Normally I would be incensed at the WICB insisting that Sunil Narine should be in camp even as he is about to play in the finals of the IPL on Sunday, but instead I sit and take it in quietly, wondering how an organisation having the best interest of WI cricket could act in such a contrary fashion.Let's just look at the facts. There is an agreed-upon NOC (No Objection Certificate) in place for all such players, which this call on Sunil violates.
In any event, the series against NZ won't begin until early June when the IPL would have been over and Sunil would be available. If even he is not available for the warm-up matches, should the spirit of the law not make some allowance for his participation in the IPL finals, and more than that, should WICB not, in the interest of our chances against NZ, try to accommodate the now-acknowledged most feared spinner in this form of the game, rather than get rid of him because of some time technicality contained in the letter of the law?
How do we explain this stance by the WICB? Is this naked insularity or illogic or lack of good sense at its worst? Or is this a kind of arrogant bravado or the exercise of power, or pure unadulterated stupidity?
Whatever it is, all that I know is that it has been foisted upon us and we have just got to take it, just as much we have just got to take what is foisted upon us in this country and simply put our tails between our legs. Maybe it is West Indian thing, a Trinidadian thing, our identity as Third World peoples, or Our Way in the World, according to VS Naipaul.
Dr Errol Benjamin
via e-mail