At its best, Test cricket is about thought,
technique
and time. Waltzing to a rhythm of spikes and lulls,
lunges and retreats, and often, long spells that invite
languor rather than tension; it is not for the impatient
– neither onlooker nor player.
It calls for time – themost expensive commodity
these days – and few have it to spare. And like a
majestic leatherback turtle in a world buzzing with
batimamzelles, it is losing ground quickly and
within this century will likely take its place among
the extinct.
A dread prophecy, to be sure, but such is the
evolutionary way.
We do not wish to simply wallow in mourning;
but to discuss its features, as they are expressions of
the conditions under which our lives are unfurling.
In this issue, we hope to simultaneously discussWest
Indian society andWest Indian cricket, choosing our
moment to coincide with the annual general meeting
of theWest Indies Cricket Board onMarch 7 and the
ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup, eight years after it
was held here on our shores.
This watercolour called,
Rain Stop Play
by Jackie Hinkson
is part of the Angostura collection of around 100 works of art on the walls of its corporate
offices. Angostura graciously allowed us to reproduce this piece after Mr Hinkson generously agreed not only to share it, but to also permit us to reproduce
some of the cricket sketches he has done over the years. We have selected sketches that express the mood that regional cricket seems to have found itself
in. There is a sense of waiting and watching, hoping that something different will happen, but hardly expecting that it will. So the figures in the sketches
do not exude the tension of anticipation, rather they look mainly like patient die-hards, hardly knowing what else to do with themselves. The watercolour
above that shows the covers going on to stop play, seems symbolic of the endless rainy season of West Indies cricket.
We would like to question the ownership and control
of West Indies cricket. We look at the issue of leadership,
and how the region has fared under its sloppy hands. We
look at a future that sees cricket primarily in the formats
of the one-day matches of 50 overs, and the three hours of
T20 games. What has been the impact on our cricket; what
about the four-day games?
The popularity of ODIs and T20s is intricately bound
to two prevailing factors: time and entertainment. The
packages wrapped upwith shiny, gaudy ribbons that cater for
TV rights, feteing crowds, high performance fees and roving
cricketers offer much more to suit the modern appetite.
And it is all propped up by time. Five days are just too
many for the average person to take in a game. With ten
Test teams, half of whom are hardly worth watching, it has
become increasingly difficult to draw crowds. It is my belief
that the magnetism that West Indies cricket once held was a
powerful life force for Test cricket. That the decline in Test
cricket coincides with the decline in West Indies cricket
is no coincidence. The world would have been far more
inclined to loiter on Test grounds had West Indies
cricket continued in all its magnificence.
Time campaigns on no one’s behalf; and the
shorter forms of the longer form of the game are
wresting its premiership away. Even ifwe acknowledge
that, how are we preparing for the future?
We would like to think we are opening a regional
discussion on the future of cricket and of our region;
one that is not raging with animus, but one that
retains its composure despite the atrocities that have
been perpetrated unchecked for far too long. For
we have to look closely at the roles we have played
in condoning a state of affairs that bodes well for
none of us.
In this 21st century of moving and shaking,
apathy is not how we can play the game.
Vaneisa Baksh
WhitherWindies?
That the decline in
Test cricket
coincides with the decline in
West
Indies cricket
is no coincidence.
UWI
TODAY
ON CRICKET
