From No 8 bak to No1 again

First of all, ah refuse to believe dat anyone in dey sound mind will set fire to de Anglican Church Altar at Sion Hill. Ah refuse to believe it was de Fire associated wid de Holy Spirit. Lie-Za believes it could be ah case of “he who forgets to put out de candle invites fire.”{{more}}

And ah refuse to believe dat Nature Stephenson was driving an un-lie-sin vehicle foh five years. Blame on de Police and Shame on Nature, he giving Jomo road to walk all over him!

Dis week ah looking at cricket. Ah read dat de earliest reference to ‘cricket’ is in a 1598 Court Case which noted dat some boys were playing ah game of ‘Crecket’. Ah read also dat de Game developed from its origin in England wid de first international game in 1844; and de first test match in 1877.

Ah did not read dis one, but de Love Vine tells me dat Cricket all started way back between de Philistines, captained by Goliath and de Israelites, captained by Saul. David was de fastest bowler and Goliath de hardest hitting opening batsman. Rule No 1 was “captain out all man out.” Men uses to bowl wid spear and bow’n’arrow, and Goliath’s gear was brass metal from head to toe: crash helmet, shield, gloves, pads foh de feet and rib cage. Pan-demon-yum uses to break loose when Goliath went out to bat!

In dat fear-most Test Match, he was at de wicket foh days calling pon Saul to come out and bowl, but Saul was no match foh Goliath, de terrified Israelis dey refuse to come near Goliath to bowl. Was ah youngster name David who begged Saul to put him to bowl. In dem days too, bowlers walked wid dey own ball (arrow, spear or what-have-yuh). Saul agreed and Shepherd boy David walked onto de field wid his five stones. Rule No 2 was five not six balls ah over. Naturally Goliath felt insulted by dis lickle youth-man in front him. However he suddenly became intimidated when David pulled out ah sling-shot, took out stone No 1 and showed it to de umpire, who inspected de stone foh any ball tampering. In his entire career, Goliath had never had stones bowled or pelted at him. David of course, had tampered wid de stone by carving out de letters Gee-Owe-Dee (GOD) on one ah de stones. Den he turned to Goliath and said “Golie boy dis one is foh yuh from GOD!” One stone in is tail oops, his head and Goliath was down and out. Match over, but de War in de East continues.

Over de years Cricket has been refined and is today referred to as de Gentleman’s Game, except it has become corrupted wid new in-cent-thief like big money, technology (hawk-I and others) Union-I-say-shun, and of course ugly politics. Poli-to-shun want to dictate who should be picked on de team. Did I read some-way dat de PM of SVG accusing de officials on de WICB of Victim-I-sin Bravo and Pull-hard? Tek ah bow Bigger Biggs!

But ley we look at our current WI Test Team, ranked No 8 in de world. We have ah lot ah problems in our cricket dat has nothing to do wid de actual game. Our main problem has to do wid de Administrators and Officials, some of whom have never held ah bat, except ah coconut bat like Sir Vin Sin, dis country’s chief security add-vice-sir to de PM. And we dey crying out foh de escalating crime situation in SVG.

Needless to repeat dat South Africa, No 1 in de world gave us ah licking to think about. We were out-played in every department, our bowling was mediocre, our batsmen all show potential, but lacked de determine-nay-shun to bat and bat and stay at de wicket, and go beyond de 40’s and 50’s. Shun-dah-Paul, our main man who uses to mek de 100’s gone thru, he should bow out gracefully and spare us another pull-it-tek-ill outcry. Ah have one come-plain about dis beating dat we got from South Africa; and dat is, Dennis Ramed-in should ah bin at home like Sammy, Pollard and Bravo watching de games. Ah strong message had to be sent to dem fellars who failed to show de required level of maturity in handling cry-sis. Dey’s no victim-I-say-shun in dis matter, and ah support de Board foh imposing de much needed disciplinary measures on de senior players and captains, dem fellars cut short de tour of India. No love foh de game. It’a all about money.

De current players are young and wid good coaching, discipline, full commitment to de game and ah revised structure foh managing WI cricket, we could start ah climb back to de top. It is my feelings dat dey will do much better in de shorter version of de games coming up next week. We cannot match countries like England, Australia and South Africa when it comes to de development of cricket. These countries spend large sums of money in de development of de Youths. Right here at home, former national player, Gunny Hinds has ah one-dah-full coaching program, ah Nursery foh youngsters at de primary school level. Ask Gunny what sort ah budget de Ministry has foh de program, De poor kids don’t even get snacks. Clearly we have ah long way up from No 8 to No 1 again. And wid dat, is gone ah gone again

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.