Every Easter, as the Caribbean like most of the World, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, culminating with the Easter vigil on Glorious Saturday (April 20), many of our youngsters in track and field, swimming and water polo, have the time off from school to shift their attention to Carifta events across the Caribbean.
Unfortunately, these games are sadly not given the recognition they deserve, primarily because there always appears to be senior sports that take centre stage. This time around, it was West Indies cricket, with the planned announcement of the West Indies team on Holy Thursday (April 18).
Also, it was not to be, as explained by newly elected Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt on Isports, that the announcement was delayed from Thursday to the following Wednesday (April 24) because the technology, he was told, could not be ready in time on the holiday weekend to transmit the announcement to the world. All of this only added fuel to the speculation of interference yet again in the selection of the team.
Over the Easter Holidays, the debate raged on until a late press release on Easter Monday (April 22), saying that Wednesday the announcement will be made settled some nerves but the doubts continued on the transparency of the selection.
Finally, the West Indies team for the ICC Cricket World Cup was announced and if I did not blink, carefully, I would not be able to tell the difference in the squad named by the previous selectors for the England tour including Jason Holder (captain), Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmeyer, Shai Hope, Carlos Braithwaite, Oshane Thomas, Fabian Allen, Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran, Sheldon Cottrell, John Campbell, Obed Mc Coy and Devendra Bishoo.
Please note, we were told that Andre Russell was injured so not selected, that Shannon Gabriel had to serve a ban so had to miss the matches as part of that and that Kemar Roach was being rested because of concern over his workload during the Test series.
Now for the squad selected by the newly appointed interim selection committee of Robert Haynes, Floyd Reifer and Holder announced last Wednesday include Holder (captain), Gayle, Bravo, Hetmeyer, Hope, Braithwaite, Thomas, Allen, Nurse, Pooran, Cottrell, Russell (replacing Campbell), Gabriel (replacing Mc Coy), and Roach (replacing Bishoo).
Let us be serious, what is really different in these two squads and on that basis, although we would be inclined to criticise the selection policy and certain selections in the past, these current selectors have essentially stuck with the same unit from before no change, just exchange.
Therefore one has to be honest and question, if any of those who were apparently ostracised in the past, were given a fair hearing or if it was all just a lot of huff and puff, because too many times, there are players that could have been selected and some who should not have been. We all know this will always exist but there is a strong feeling that the apparent pigeon-hole behaviour of the previous selection committee is still prevalent among this threesome.
In fact on the night, many callers posed some questions, which were both revealing and thought-provoking, starting with the one man everyone apparently believes is either lucky or favoured, Carlos "Forget the Name" Braithwaite, whose inconsistency can be measured by his current lack of a place in the starting eleven for the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Indian Premier League. Of course, we were all reminded that Braithwaite was the successful captain of the Combined Campuses and College (CCC) team that won the regional 50 over tournament last year, where less we forget, current West Indies coach and selector Floyd Reifer, his countryman was the coach. And yes this is a lot of speculation as a result, which in time will be either justified or leave us all mortified.
Then there were those that believe that Marlon Samuels given his penchant for great performances at the highest level when needed as shown by the last two Twenty20 successes of the region at World level, should have been included but then he apparently talks too much and is not popular (not certain that cricket is a popularity contest though).
And what about three T&T players in particular that have been reportedly held in contempt for a long time, some because of the Indian tour debacle maybe or because of not saying hello in an airport, we are told. And another because his local board did not support him when his action was being questioned by many and since when he has fought through pain and guts to give his best always.
Their names we all know, and their class we have all witnessed, and their pedigree is sought after the World over. Those who are afraid to admit, that both Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard are miles ahead of Holder in captaincy knowledge, awareness and knowing the opponents at the World Cup are living under a rock or dare I say, living or from Barbados (not all mind you).
So yes, insularity still exists, and cannot be easily dismissed by glorified words or mesmerising speeches or walkabouts or flying about but instead, cogent action, with a purpose and with intelligent thought is what is required. Having appeared on shows in both Jamaica (radio) and Barbados (radio) in the recent past, I know that there are very sensible persons who love West Indies cricket first and foremost and are not interested in the country passport, unfortunately, it appears that those voices may still be in the wilderness.
We must all support the West Indies team at the World Cup, starting from May 31 against Pakistan even if we believe that the batting appears thin, and the lack of a batting all-rounder and a specialist wicket-keeper are as obvious as the move to change the home of West Indies cricket to Barbados from Antigua. However, the reality is that trust has not been established among many in the region for West Indies cricket.