I sat there on Sunday afternoon playing with my grand daughter even though the Test Match was on TV, something I would have never missed, remembering the days on end I spent next to the radio listening to WI versus England, et al.I am doing this for me, for my own conscience, for what was done to Sunil and under what pretext are morally wrong.It's not my style to pretend that it never happened as others sitting in the press boxes, discreetly avoiding the name of Sunil to maintain their brand of "press box etiquette."
This is the kind of "sophisticated" dishonesty we see all around us in these Third World countries of ours, with handshakes, smiles and grin teeth while evil prevails without a question being asked.
But Sunil's situation is more than a selection issue, as it goes into the realm of the spirit of the law, as against the letter of the law; of small-minded men indulging their egos and misusing their power and authority; of island insularity gone berserk with Trinidadians on the receiving end, all to the disservice of the game rather than for it as claimed by the perpetrators.
For how can this travesty be for the good of WI cricket when the viewing public is denied the pleasure and excitement of watching the most feared spinner in the world in action, and if the argument is that Sunil is only 20/20 or IPL, consider the likes of Kohli, Tendulkar, Sharma, De Villiers et al, whom he has mesmerised, and the likelihood of Sunil doing the same with Macullum and other New Zealanders.
And further, can the future of WI cricket be seen purely in terms of traditional Test cricket without the excitement of 20/20 which every cricketing nation is attempting to cash in on and of which Sunil, Pollard, Simmons, Bravo, Badree and Cooper are the supreme manifestations.
These boys are some of the most sought-after in this form of the game, especially Sunil, so could these administrators not try to at least understand the difficult choice he had to make and compromise on it, especially as the consequence for the game would have been minimal?
Many other arguments can be advanced to explain this inflexibility, one being that all these boys happen to be Trinidadian, but I won't go there. Suffice it to say but even as I take this small step to personally satisfy my conscience, I am still sufficiently broadminded to wish Dinesh well in his new role.
Dr Errol Benjamin