Female writer charges

THE ONLY time in the West Indies Cricket Board’s history that it has paid any attention to the status of women in the realm of the game was during Reverend Wes Hall’s tenure as president.

This is the view of Vaneisa Baksh, an experienced female writer, historian, and former member of the 2007 ICC World Cup West Indies board from Trinidad and Tobago.

“The WICB has never bothered to pay any mind to women’s cricket,” she remarked on Friday at the Thinking Sports Symposium for senior Caribbean sports journalists.

“I know this because over the years there have been several episodes where simple courtesies are not even observed.

“Letters to the board from the regional body remain unanswered. Requests for meetings are ignored.”

Baksh berated the WICB for failing to merge the regional body with the West Indies Women’s Cricket Federation, following a mandate by the International Cricket Council a few years ago.

“Objections raised by the WIWCF’s president as to the procedure followed to disband it, caused the WICB to adjust its position to accommodate a procedural change in the dissolution of the Federation before the committee could be established,” Baksh said.

“Now, what happened is a result of the same reactionary behavioural pattern that has blighted the decision-making processes of the WICB.

“As expected, the committee members tendered their resignations so that the process could begin anew, and the then CEO of the WICB, advised the WIWCF to continue overseeing the administration of regional women’s cricket.

“This brought everything back to square one, in direct contravention of the mandate of the ICC, as we now have the situation of two separate entities: male and female for West Indies cricket.”

Baksh was speaking on the topic, “A Sporting Declaration, But Where Are The Women?” and said a proposal of using the 2007 World Cup as a showcase for Caribbean talent has been given short-shrift. “I outlined a series of initiatives that I thought could be integrated into the planning process,” he said.

“They included the proposal that every stadium should be required to factor in a museum or some kind of archive on its premises.

“I felt that we could have the local organising committees in each territory plan a campaign to invite citizens to dig up their old photos, letters, books, gear, whatever cricket memorabilia they had, and they could donate or sell them to the museum. They would be credited for their contributions.

She added: “It seemed to me one way to include people in the preparation process, to make them feel a sense of belonging to this mammoth project. “I also felt strongly that by not having sporting museums, we were neglecting a key element of educating young people about their heritage. They do not know much about their sporting legacy, and thus they have little connection to the ideas of national pride we keep talking about.” Baksh felt artists should be encouraged to paint pictures of cricket and musicians to make songs around the event.

“I thought every stadium should be adorned by murals depicting something of its cricket history,” she said.

“I felt we should encourage musicians to write songs and photographers to make posters of their work.

“In other words, I saw it as a grand opportunity for people to get involved, for them to earn some money, and for us to do something to create and build tools to educate the youngsters, and to build up a fine repository of cricket related merchandise, that would be attractive, and entertaining.”

Baksh said she made the revelation because her ideas were deemed nice, but pigeonholed into the “soft: womanish category.

“Nobody has pursued them, but I still feel there is no reason for them to be completely abandoned because they are not direct projects of the World Cup board,” she said.

“They are there for those who wish to act on them.”