By Marlon Munroe
A fish starts to rot from its head. And, contrary to what many people believe, the same rationale can also be applied to people.
If a people, family or an organisation lacks guidance, proper structure and leadership everything tends to go awry and recalcitrance, chaos, indiscipline and many other grave indiscretions will arise to choke the life and order out of that institution, organization or people.
A case in point is the ongoing saga between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).
These two bodies have been able to come to agreements on what is good for West Indies cricket grudgingly and only in most instances after mediation.
As a result the region’s national game continues to slip into an abyss of despair so much so that the board recently was forced to settle for a second string team to compete against Bangladesh in the Digicel 2009 Home series.
Small wonder then that Bangladesh a team in the bottom tier of world cricket, was able to whitewash the West Indies in both the Test and One-Day encounters.
While we were being beaten in almost all aspects of the game by world cricket’s minnows on the field, the ‘guardians’ of West Indies cricket were beating each other up with their uncompromising tirades and stances in the boardroom.
Eventually, WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine, wrote to chairman of CARICOM and Guyana president Bharrat Jagdeo in an effort to reach some sort of consensus.
The two bodies subsequently agreed to mediation and both Ramnarine and WICB president Dr. Julian Hunte stated that that they were satisfied with the talks with President Jagdeo, who had asked for the mediation process to “be pursued with the utmost expedition”.
Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal, was the appointed choice for mediator and he was confident ahead of the talks that it would bear fruit.
A July 27 date was set for yet another round of mediation talks intended to move WI cricket forward with the two organizations represented by Ramnarine and Industrial Relations practitioner Gerard Pinard of the WICB.
But, like with previous mediators Keith Mitchell and PJ Patterson, the author of the Governance Review Committee report, the process again moved slowly.
Ramphal expressed disappointment that “more agreement was not reached in the preliminary stages of the mediation” especially since he had envisioned a settlement by month’s end.
The stalemate continues to shroud the return of the stars in future WI tours. What a sorry state of affairs!
West Indies cricket after a proud and rich history, has deteriorated into almost nothingness.
The great West Indian players of this glorious game must be singing slow, sombre songs at the impending death caused from the rotting of the head.
I will go out on a limb and say that WICB, WIPA and all other stakeholders of West Indies cricket might think the situation regrettable.
However, our credibility as a formidable opponent around the world and more so our administrators’ ability to provide structure, leadership and guidance worthy of other professional boards around the world are seriously being massacred and trampled upon.
It would take much overhauling to change people’s perception.
Affairs reached another embarrassing low when the Trinidad & Tobago board decided to boycott the annual general meeting of the WICB in protest.
There was even talk about Trinidad going it alone internationally.
This surely does not augur well for where we would like to go and definitely this move can prove counter-productive for the West Indies as a whole.
While in a majority of instances humans are afraid to confront change because of its uncertainty, it is also human behaviour to sever ties from progressive and seemingly chronic failure. T&T over the past decade has embarked on restructuring its cricket programme and sports in general, and today any objective and impartial observer will see the strength of T&T’s cricket and the accolades they have won in the process.
The country has been getting the exposure, winning major tournaments and competing at the highest level of world cricket especially with the shorter, more explosive version of the game. So a split from the rest of the Caribbean that seems to be lagging can well be justified given all the negatives that have enveloped WI cricket.
Cricketing standards in the West Indies have sunk to an all-time low as is evident in every WICB regional tournament. And judging from the clear and present danger it will reach a state where the situation will become untenable to the point where all our teams will come over as second strength teams to the rest of the world after our current crop of the Ramnaresh Sarwans, Shivnarine Chanderpauls and Chris Gayles, who are currently staging a sit-in over their contracts and salaries depart the international scene.
While this may not be a matter-of-fact it would not hurt anyone to bear it in mind so as to always keep in perspective our rapidly nauseating decline. And if the WIPA and WICB do not see the urgency for reconciliation, the bigger picture of restoring rich and accustomed traditions of West Indies cricket as many of us die hard fans know it should be of the utmost priority or West Indies cricket can become just a memory of a once enlightened and proud time in Caribbean history.
