WEST INDIES cricket has been in the doldrums for many years now and, judging from the present situation, we are doomed to a further period of disgrace.
Our cricket could not have been more dismal due to a number of factors. To begin with, those who command the halls of decision-making are the most culpable for the simple fact that they haven’t got a clue as to the game and what it entails. The head of the WICB, Mr. Julian Hunte, from information gathered here in St Lucia, played no cricket yet he is mysteriously the President of the West Indies Board.
The situation is even more disturbing when you consider that the CEO, Mr. Ernest Hilaire, was never associated with nor played the game of cricket.
So there you have it, the two most senior men are a combination in a hilarious comedy of errors.

The other two figures to come up for scrutiny are the Coach and the Chairman of selectors – both of whom were unimpressive players of the game for the most part for the short period that they played it.

Clyde Butts, who is an ‘Uncle Tom’ for the other goons mentioned, is also (allegedly) a renowned racist, and it is for this reason that Sarwan was dropped and Hilaire had the audacity to ask Chanderpaul to resign knowing fully well the domestic politics of some Blacks and their attitude towards their Indian counterparts.

To think that a highly successful cricketer – one that has the most impressive record when compared with the rest of his team members and not forgetting the most humblest of cricketers – to think that someone of the calibre of Shivnarine Chanderpaul was unceremoniously asked to resign speaks volumes of the asinine mentality of the CEO and his adherents in the selection panel.

But there is more to it, the Bajan coach is silently working in the background with a plan to bring in a Bajan captain but his plan is fraught with much danger because among the recycled failures in the Barbadian camp, there is none worthy of such high office and he is also taking into consideration the outrage this might cause in the region.

Therefore, Gibson has an intriguing plan in place and here is how it works: pit the captain against the Guyanese players so that he feels threatened by those players (particularly Sarwan and Chanderpaul) that they are competing with him for the captaincy and out to sabotage him. So, as much as possible, he (Sammy) keeps them out of the team and out of the picture he would be safe hence the dropping of these guys for the most frivolous of reasons.
Further to it, whenever they are most grudgingly chosen to play, they must single-handedly achieve success irrespective of the glaring failures of the other teammates.

So there you have it. A real mess in the making with the good reputation of West Indian Cricket paying the ultimate price.

Cricket, West Indies, is truly in a mess and there is no light at the end of the tunnel possibly for the next five years once this foolishness persists. 

Until we get back to the place where the petty insular ambitions are laid aside and the good name of cricket takes pre-eminence, nothing good can come of our beloved game.

Change will only come if we make a determined effort and this must begin now in a top down approach.