My friend and colleague Richard Wheeler called me early the
following morning and said: “Martin, you need to take the
analysis to its conclusion, I know where you’re headed,
and you need to go there with the article.”
He was, of course, referring to last Sunday’s article,
where I started an analysis of West Indies cricket, and yes,
he was correct, because I intend in this the subsequent article
to take my hypothesis to its logical conclusion, which is that
it is time for Trinidad and Tobago to consider going it alone
in world cricket.
For years and years, we ruled the roost in the seventies and
into the eighties as the kings of the cricket world. Our guys
stood tall and straddled the global cricket empire as Lord’s
over all.
We thrashed Australia in Australia and at home. We humiliated
England in the mother country and then brought them to their
knees here in the Caribbean, where we gave them a whitewash
and then coined the term to describe it, calling it a blackwash.
We were rampant and triumphant against India, Pakistan and New
Zeland. Our blades flashed with surgical precision, carving
out boundary after boundary and fashioning centuries and victories
one after the other as our batsmen returned to the pavilion,
dripping with perspiration and their blades dripping with the
proverbial blood of their opponents as we cheered another resounding
victory.
International team
Those were years gone by, and maybe never to return again, but
whatever the future holds for West Indies cricket, we ought
to consider wishing it well and farewell.
It is time that Trinidad and Tobago started acting like a leader
in the region and start showing some initiative and form our
own International cricket team, with a view to competing on
a global scale.
There will, of course, be hurdles in the process of trying to
apply to the International Cricket Council for membership, and
of proving that we are worthy of gaining entry as an international
cricket team and then to gain status as a Test-playing nation,
but it is not impossible.
Look at Allan Stanford and his Twenty Twenty cricket? Didn’t
they also tell him it was impossible? Didn’t they also
tell him that he would never get approval and would never see
it through?
Hasn’t he now confounded his critics to the point where
the Indian Cricket League is hosting its own version of a Twenty
Twenty tournament, and in fact, the ICC can no longer ignore
the Twenty Twenty concept?
What is so impossible about Trinidad and Tobago trying to break
away from West Indies cricket and applying for its own status
with the ICC, and carving and fashioning its own cricket team
of International standard?
We have the resources; we have the finances and we have enough
stadia around the country, and with the expected Brian Lara
Cricket Academy we should have the training facilities.
We certainly have the wealth of talent, and we have the type
of international clout which can see us through with this venture,
even if it takes a decade to achieve.
One would probably have more confidence in such a team rather
than betting on the future of West Indies cricket.
Trinidad and Tobago can do it. We have produced several world
class sportsmen before. We have Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy,
and so many others in football.
Sporting talent
Hasley has blazed a trail in athletics. George Bovell has done
it in swimming. Our netball team has been world champion before,
our football team reached the finals of the football World Cup,
so it is clear that we have had a wealth of sporting talent
in this country.
We have had persons like Jeffrey Stollmeyer, Gerry Gomez, Lord
Learie Constantine, Deryck Murray, Larry Gomes, all the way
down to Brian Lara, Dwayne Bravo and Adrian Bharath, who have
made us proud over the years on the cricket field.
Why can’t it be done? Why do we really need to remain in
West Indies cricket? What is it doing for us that we cannot
eventually do for ourselves?
When you look at all the insularity, pettiness and iconoclastic
behaviour which attends upon the affairs of West Indies cricket,
do we really need it?
When you still have teams being chosen to include the token
Grenadian or Vincentian to appease the smaller territories,
then you know that we will have serious trouble moving forward
with West Indies cricket.
When you have the West Indies Cricket Board continuing to be
dysfunctional, disorganised, disruptive and degenerate, then
you know that we’d probably be better off going it alone.
It is not to say that the road will be an easy one, and of course,
we will have to face the expected jeers and taunts of our Caribbean
neighbours who will obviously have it to say:
“Look dem Trinidadians again feel they better than everyone
else.”
These responses are to be expected, but sometimes you have to
take tough business decisions, and if any one of those other
regions was in our position, this may very well be something
they might consider, too.
We can find and groom enough brilliant young talent here in
T&T to be able to put 11 top class players of International
standard on a cricket field who will be able to hold their own
anywhere in the world.
It is a process which may take a few years to come to fruition,
but it is a worthwhile objective which should be investigated
and pursued, so that we can at last have something to smile
about again in world cricket as we see the T&T cricket team,
taking on and possibly beating world champs like Australia or
South Africa.
