Rally around the West Indies

In the tiny island of St Lucia with a population of just over 180,000, they’ve taken the first step in tackling a West Indies Cricket Board that seems to have become a law onto itself. Like Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat aboard a bus in the US on December 1, 1955, other historic moments were never planned but happened by accident or coincidentally.

It is symbolic of the shackles that have kept West Indies cricket stagnant that it is the dropping of Darren Sammy, a St Lucian, that has sparked outrage and a massive boycott of the 3rd Test between world powerhouse India and West Indies being played none other than at the Darren Sammy National Stadium in St Lucia. When Trinis are for Trinis and Bajans are for Bajans it would be silly perhaps to expect a Jamaican to boycott a West Indies match in protest of the unfair removal of a Guyanese when it opens the spot for a Jamaican cricketer.

History has a way of falling into place nicely.

And so the West Indies will take on India cheered on by empty stands at the Darren Sammy National Stadium. Like Parks’ stance, which triggered a year-long boycott of buses by blacks in Montgomery and helped force the city to repeal its segregation law due to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Browder v Gayle, this little key can open up mighty doors which CARICOM and Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell have been unable to.

Following a protest yesterday outside the Stadium and boycott of the 3rd Test, the series shifts to the picturesque Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad where our cricketers have had such a cordial relationship with the WICB. Similarly to Sammy, wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin has been axed from the Twenty20 team as well as the Test squad. WICB Selector Courtney Browne, a former wicketkeeper, through astute knowledge of the game, has selected Andre Fletcher as the ‘keeper for the forthcoming T20 matches against India in Florida. With the likes of Trinidadian spinners Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine, ranked No1 and No4 in the world by the ICC, Fletcher will need to be in immaculate form not with the bat but handling the gloves where edges and stumping chances will be aplenty.

Ramdin, not the most prolific with the bat, is the joint world record holder for dismissals in Twenty20 matches which seems to count for nothing with the Windies selectors. Their desperation to full the Windies team with batters and all-rounders in all formats often upsets the balance of the team, leaving them sometimes two quality bowlers short and unable to win matches a la the 1st Test match against India a couple weeks ago.

Dwayne Bravo can also feel aggrieved having been ostracised from the one-day team for his role as captain on the abandoned tour of India in October 2014. His fans can make their feeling known as the West Indies play for the first time in Trinidad since his banishment. The WICB has completely denied doing such, though, its president Dave Cameron island hopping around the Caribbean on town hall meetings last year where concrete answers were harder to come by than a West Indies Test win.

WICB selectors have been adamant Bravo and Kieron Pollard’s omissions were based solely on poor form. Yet Cameron failed to clarify how Bravo was sacked when he made the ICC ODI Team of the Year for 2014. He also shied away from explaining how Bajan Dwayne Smith who is older than Bravo and Pollard and averages a pitiful 18.75 as an opener from 105 ODIs made the World Cup squad.

Again, selectors have used lack of form to rationalise their decision to drop Sammy despite him being the first ever to captain a team to two T20 World titles. Was his tremendous leadership and the unmitigated respect he commands from his peers taken into consideration as well? Once the “blue-eyed boy” of the WICB, the 32-year-old is now persona non grata but the selectors must explain what criteria they used for selecting this T20 team.

It surely cannot be the World T20 in April when a month-long tournament right in their backyard finished a few days ago. Sammy, captain of the St Lucia Zouks, took his team to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) playoffs for the first time ever, registering the second highest batting average on the team (42.40) and fifth highest for any player with more than six matches in the tournament. Current form counts for little with West Indies selectors.

Sammy, whose post-match rant criticising the WICB for its lack of support and failure to offer the World Cup team words of encouragement, was not punished officially. Four months later, similar to the treatment meted out to Bravo, he has been removed.

If players cannot air their grievances without fear of victimisation and CARICOM’s recommendations are dismissed quicker than West Indies batsmen, it is up to the fans to speak up. Sammy’s fans will make their feelings known by telling the WICB to keep their cricket and staying away from the Test match.

Will Trinbagonians do the same in solidarity with St Lucians and in protest of the treatment of its own players or will they rally around the West Indies Cricket Board?