Cricket problems are signs of a deeper malaise

Many years ago, C.L.R James had depicted Caribbean Cricket as being played beyond the Boundary, and clearly, what is happening with our cricket involves much more than cricket. It, in fact, reflects a deeper malaise within Caribbean societies. Over the past two weeks the state of Caribbean cricket has been the major talking point around the region, eclipsing LIAT, since LIAT is a problem largely for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean countries.{{more}} The other area of Caribbean society that is in disarray is CARICOM and the CSME, except that Caribbean people appear to be paying little attention to the noises coming from that august body. And so it has finally happened. West Indian cricket has reached its lowest ebb with our defeat by Bangladesh, one of the weakest teams in International Cricket. We are only fooling ourselves if we try to find comfort from the fact that Bangladesh played against a second string team. The records will show that in 2009 West Indies suffered losses to Bangladesh. But having said that, the way things have been going recently no one can be sure that our first string boys would have feared better. Perhaps that is going too far, but it is a thought to keep in mind. It appears to me that the public’s sympathy was largely with the West Indies Cricket Board, particularly when it was spelt out that the problem was largely about money and that the players wanted additional monies, even to wear the logos of their sponsors. Given the performance of our team in recent years, many feel that they are in no position to make the kind of demands they have been making for a higher purse.

The standoff between the players and the Board has been going on now for sometime, even before many of the current players came on stream. The mismanagement of West Indies Cricket is no secret. The Board has clearly been inept and must be blamed for allowing things to reach this stage. We are now even hearing sounds coming from Trinidad about wanting to go their own way. I was a bit sceptical about CARICOM becoming involved but they took a wise decision to appoint a mediator and not to become directly involved. Sir Shridath Ramphal, who is well respected in the region, is the appointed mediator, and the Players have agreed to call off their strike. But isn’t all of this déjá vu? It is as if we had been here before. Insularity is also once again becoming very visible. Some sounds coming from Barbados question Ryan Hinds’ omission from the ODI squad. Surely this is not the same Hinds that played in the recently concluded second test against Bangladesh and misperformed. Then we have a captain who has openly admitted that he has little interest in Test Cricket. Dwayne Bravo has even been making comments about his local club team, the Queen Park Cricket Club, being better organised than West Indies Cricket. It is really all happening here.

Then there is LIAT. How long have our leaders been trying to put some order into LIAT? LIAT has been very consistent. One step forward, one step backward. The problems keep repeating themselves in some mysterious manner. Now a lot of blame is being put on the Pilots for the total confusion that has been in place over the past weeks. Following a meeting recently in SVG our Prime Minister said that running an airline was “not an easy business, but when we have some additional problems which come up, like the pilots’ problem, matters are thrown completely out of whack.” Well, come on, pilot problems are not additional problems. Managing labour is an essential part of managing any business. Dr. Gonsalves said also that the airline is the only show in town. How true! It is no more than a show! Really, like cricket, LIAT has been a festering sore for a long time. We thought the buying out of Caribbean Star was going to make a difference, but instead things have gotten worse because without the competition LIAT went back to its old way of doing things. In all of the troubles with LIAT, what is most despicable is their failure to provide information to passengers who are left stranded, not knowing what is next. There are so many stories of passengers missing their connecting flights and of related matters. Something is fundamentally wrong, and the standoff with the pilots is only part of a larger problem.

The pilots in their list of grievances made mention of a decision to award bonuses to management while asking other staff to work for lower salaries. They speak too about incompetent managers and wastage of money, raising, too, the question of aircraft maintenance. With regard to the high cost of travel, the reports coming out of the meeting here give no indication that there will be any reprieve shortly. Something has to be done because regional travel is quite prohibitive. A friend from Trinidad was telling me recently that it was cheaper for him to travel to Miami than to come to St.Vincent. In a way it is welcome news that three Prime Ministers are to meet with the pilots in an effort to end the on-going dispute. We have to be hopeful that there will be some resolution to the outstanding problems with the pilots. But will this be the end of LIAT’s problems? Clearly not! Many of the complaints and grievances by the travelling public go beyond the problems faced by the pilots. Surely they know this.

And what of CARICOM! Some years ago we were told that the CSME was the way forward for the Caribbean. Now, despite the views of some technocrats and leaders that deepening the integration movement is not an option, the reality is something different. We are by now quite accustomed hearing a lot of the flowery rhetoric which surfaces at meetings of our Heads, so we are no longer impressed. They claimed to have resolved some of the differences that in recent months sparked the hot debate about immigration and have put some things in place, including a sensitisation of immigration officers. The problems with immigration are much deeper and have a lot to do with an old fear of some countries being overrun by immigrants from their sister territories. This is even more so given the harsh economic climate. There are also issues related to the movement of goods and services as can be seen with the recent disputes over the entry of Jamaican patties into Trinidad.

Everyone seems now to accept the need for a governance mechanism to facilitate the implementation of decisions, but it is again left dangling. We are not hearing much about the report on governance submitted by the Vaughn Lewis’ Task Force. There seems also to be some inner pleasure in setting up Committees to look into the global economic crisis and its impact on the region. What is the Jagdeo led Task Force to do? I am a bit confused but there must be some method in the seeming madness. This pessimism on my part about the stagnation within CARICOM is not a fiction of my imagination for it is common talk around the region. Just about every major newspaper in the region has been caught up with it. For me, too, what I call the many layers of bureaucracy involved with the many agendas and activities that arise with membership in these different entities is a worrying one. I refer to the economic union with moves toward a political entity within the sub-region and the membership of some of our countries in ALBA which call for different levels of commitment and must be a strain on the few bureaucrats in our smaller countries who have to man and respond to the different agendas. So given all of this, what else can we expect from our cricketers. They do not live in isolation. They reflect Caribbean society, and Caribbean Society is in a mess.

Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian.