Dear Editor,
I feel a deep sadness about West Indies cricket. This overwhelming loss of the Test series to Australia is a devastating disgrace — let us not mince words. Of all teams I want West Indies to beat, Australia leads the way by far. I am overjoyed when any team , not just the West Indies, beats those originators and chief and most expert practitioners of sledging, that shameful stain on a great game which Australia continues, officially into the bargain, to encourage.
Instead, Australia has humiliated us, reduced us to second division Test status. In the end they even looked as if they pitied us! What a terrible decline we have suffered. It is very painful.
In the general horror story it is a relatively small matter but I should have my say. I know the arguments but, please, Chanderpaul really should have been in our team — fit and agile at 40, performing as well as, if not better than, anyone at regional level, a lifetime of experience and great batting far outweighing the statistics of his last few Test innings. The steel and obduracy and pride he would have supplied. Big mistake not picking him. When you play very important matches — especially against formidable foes — you pick your best side, not “plan for the future”. And no one will ever convince me that West Indies against Australia in these two important Tests were a stronger side without Chanderpaul.
But all that is subsidiary. The main thing is that West Indies cricket needs to be lifted to a renewed level of success and efficiency and pride and this simply will never happen with the governance of West Indies cricket constituted as it is. What happened to the Committee of Five agreed upon by Caricom Heads of Government and the WICB which was to have another go at setting West Indies cricket on a new path?
Yours faithfully,
Ian McDonald
