can be justly proud. Our people continue to interact with each other on a daily basis, building lasting relationships across the entire region. Let us continue to highlight the achievements of our Caribbean people in sports, music and literature, in every sphere of life, but let us do it as one people with one history and one destiny, as we seek to support each other, making the Caribbean a place that all our people will be proud to call “home”.
– FRANK M. GILKES
