By Tony McWatt
West Indies cricket’s November 2023 news headlines were dominated by the Selectors’ controversial decision to exclude Darren Bravo from its announced fifteen-member squad to face the touring English team in a December month three-match ODI series. Bravo’s emergence as the leading scorer in the recently concluded 2023 Caribbean Regional Super50 tournament proved insufficient in convincing the Selectors that his squad inclusion was merited.
The Selectors’ publicly provided reasoning was that with the West Indies having failed to even qualify for this year’s India-hosted 2023 ICC 50Over World Cup, they are now focusing on building a team that would be competitive for the tournament’s next edition in 2027. By which time the now 35-year-old Bravo would be 39 and likely well beyond his prime.
The region’s news cricket headlines were for weeks dominated by the Bravo exclusion controversy. Even more so on social media, and in particular Facebook, where West Indies cricket fans’ armchair selectors voiced their opinions for and against in language that was at times most vehement!
Amidst all the attention on the Bravo controversy, however, there was another news item of far more damning significance. A news report the importance of which seemed to have completely escaped the understanding of most who are now connected to and involved with West Indies cricket.
Early in the month, the former West Indies Test, ODI, and T20 captain Jason Holder in an interview reported that he was training at the Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals franchise’s facilities. Holder’s provided reason for having traveled that far to engage in self-work on perceived needed improvements to his fitness, batting and bowling techniques and overall mental strategy was simply that there are sadly no similarly available training facilities anywhere in the Caribbean.
The glaringly obvious reason for the undeniable existing gap between such available facilities for cricketers in India compared to those enjoyed by their counterparts anywhere in the Caribbean is, of course, financing. Whereby, India is now ranked as the world’s richest cricketing country, the Caribbean by comparison would undeniably be among the poorest.
With that wealth disparity, there is, however, an underlying question that now needs to be asked. That is as to whether Corporate Caribbean, specifically its most wealthy companies, has failed West Indies cricket by refusing to contribute any of their ever-burgeoning annual profits toward the improvement of the region’s training and practicing facilities.
As the only unifying sport in which the region’s estimated 7 million inhabitants compete internationally under a single West Indies flag, cricket has always been of primary importance to Caribbean peoples. Large numbers of these are customers to the regional corporations, the likes of Republic Bank, Massy Enterprises, Sagicor Insurance, and Grace Kennedy Inc. to name just a few, the respective annual profits of which are typically in the millions if not billions! Add to those Exxon which since 2015 has been enjoying billions of dollars in annual profits as a direct result of its exploration and exploitation of Guyana’s recently discovered oil reserves.
In addition to its regional significance, cricket is also played at every level by boys and girls, men and women, ranging in age from 5 to over 65, if the ever-increasing Master’s Leagues are also included. As a sport cricket, therefore, encompasses all the virtues worth of corporate support.
The question then is as to why Corporate Caribbean having recognized as they surely would have the deficiencies and inadequacies regional cricketers have constantly faced in their quest to remain competitive internationally, have done little or nothing to provide its financial support in addressing the issue. Is it simply that they have not been asked by Cricket West Indies the sport’s regional governing body?
It’s been very interesting to hear Chis Dehring, the former Cricket West Indies Marketing Director, CEO, and 2007 ICC World Cup Chairman, publicly express via popular cricket-related radio and television programs his admiration for the training and development facilities he witnessed in countries like Australia, England, and South Africa during his duty performance travels as well as his dismay at the inescapable dissimilarity to those available to Caribbean cricketers. The question that should have been asked of Dehring and for that matter also CWI’s current CEO Johnny Grave is why neither of them have ever done anything to address that imbalance.
Where and with whom does the buck stop for the responsibility of creating better training facilities for Caribbean cricketers?