Let’s turn WI setback into advances

After inflated hopes had seemed to propel the West Indies cricket team to the gates of a final four place in the ICC 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup, those hopes were cruelly dashed last Sunday night as South Africa stunned the hosts in a rain-affected match in Antigua. Just when it appeared that the renewed fan enthusiasm for the regional team would usher the Windies not only into the semi-finals, but perhaps even to the final and an unlikely victory at that, South Africa maintained their unbeaten run to pip the hosts and deflate the hundreds of thousands of fans throughout the region.

The defeat ruined the appealing spectacle of at least two of the semi-finalists being teams not fancied at the outset of the tournament, with Afghanistan also challenging for a place. The Afghans, well-supported by an enthusiastic Vincy crowd upset traditional powerhouses Australia last Saturday night and look poised to secure an unprecedented semi-final place.

The weekend’s results were much more than cricketing contests for both the Afghans and the Windies. Broader social issues were involved. In the case of Afghanistan, a country plagued by war, intervention by foreign powers, terrorism, poverty, the suppression of women, and economic deprivation, it is a miracle that a country like that could manage to nurture a cricket team capable of going toe-to-toe with the traditional cricketing giants. It says a lot about their resilience.

That resilience, though from a different angle, has also been displayed by the West Indies team. Success for the male team in international competitions has been difficult to achieve over the last decade or so, and the once “glamour boys” of one-day cricket, have found themselves floundering at the wrong end of the pecking order. However, some very encouraging results over the past year or so have resulted not only in the T20 team climbing the ladders, but in renewed support from fans. It was what West Indies captain Rovman Powell, correctly described as “an amazing job over the past year”.

That display of resilience must not be allowed to go to waste because of our disappointment at their failure to reach the T20 finals and even win the trophy. We have to take encouragement from the positives and make that setback a temporary one and moreover, turn it into an advance for our cricket as a whole.

We in SVG who have invested significant resources in hosting some matches, need to think long-term about that investment. It is our youth above all in whom we must invest and not just see the global picture. There must be a noticeable turn around in our cricket starting from the very junior levels and involving cricket at the junior, youth and community levels. We must also seek to drastically improve our administration at all levels and participation in the wider community.

Our heroic technicians, engineers, former cricket stars and the supporting public have reached too far for us to slip back into complacency. Our task is, while congratulating the Windies team and our own Obed McCoy, while showing appreciation to the government for its foresight and initiative, to ensure that we turn this temporary setback into a permanent advance.