Tony Becca
THE WEST Indies cricket team has been performing poorly, almost embarrassingly, in recent years and to many of its fans the reason, among other things, is a combination of the poor standard of the players, their attitude towards practice and training, and the lack of team spirit.
To others, however, it is simply a lack of good leadership and based on the attitude of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), including the way it deals with important issues that can or do have far reaching implications, more and more that is proving to be so.
Last weekend, for example, Barbados were scheduled to host Trinidad and Tobago in the Carib Beer Series at Carlton, Guyana were down to host the Windward Islands at Albion, and out of the blue, because of rain in both countries, both matches, including the Guyana/Windward Islands encounter which was first rescheduled to Anguilla in the Leeward Islands but was changed due to the cost involved, were postponed to the weekend of February 3.
THREAT OF RAIN
While rain and cricket do not go together, while rain may have prevented the matches from being played, and while the Board in its wisdom may have believed that it was acting in the best interest of the game, it certainly did not. That is so for many reasons.
One reason is that it is a competition involving not only those four teams but also two other teams.
Another reason is that with only two matches involving four teams playing simultaneously, all six teams, unlike previous years, do not play at the same time, and that means the other two teams were not scheduled to play last weekend.
The question, therefore, is this: what will happen if one of the other two teams is scheduled to play a match later on in the competition and it is raining before the start of play, say on the eve of the match?
Remembering that there are 12 points for a win, eight for a tie, six for first innings lead in a drawn match, four for an abandoned match, and that the winning team is decided by the number of points won, it would be grossly unfair, and especially so if the rain destroys the match or forces it to be abandoned; and if the Board did not, as it has done this time around, postpone and reschedule the match.
On top of that, in postponing and rescheduling the two matches, the Board has once again demonstrated little if any respect for its member territories, for club cricket and also for all those cricketers who participate in club competitions around the region.
Planning a club season is not easy and this season it has been made that more difficult by the actions of the Board.
Up to a couple weeks before the start of the competition the format of the Carib Beer Series called for return matches - for a total 10 matches plus the semi-finals and final.
Five matches were scheduled to be played in each territory and that means that the domestic competitions, certainly in Jamaica, would have to be scheduled to accommodate the regional matches.
ONE ROUND
After doing that, however, after the Board had changed to one round of five matches plus the semi-finals and the final, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA)was forced to revisit and change the fixtures for its domestic competition. After doing that, after the Board had changed the fixtures from two home matches for Jamaica to three, the JCA, which must appear incompetent to its fans, its players, its clubs and its sponsors, again had to change its domestic fixtures to accommodate the regional competition.
The JCA and its members, however, cannot be blamed for any incompetence, certainly not this time around. The incompetent ones, the ones that have done everything to destroy this season, are the West Indies Board members and the paid staff who just do not seem to know what they are doing and how much damage they are doing to West Indies cricket.
The lack of money is one thing but rain no play is common in cricket and although the Board probably does not know, it has always been a part of the game.
