Can West Indies Cricket come Back?

[hawkeye]

Can WI cricket return to its glory days? Or is it where it should reasonably expect to be given resources, population size etc?

Come to think of it, it is remarkable that a region of just over seven million people could, for almost two decades, dominate a sport conTested by countries with markedly larger populations. To understand this, one has to appreciate how much a part of the fabric of the society cricket was.

It was played in every makeshift space in every community, often with an intensity reserved only for serious and meaningful endeavors. Lara wrote of regularly playing a version of cricket called "pass out," where if you missed the ball while batting you were out. He used to bat for so long that a gentleman who lived nearby would often offer the other boys money for getting him out. Sometimes he didn't get out for quite a few days.

Lawrence Rowe was walking close to the playground while at school one day when he saw a ball flying in his direction and caught it. Since it was a variation of cricket we called ketchy shubby in Jamaica, it meant that the batsman was out, and having caught the ball it was now Rowe's turn to bat. But he was smaller and younger than the boys playing, and thinking he might be too intimidated to face bigger boys, a few of them beseeched him to allow one of them to bat in his stead. He resisted their supplications, went to the wicket, and proceeded to bat for the whole afternoon. Impressed, they escorted him to the school's sports master to relate what they had just witnessed, and to get the future batting stylist into the school team.

West Indies Cricket: How Will It Find Its Way Back?

 

[Aislabie]

In my personal opinion, the reason for the decline in West Indies cricket is because people in the Caribbean are now prouder to be Jamaican, or Trinidadian, or Dominican than they are of being West Indian. The only way, I feel, of saving cricket in the region is to disband the West Indies as a national team and to create a structure with regular regional tournaments in which people can get behind their country.

The difficulty would be financing this, of course.