Disgraced in the oval

THE EDITOR: Today, cricket in Trinidad reflected the psyche of the people of Trinidad. Hailed as the day of the Return of the King, we filled the Oval to capacity to pay our respects to a son of the soil. A good day for cricket...or so it seemed. Rain came, play stopped and that’s when the real display of our national psyche came into the fore. One fool from the grounds in front of the Dos Santos Stands dived into a gigantic pool of water... a few moments of comic relief and then other “monkey see monkey do’s” from around the other stands joined the spectacle. A lone groundsman tried to restore order to his grounds, but sadly, to no avail.

The offenders showed gross disrespect to cricket, the players, spectators and to the hallowed grounds of the Queen’s Park Oval. The grounds were desecrated and not even the covered pitch was left unscathed. Even our National Flag was disgraced by being brought out into the fracas. In spite of repeated calls to the Police Service to intervene, no action was taken for at least 20 minutes. This inaction on the part of the special-forces against a few anarchists who held us to ransom, typified the current state of uncontrolled lawlessness in our country. The parallels of note are as follows:

- An inability to independently assess and react to a blatant disregard of the law.
- Call the police and they can’t come (maybe there was no available transport at the Oval).
- Highly trained tactical forces can’t deal with an inconvenience to their persons (in this case -  getting wet. What happened to protecting and serving?)
- By the time they did respond, it was too little too late, the damage was already done.

To our visitors and world viewing audience, this Trinidadian is wearing ashes and sack cloth in atonement for our sins and wishes to apologise and beg forgiveness. By any count, it was a shameful day for me as a Trinidadian.   I registered my disgust by leaving and not getting any value for my money.  Any refunds will be donated to the police force to assist in motivational training. Maybe Mandela and Tutu can teach us how to rise from the ashes and reclaim our National Pride.

CHAD QUESNEL
St Ann’s