Dear Editor,
WI cricket fans and journalists do not have to surrender to bullying by the WICB. Bullying is a tactic often used successfully by those whose arguments are not convincing, but who have the power to enforce their wishes. The directors of the WICB are particularly effective in the use of the bullying strategy. For example, there is substantial evidence that during, say the last three or four years, both the deceased Tony Cozier as well as Michael Holding were prohibited by the WICB from broadcasting West Indies matches.
I understand that many cricket fans have lost interest in West Indies cricket in consequence of a long history of losing Test and one-day matches after several years of domination. Earlier this year, however, something truly unprecedented and exciting happened with West indies cricket in the shorter versions of the game. West Indian teams won three world championships: the under19 boys one-day, the women`s twenty over, and the men`s twenty over. WI fans had every right to believe that the people who administer cricket in the region would use this remarkable state of affairs to heal old wounds, and make a real effort to bring new life to one of the very few truly regional institutions. I emphasize the word ‘administer’ because it is critical we understand that the WICB does not own cricket in the region. Not one director of the WICB has one penny of his or her own money invested in the organization, which makes it entirely different from other private for-profit corporations, the similarity to which its directors use as a basis for claiming the right to do as they choose.
Three of the strongest teams in the world are now or will soon be guests in the region. I am one of those people who have always taken the position that those teams ought to give to the West Indies the respect its team has earned over the entire second half of the twentieth century, but I believe that all three, especially India, which has ‘forgiven’ a substantial debt for a breach of contract by the WICB, have earned the right to face the best cricketers on this tour during which all West Indian players would be free of foreign contractual obligations. Lendl Simmons, who readers may recall, came out of injury to be the man of the match in the just completed World Cup semi-final, had this to say in an interview this week: “It’s just foolish. We are able to play but we are not being picked. It’s just a stupid rule that they have.”
This “stupid” rule is the one that prohibits West Indian cricketers from representing their country if they did not perform in the immediately preceding regional competition. The WICB directors know it’s stupid, and that following it cannot possibly achieve the objectives for which the rule was designed, but they insist on enforcing it anyway, because they have the power to do so.
With due respect, it is about time that the fans and journalists refuse to be bullied by those ignorant and insensitive directors, who bully for the sake of bullying, and thereby destroy any prospect of reviving the game in the region.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
