As this article is being written the West Indies is yet to play its final game in the 2015 instalment of cricket’s most prestigious tournament. Cricket does not come even remotely close to soccer in terms of its global popularity though the passion for the game amongst its followers is every inch as intense; from the millions on the Indian sub-continent to the far fewer numbers here in the Caribbean, the fortunes of the players and the teams is followed with a passion and an intensity that can be frightening.
As has been the case for several years now ‘our boys’ continued to tempt fate in the just concluded offering of the Cricket World Cup, running the risk – on account of their ineptitude and their discipline – of a complete falling out with the long-suffering followers of the game. “Our boys,” it seems, are simply not inclined to take on board the fact that other sporting pursuits compete for the attention of the region…pursuits like the world class performances of the surfeit of athletes who continue to fall out of the woodwork, mostly in Chris Gayle’s country, Jamaica. There are too, the attractions of America’s NBA and the English football Premier League. Cricket no longer monopolizes our attention. Our youngsters are evincing a growing interest in optional sporting pursuits. Much of this is due to the fact that the Westindies have not only stopped being frequent winners but have become predictable losers.
But it is not just their persistent losses on the field play that we who used to worship them find infuriating, it is
