Southern Caribbean politics are very ripe, with Guyana’s newly elected government and general elections imminent in Trinidad and Tobago, two countries where I have spent fifty; twenty-eight in GT, twenty-two in T&T; of my sixty-two years. Situations are extremely exciting and seriously scary all at once for protagonists, but in the end, we just hope for honest and functional leadership.
Also of great interest is that already Leader of Opposition in T&T, Dr. Keith Rowley, has acknowledged that he knows that many former West Indies players want to help with the sport in T&T and elsewhere in the Caribbean, a suggestion that has been aired and known for eons.
But does that utterance and overall ambience indicate confidence at the polls? Politics is strange!
Not versed in that calling, explain how that matters anyway, since sports, not just cricket, but athletics, cycling, football, netball, target shooting, beach volleyball, swimming, golf, dragon boat and motor racing, to name a few, have carried individual Caribbean countries and the region, as a collective, to the rest of the world. We are very special and the world knows that!
Anyway, since I stopped playing for WI in 1983 to now, I have always openly indicated willingness to assist and contribute to cricket and our society in any situation and capacity allowed, might that be education, coaching, mentoring, operations, logistics and aviation, per my experiences, education or expertise, in native Guyana, domicile Trinidad and Tobago or elsewhere. But, like everyone else, I can only ask!
Considering that Dr. Rowley and I had discussed that very aspect at a past West Indies Players Association event, I can only hope, breathing very, very slowly, that my name is also in his lexicon. After all, I have already done my “national service.” Oh, nothing is voluntary anymore.
That, though, is just skimming the recent political firmament, since all heard last week about hopes for eventually having cricket at the Olympics, the next stanza of that magnificent event due in our hemisphere, for the first time ever, for Brazil next year. What an opportunity for us all!
Having experienced and being intricately involved in the last Olympics, London 2012, I can tell you that if you can get to Rio, by any means, fair or foul, just do it. Excitement and thrills of a real lifetime await, especially after the wonderful happenings at FIFA Brazil World Cup 2014!
So, short-form cricket is tailor-made for Olympics. That thought, though, that cricket should feature in Olympics, is not new, since as far back as when there were only Tests, 50-overs and 40-overs games, late 1970’s, there had been conversations on the game’s inclusion in Olympics, the lengths of games being deterrents. With the advent of T-20 cricket, a new look is deserved.
Fewer teams world-wide play baseball than cricket, yet that relatively similar game is at Olympics. Baseball started officially in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, after being something of an experimental sport back in 1904. But baseball at Olympic Games is all about proper lobbying.
Cricket’s problem is that it is led by seriously visionless personnel who do not understand the product that they own. Unlike FIFA, who are always trying to expand its ever so massive footprint around the world, cricket and ICC, on the other hand, due to that selfish cabal of India, Australia and England only wanting all to see things their way, are trying to contract participation.
It is as if International Cricket Council is asking International Olympic Committee to do its groundwork, trying to go through the back door. IOC and IAAF have their own problems, with much doping and cheating, so cricket has to look after itself, even though, note, cricket cheats have unbelievably been recently pardoned too. Is something strange happening here?
Properly administered, T-20’s or even T-15’s can be made to last just as long as a soccer game—ninety normal minutes—with at least four such games per venue for each day.
WICB President Dave Cameron has indicated, joining an already crowded band-wagon, that he applauds the push for cricket at Olympics. He must realize that Caribbean individual countries are uniquely positioned for that optimization, for by experiences from the Stanford tournaments and Caribbean Premier League series, teams have shown acuity for that shortest form of the game.
Also, while almost forgotten, historically, cricket, whose first ever Test game was played in 1877, has already been played at an international sporting tournament not administered by ICC. In 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, cricket was played; first and last time; even if that was 50-overs and games were not given One-Day International status.
Like Stanford’s tournaments, but unlike CPL, players had to originate from their respective ‘home’ countries. That allowed players from teams like Antigua & Barbuda to represent for the very first time, while, unfortunately, the only other Caribbean countries “trying out” cricket in Commonwealth Games 1998 were Barbados and Jamaica. What an embarrassing shame!
So, for cricket to get to Olympics, lobbying must be universal; internal structures changed. Thankfully, India, Australia and England could not dictate that, but it could work. Enjoy!