On The Cricket Pitch

Congratulations and concerns

by Philip Hackett

Thursday,  October 20, 2005

Congratulations to Guyana on winning the KFC Cup. It was a disciplined performance from the Guyanese cricketers up until the final eight overs when a series of blunders put Barbados back in a game the hosts seemed destined to win convincingly.

Fading light added to the drama as both teams needed to keep abreast of the ever-changing Duckworth Lewis calculations. Left arm spinner Suleiman Benn and pacer Fidel Edwards had bowled well enough against the nervous Guyanese batsmen to put Barbados ahead on the D/L calculation with two overs left. Then Benn fell apart completely after his skipper Courtney Browne surprisingly gave him the responsibility of bowling the penultimate over in poor light when top bowler in the tournament, pace man Corey Collymore still had one over left.

Even with Browne’s obvious error in judgement, Benn may still have completed the job had he not lost his nerve under pressure, conceding 16 runs in his over that put Guyana ahead again. Neil McGarrell and Darwin Christian then gleefully accepted an offer from umpires Billy Doctrove and Norman Malcolm to leave the field because of poor light.

Undoubtedly it was an entertaining contest, but a number of things bothered me, especially when viewed in the wider context of West Indies cricket.

Unfortunately the behaviour of the spectators never matched the discipline shown by the Guyana cricketers for most of the match. Corey Collymore had cause to complain when a plastic bottle was thrown in his direction from the stands, prompting a public address announcement to the crowd to refrain from throwing missiles onto the field.

At certain stages during the day it appeared sections of the crowd chose to boo the Bajans while a Hayden Gill report in the Daily Nation in Barbados told of three people, one dressed in an immigration outfit, and armed with a bench and luggage, performing a skit during a water break, apparently dramatising the treatment meted out to Guyanese at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados.

Over-enthusiastic crowds have caused problems in Guyana before, and also at other venues in the region, including Kensington Oval, but with the World Cup approaching in another 18 months we must be careful about the messages we send to the ICC and other stakeholders. Security is a crucial aspect of international sport. Invasions of the field are unacceptable and visiting teams must feel they are safe on the field of play regardless of the direction in which the match is going or the social issues affecting the society. It would be unfortunate if we set the precedent of using cricket to make statements that have nothing to do with the sport.

Furthermore, cricket is meant to be a unifying force within the region. Occasionally administrators dabble in insularity as we saw recently in the comments made about the omission of Darren Ganga from the touring party to Australia, but even when such poor examples are set by those who should know better, the main stakeholders of West Indies cricket, the fans, must display commonsense and maturity while being spectators.

I was also disappointed with the emotional reaction of Courtney Browne to the decision of the umpires to offer light. While I can sympathise with his feelings, our cricketers need to be conscious that they are ambassadors for their respective countries and for cricket in general. They must therefore always be aware of this, even when faced with hostility and the unsporting behaviour the Bajans apparently experienced during the course of the day.

I consider Browne one of the most effective captains to have led Barbados and a cricketer who has epitomised good sportsmanship. It would be unfortunate if he now allows his reputation to be tarnished at this late stage in his career.

Six players who participated in the final are now off to Australia to represent the West Indies. The poor fielding by Barbados, the innocuous spells by some of their fast bowlers, all of whom are West Indies players, and the ‘panic cricket’ played by both teams in the closing stages are further signs of the lack of professionalism in the region.

It is simply more evidence of the enormous task ahead of Bennett King and his troops in the attempt to restore West Indies cricket to an acceptable level of respectability.

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