- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 17/Jul 09:06

Whither the woeful West Indies?

THE EDITOR: The West Indies may have to swim through a river of filth to come out clean – Geoff Lemon. With the pink-ball Test in Jamaica looming this Saturday, one more humiliation is on the cards, predicted Australian Geoff Lemon, writer, broadcaster and editor of Going down swinging, and author of Steve Smith’s Men: Behind Australian Cricket’s Fall. “Everybody is bored of the eulogies for WI cricket having read them for the past 25 years,” Lemon wrote in an opinion piece in which he likened the regional Test team to the movie, Shawshank Redemption. He highlighted the resource disparity between the teams and administrations and stated that it feels wrong when a Test side has no chance of chasing any target. Australia continued their 30-year stranglehold on the famed Sir Frank Worrel trophy, ever since Mark Taylor’s side ended the WI's own two decades of dominance in 1995. Lemon found it strange that in a region where life revolves around the vast Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, we can consistently produce a team that is so far out of its depth. Our world class bowlers did their job, bowling out Australia on each occasion so far in the series. However, the problem was the unlucky seven “pawns” Sammy, and I repeat, that Sammy dropped in order to pick his favoured knights of the round table who have put us in the mire that we are in – fully aided and abetted by Cricket West Indies (CWI). Lemon stated that the WI long-form cricket cupboard is bare and lamented the performance of our batters with out of form Kraigg Braithwaite picked for his 100th Test when he was in the terminus of a long decline. Meanwhile, Kemar Roach, our workhorse of many years, was unceremoniously dropped. Lemon noted that “Campbell, Carty and King are short-form players trying to adapt, whilst Shai Hope had some triumphs in another life, but has returned from the white ball “pet cemetary” possessed by the accursed spirit of a desperate slogger.” These players hand-picked by Sammy, replaced the unlucky “seven” and more specifically Athanaze, Hodge, Janghoo and Da Silva, who all featured in the drawn Test series versus Pakistan in January this year – yes January this year! Athanaze, Hodge and Da Silva also featured in the drawn Test series against Australia last year, both series coached by Andre Coley who was also unceremoniously dropped by CWI. When questioned specifically about the dropping of the Dominicans Athanaze and Hodge, Sammy said it was based on performance data and not personal bias. He explained that they averaged around 25 in Tests and this did not align with standards set by top international teams according to his data base. Rayburn Blackmore, Minister of National Security for Dominica weighed in on the dropping of Athanaze and Hodge claiming it is without conscience, lacking in wisdom and was wicked to say the least. Data from the first two Tests showed the batting averages were: Brathwaite – 3.75, Campbell 17.5, Carty 17.5, King 28.75, Chase 24 and Hope 22. As one of my colleagues said, if these guys were playing four-day cricket, it would have been okay to pick them, but to thrust them in the Test arena is akin to putting lambs to the slaughter and this is exactly what happened in the first two Tests. The data-driven coach must now go back to his database and see where it all went wrong – in my opinion all he has to do is basically look into a mirror. The movie Shawshank Redemption is based on a book by Stephen King which failed initially at the Box office 31 years ago, but eventually emerged as one of the great cultural touchstones of its decade. It is ranked in some internet searches as the greatest film ever made. The movie is about a banker wrongly convicted of murder and his experiences in the Shawshank State Penitentiary. He eventually crawled through a river of filth and came out clean on the other side. The quote from the movie highlights the idea that even in difficult situations, one can maintain an inner sense of innocence or purity even if surrounded by filth. The idea can also apply to personal growth and self-improvement. Overcoming challenges, facing difficult truths and learning from mistakes can be seen as a process of “swimming through filth” to emerge stronger and wiser. In other words, throughout all of the WI challenges, the team can emerge victorious...one day. The orchestrated plan to remove our best coach in Andre Coley, insert the blue eyed boy Darren Sammy as head coach of all three formats, without an iota of coaching credentials, and then hand the Test captaincy to Roston Chase – who at best only captained village teams – was indeed a recipe for failure. Incidentally, it was announced a few days ago that WI had fallen out of the automatic qualification spots for the 2027 World Cup in the latest ICC rankings, risking another tournament absence as we did in 2023, having been edged out by the Netherlands and Sri Lanka. Lemon concluded, “the only hope is that being this low, eventually creates the drive at home and in the international community, to decide on a path towards something better. It’s a long way off.” So just like Shawshank Redemption emerged as one of the great cultural touchstones, let’s hope that one day the West Indies will rise to the glory days of yesteryear. CWI is excellent at lip service and their game of chess and musical chairs almost goes unnoticed, but their power transcend boundaries and their knights in shining armour will continue to shine, just not in our favour, at least in the near future. Terrence Kalloo Diehard WI fan P.S: This article was written before a ball was bowled in the "Pink Test” at Sabina Park. The rest is now history. The post Whither the woeful West Indies? appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.