AS THE EVER UPBEAT president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Dave Cameron sees it, the annual meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Barbados at the end of the week “demonstrates the significant role West Indies cricket continues to play in the global game”.
The distressing reality is that it hasn’t played “a significant role in the global game” since the unprecedented dominance of the 1980s in teams under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards; it is unlikely to do as long as a revival continues to be hindered by performances on the field and in the boardroom.
Every ICC member is keen for the West Indies to regain their strength. They recognise that the decline of a team once revered everywhere it went has diminished the game; they also recognise that unless West Indies cricket rids itself of its peculiar constraints, such as a lack of enlightened leadership at all levels, constantly tense board-player relations, substandard pitches and facilities, progress is impossible.
Their hard-fought share of the three-Test home series against England in April and May, along with the emergence of promising young talent, encouraged hopes of a more sustained revival. As with several others, once again it proved transitory.
Australia’s lop-sided victories over inexperienced opposition in the two subsequent Tests in Dominica and Jamaica have raised concerns in Australia that the West Indies won’t meaningfully compete in the three Tests on their tour in December and January.
“All at Cricket Australia are increasingly twitchy about the fact that next summer’s showpiece Boxing Day and New Year’s Test matches are due to be played against the West Indies,” Greg Baum, chief sports columnist in the Melbourne Age, reported. Quite apart from being a potential financial disaster, such a scenario would be a blow to the image of Test cricket.
New Zealand, described by Chris Barrett in the Sydney Morning Herald as “the most exciting team in international cricket right now”, are listed on the Future Tours Programme (FTP) for three earlier Tests, including the first day-night match in Adelaide; as they have leapt up the Test table from below the West Indies three years ago to third after South Africa and Australia, Barrett suggested a switch with the West Indies on the itinerary. Under the packed FTP such a move would be impossible.
So the West Indies have six months, during which they are listed for scheduled away series in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, to ready themselves to dispel Australia’s concerns.
Against such a background, the ICC’s hierarchy can see where the future of West Indies cricket really lies while in Barbados.
The third season of the T20 Caribbean Premier League (CPL), sold by the WICB to Digicel, the giant Irish-owned mobile phone company, in 2013, started last night at Kensington Oval.
Seats sparsely occupied by locals during Tests were filled well before the first ball. The atmosphere under lights was typically Kadooment style; St Lucia, St Kitts, Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica are later venues for matches that culminate in the final at the Queen’s Park Oval on July 26.
The West Indian superstars of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are all engaged in the six franchise teams. It is the only chance for home fans to see them live as they no longer turn out in WICB tournaments, most favouring domestic T20s the world over.
The four high-profile overseas players for each team feature some big first- timers. Jacques Kallis appears for the Red Steel, Mahela Jayawardene is with Chris Gayle’s Tallawahs, Shahid Afridi with St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. Kevin Pietersen, controversially rejected by England, is back with the Zouks.
The IPL influence is strong. Motor company Hero has become title sponsors; Bollywood screen idol and Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan has bought the Trinidad and Tobago franchise. Hollywood stars Mark Wahlberg, with the Talawahs, and Gerard Butler, the Barbados Tridents, were already involved.
CPL officials are confident that the Indian input will ensure an even larger television viewership than last season’s claimed 65 million.
While West Indies continue to languish near the bottom of the ICC’s Test and ODI rankings, they are fourth on the T20 list. Their triumph in the 2012 ICC T20 in Sri Lanka was their first in an ICC event since the 2004 Champions Trophy in England. Providing all their top T20 players are available and selected, they would be one of the favourites for the 2016 tournament in India. It is success that their public has been denied in the other official formats.
Away from the ICC conference, Cameron and his delegation, supported by the strong political presence of Caricom, engage in separate, bilateral negotiations with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over its outstanding claim for US$42 million compensation, along with the threat of a termination of relations, following the early abandonment of its scheduled tour by the West Indies last October. It was the latest in a catalogue of embarrassments for West Indies cricket.
The BCCI, once more under the leadership of the crafty master of the comeback, 75-year-old Jagmohan Dalmaiya, appears in conciliatory mood.
A settlement, by whatever means, would avoid the bankruptcy that would result from a successful claim.
It wouldn’t magically end West Indies’ woes on the field or turn back the trend towards T20.
Tony Cozier is the most experienced cricket writer and broadcaster in the Caribbean.
