This 2024 March month has been marked by more than its fair share of manifested misdemeanors regarding West Indies cricket. So much so that the soul of the long-departed internationally regarded doyen of Caribbean cricket writers, Tony Cozier, whose ninth death anniversary will be on May 11 of this year, must now be giddy from having been given cause to turn so often in his grave!
Had Cozier still been alive he would have felt compelled to comment with biting criticism on each of the far too many shenanigans that have occurred within his beloved Caribbean cricket this past month. Sadly since his departure, there has not been anyone attempting to assume the much-needed role of Media WatchGuard with consistent and constructive written commentary on the affairs of West Indies cricket. So it is that after my own extended absence from such activity, I now feel compelled as the late calypsonian Chalkdust would have said to”Put On Meh Guns Again,” in a humble attempt to fill the void in public commentary on Caribbean cricket affairs that has for too long existed as a result of Cozier’s absence.
Topping the list of undesirable occurrences was the fiasco surrounding tickets for this year’s forthcoming ICC 2024 T20 World Cup to be jointly hosted by the USA and West Indies. A fiasco that had unfolded to such an alarming degree as to have left the majority of Caribbean cricket fans in grave danger of being completely excluded from purchasing tickets for the World Cup matches that are scheduled to be played at their own backyard venues in Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad & Tobago. It required the timely intervention of none less of a personality than the honorable Prime Minister of Barbados, the regionally beloved, universally respected Mia Mottley to set matters right and save the day! Having reportedly summoned the Barbados T20 World Up Local Organizing Chairman Noel Lynch to a meeting, PM Mottley duly advised him that “Not In My Backyard,” would such insanity ever be allowed to occur.
As a result, immediately following PM Mottley’s intervention the ICC through Noel Lynch, hastily announced that West Indies cricket fans could be assured that they would be allowed to purchase tickets directly from box offices at each of the respective T20 World Cup Caribbean match venues! Caribbean cricket fans have also since been assured that sufficient numbers of tickets would be made available to allow their meaningful onsite presence at all regionally hosted World Cup matches, particularly those involving the West Indies!
No sooner had the potential tsunami-like threat of the World Cup ticket fiasco subsided than there was the eyebrow-raising report of the West Indies white-ball cricket Head Coach Daren Sammy’s double-dipping, decidedly conflict of interest, involvement in an identical role for the Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) Peshawar Zalmi franchise. To the expressed consternation of many regional cricket fans, Sammy had also served controversially as his native St Lucia Kings’ Head Coach during last year’s 2023 Caribbean Premier League, just months after his appointment to West Indies white ball cricket’s identical role. Cozier would certainly have had cause to write more than a few words, not only about Sammy’s dual role but also about Cricket West Indies’ apparent indifference to what most others would regard as a crystal clear conflict of interest!
In the wacky world that sadly now characterizes West Indies cricket, ticket availability fiascos and head coach conflicting dual roles were unlikely to be the end of the experienced misdemeanors in as madness-oriented month as this March was shaping up to be, So it was then, as icing to the already most unsavory cake, that Caribbean cricket fans were treated to the most heinous of acts by none less than one of the region’s most seasoned Test cricketers during the fourth round of the 2024 CWI Four Day Championships. That of Kemar Roach, the Barbados-born veteran of 81 Tests and holder of 270 wickets as the fifth-highest ranked among all those who have ever represented the West Indies at cricket’s highest level and its most acclaimed format, deliberately pelting a delivery at Guyana’s Veerasammy Permaul. What made the act even more surprising than it was unacceptably unthinkable was the fact that a Test player as he is like Roach, Permaul has been his West Indies teammate on at least half a dozen occasions before.
It will be very interesting to see what repercussions if any Roach will face as a result of his behavior, which was to say the very least, most unbecoming of a Test cricketer of his stature. To date, there has been no official reaction from CWI to the unsavory incident. Somewhat unsurprising given that CWI’s CEO Johnny Grave has also been performing duties as Head of the 2024 T20 World Cup Organizing Committee. So too are its former Commercial & Marketing Manager Dominic Warne and Senio Public Relations Manager Phillip Spooner who having left office at the end of their respective contracts are now involved in similar 2024 T20 World Cuo roles.
One wonders, therefore, exactly who is now running the ship at CWI’s Antigua-based headquarters in each of those three all-important administrative positions. With the region’s hosting of the biggest ever ICC T20 World Cup now less than 100 days away from its June 1 commencement, and with West Indies cricket’s best commercial and media relations interests at stake, there has also seemingly been no activity whatsoever concerning replacements for either Warne or Spooner. Certainly, neither position has as yet been advertised on CWI’s website!
Thankfully amidst all the unpleasantness caused by Prime Ministerial intervention requiring World Cup ticket fiascos, double-dipping Head Coaches, blackbird-like pelting senior seamers, and absent administrators, there were also a few silver linings of positivity. Particularly from the admirable scores recorded by batters during the completed fourth round of the 2024 Regional four-day championships. There were no less than twenty-seven half-centuries and three centuries recorded during the four matches of the tournament’s fourth round, an occurrence that must surely have been very pleasing to West Indies Selection Panel Chairman the Rt. Honorable Desmond Haynes.
There were also some credible performances among the bowlers, none more so than Isai Thorne’s first innings spells for the Guyana Harpy Eagles in their match against the Barbados Pride which was played at Antigua’s Coolidge Cricket Centre. Watched by none other than the Godfather of the West Indies four-prong pace attack that terrorized opposing batsmen during the late seventies and for much of the nineties, Thorne consistently bowled with frighteningly genuine pace to signal his continuing emergence as a fast-bowing prospect with real potential. In one Holdingesque over to West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite he had the Pride captain and leading batter jumping in his cease like a cat on a hot tin roof in the face of some searing laser-like deliveries that were rising alarmingly off a very good length.
A bit of respite then for the soul of poor Cozier, which almost nine years after his sad submission to cancer, might now not as yet received the peaceful rest it so richly deserved after his innumerable years of outstanding service to West Indies cricket. If this March month, as maddening as it has been is to serve as an indication such rest might not be forthcoming any time soon.