Where are the bands! Where are the portly trumpets and the stouty clarions and where are those sturdy old men playing them all day long, singing glory of Test cricket. Is this Cricket in Caribbean or what!
The recently concluded test series reflected the sorry state that cricket in the islands has turned into.If not gasp an ardent cricket fan out of boredom,the series potentially could raise serious threats on the future of Test cricket. Even on TV,it was like watching a Jammu Kashmir vs Orissa Ranji trophy match being played in a exotic neutral venue with a few passerbys strolling in,a few school kids watching a free-ticket-show and the boundary boys scorching themselves in the sun rather needlessly,being the only spectators. Even the gestures after fall of a wicket lacked enthusiasm and the commentators seemingly went for a short-afternoon-nap in between the turn of the repeated lines.The matches,of course with little help from an ultra-defensive indian team, drifted drowsily to a known outcome and the players went through the silent waves. Surprisingly, I don't remember a bouncer from a West indies bowler that crashed into the helmet of an Indian batsman or one that zipped through the nose making him smell leather.And yes,I am talking of cricket being played at the lands of Marshall, Holding,Walsh and Ambrose! How deadly were these men in their own den is no secret.
Gone are those days when cricket in West Indies was no less than a jamboree. People turned up in huge numbers as colourfully and cheerfully as they would on a Christmas eve and celebrated the dominance of West Indies cricket. They sang,danced,boozed and yelled producing a din that could even awaken a dead. The calypso beats went wild at the fall of each wicket and people howled and screamed thumping their chests almost intermidating the opposition to their demise.
Things have changed rather pathetically over the last few years. West Indies cricket has failed to survive the test of times. They were served by Sobers in early part of their golden era,Richards followed the trend then and Lara was their latest apple of the eye, on the other side they had the list of some jaw-breaking fast-men which was long enough to make any side and their supporters go arrogant.They lived on the present almost being addicted to the taste of constant success and never planned the future. Once the sages retired ,there was no one to fill in the huge boots.In other words,there was no one groomed to carry the lamp forward. They relied heavily on the fertility of the soil that kept cropping talented cricketers and never thought of the drought that was all but inevitable.
But lack of talent or talent not being furnished to a threshold point timely enough is only a half explanation to the descendency.One cannot help but feel that the crowding of remunerative events(club cricket) in a cricket's calendar has made modern day cricketers put professionalism over patriotism.The problem is not the significance of these events but their frequency which is eclipsing country cricket and providing the cricketers more lucrative options little too many. It is perhaps a more fundamental impact that goes beyond cricket, it has to do with human tendency to lick lips to a whopping sum of money ,being thrown at them,in some serious dollars.
Chris Gayle's recent grudge against the WICB is an interesting and a telling story. There is little to wonder weather the ego-fuelled Gayle would have treated the board like he did had he not played an influential role in Royal Challenger's pleasant run in IPL-4 and thereby assuring a fixed birth for himself in many versions of IPL to follow.And the fact that the Jamaican also whirls his bat for Western Australia in Big Bash and earns huge as well is also instructive. Now,the board's decision to keep Gayle out of the side sends down the strong statement that Board is not for players but players are for the Board. The sustained suspension from the side on indisciplinary grounds culminates that its norms are not fragile, unlike its team and that they won't be comprosmised on the status of a player. However, fingers have been pointed on the Board for diluting the India's tour of West Indies completely by not including Gayle for no doubt, the name Gayle in the squad could have filled those stands which remained empty for the entire tour.
There is a famous saying that "whether it's the best of times or the worst of times,its the only time we h've got". West Indies cannot but wait for the dreadful winter to pass and let the spring return. They have to act and act quickly to fructify blossoms in a barren-turned land and let the great ancestors of the great land see West Indies rise to its peak once again before they give up their ghosts.
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