BOTH on the field and off it, the West Indies face a difficult few days trying to restore the initial public expectations of the first World Cup to come to these shores.
The euphoria of the inspiring opening ceremony and the three successive victories that sent the home team into the Super 8 stage unbeaten has rapidly evaporated.
Bob Woolmer, a universally admired national coach, was murdered in his room at a Kingston hotel, a sordid business.
India, the most financially significant team, was knocked out in the first round. West Indians disgruntled by high prices and restrictive regulations have stayed away in droves and, now, after two torpid performances, their team is on the verge of elimination from the semi-finals.
The Woolmer case is in the hands of the Jamaica police and India has returned home to an angry reception, many of their most identifiable players left to consider their future.
These issues are out of the hands of West Indies cricket. The others are not.
Brian Lara and his players surely know that a repeat of Thursday’s shocking display in any one of their remaining four matches will eliminate them and deal the tournament another hefty blow.
Unfortunately, the portents are not encouraging leading into their match against Sri Lanka at the new Providence stadium in Guyana today.
The disagreement between the board and the players association over contracts for the tournament that had to be settled by arbitration was followed by Thursday’s public difference over selection between Lara and selector Andy Roberts.
After the loss to New Zealand, Roberts, the former fast bowler who is one of three appointed selectors, openly questioned the bizarre decision to replace fast bowler Jerome Taylor with batsman Lendl Simmons in the final eleven.
Roberts complained that his panel had chosen the squad of 15 but had no input after that. Lara and head coach, Australian Bennett King, alone were now calling the shots.
Lara countered that he was not involved in the original choice and had to make do with what he was given. It would have been interesting to hear why he was absent from the selection meeting but no reason was offered.
All this was hardly an ideal situation for a team seeking to become the first to win the Cup on home soil.
The circumstantial evidence is that such distractions adversely affected the team itself. Certainly the attitude in the field while New Zealand rattled along towards their win by seven wickets indicated that something was wrong.
It was most noticeable in Chris Gayle who served up a peculiar assortment of off-spin along with one bouncer, all delivered in his sun glasses. Others simply meandered around the field. There was no intensity, no direction.
It was in stark contrast, for instance, to Gayle’s animated approach, marked by his shoulder-to-shoulder clash with Michael Clarke, that sparked the West Indies to their tight victory over Australia in the Champions Trophy in India last October.
It is a spirit that was plainly missing in Antigua. It needs to be rekindled today and for the remaining matches – against South Africa, Bangladesh and England. The consequences if the lethargy remains are too dire to contemplate.
While the players concentrate on keeping the flame of hope burning, the stakeholders, those who determine such things, need to address the aspects that have drawn negative comments from media, both regional and international, and from the public.
The rash of empty seats has been an embarrassment, especially at the Sir Vivian Richards ground for the opening Super 8 clash between the West Indies and Australia. Tickets, it was stated, had all been sold when they clearly hadn’t.
My understanding is that sponsors and travel agents, mostly from India, have either not taken up or returned their ticket allotments and that there was not enough time to properly market their availability locally.
Even so, high prices, not only for entry but also for food and beverage at the concession stands, are an obvious deterrent for fans not interested in following neutral matches.
As was evident with the three-way tournament involving Pakistan and Zimbabwe in the Caribbean a few years back, West Indians are not drawn to such contests, no matter what is charged.
The same obtains everywhere. It is a reason why England has abandoned their triangular one-day series and Australia is about to do the same.
In the ICC Champions Trophy in India last October, where there were similar complaints about prices, only matches involving India attracted sell-out crowds.
Even the final, between Australia and the West Indies, was shunned.
Gate receipts and charges to concessionaires go to the governments, which have bankrolled the new stands and other affiliated work, and to the local organizing committees (LOCs) that have prepared the way.
It is their one source of revenue and they are understandably intent on maximising the returns on their considerable investments. But they need to adjust to changing circumstances and try to fill as many of the empty seats as they can by lowering the price of admission.
The example of the January sales that cut prices on unsold Christmas stock and airlines that adopt the same principle by offering last-minute cut fares refute the claim that such a move is unfair on those who purchased originally.
Public ire has been especially aroused by the stipulation that offers no pass-out vouchers. It means that once the punter has left the ground, there is no way of getting back in unless through the understanding of some sympathetic official – and that’s an oxymoron.
Once they hold a ticket, West Indians are accustomed of being able to come and go as they please, to attend a meeting, to take in the lunch hour from the office, to pick up the kids. At this World Cup, they are under virtual house arrest once they are in the ground.
Those who turned up early yesterday morning at the Viv Richards ground had to wait five hours before play got going. Had they left, there was no way back.
That’s an incongruity easily fixed. Whether it is as easy to fix the cricketing problem is another matter.
