Heather Robinson
MY FATHER, like many Jamaicans of his era, loved cricket. As a child I remember him and other residents of Grange Hill listening (through the night) to the broadcast of Test matches between Australia and the West Indies on our big and powerful Marconi radio that was able to pick up the radio signal all the way from the other end of the earth.
It would be like a social gathering. In those days of the late 1950s and early 1960s it was worthwhile to lose five night's sleep listening to the glorious exploits of our West Indies team.
Later at Little London, my father would spend a great deal of his time teaching the boys in his school the game of cricket.
And he always enjoyed the great pleasure he got in demonstrating his skills to us all.
CRICKET LOVERS
I also remember going to Sabina Park in 1970 to see the West Indies play, and how at the end of the day's play I stopped at the People's National Party's (PNP) headquarters on South Camp Road to leave a pencil-written invitation for the president, Michael Manley, to address my fifth form at St Hugh's High School.
My father died in 1966 and Michael Manley died 31 years later in 1997.
Both men loved cricket, and were they here today they would be wondering if this is the same game that they got so much pleasure in listening to and watching.
Is this the same team that was able to galvanise the spirit and unite the people of the Caribbean? And surely they would be asking 'What is this about pay before play?'
MONEY DEMANDS
Cricket has produced some big men for our people to emulate, and unfortunately some small ones who were they to stand behind the wicket would become barely visible.
One of these 'big' men of cricket is our very own Courtney Walsh. He is quoted in Wednesday's Gleaner as expressing disappointment over the signing of contracts.
Ambassador Walsh said, "I am disappointed that it keeps coming up every time a series is going to be happening. I think we have grown up enough now and it is time to move on. We need to get everything behind us and let cricket be the winner."
I have been trying to think which other group of persons with such a dismal record of success is able to make demands about money each time they are asked to perform.
But then since the relationship between performance and work for the cricketers appears to be an inverse one, we shouldn't really be having this discussion.
One would have thought that with the West Indies being the hosts of Cricket World Cup 2007, the players would be more interested in trying to win some matches before then, and getting the good cricket vibe going again.
But no, it is always about money. One can only wonder if the members of the cricket team were to be given contracts that related to their performance i.e. number of runs scored, wickets taken and balls caught how many of them would be refusing to sign contracts then.
We are a strange people. What is it that has made us believe that we should be rewarded for poor or no performance?
Why have we reached a point in our development when young men do not think that reward should match achievement?
DESERVING OF SALARY
Those who know better must do better. So it doesn't matter if you are a bowler or batsman on the West Indies cricket team, or a nurse at the University Hospital, or a teacher at Manchester High, or a civil servant at the Registrar General's Department, you must do better, and be deserving of your salary.
The problem is, when we do not know better.
Heather Robinson is a life underwriter and former Member of Parliament.
