CRICKET without a Cause, a book by Professor Hilary Beckles, that looks at the reasons behind the downfall of West Indies cricket was launched at Kings College in London on Thursday.
The launch was organised by the University of the West Indies Foundation with sponsorship by Jamaica National.
There are also plans to have launches in Barbados and Jamaica next month.
In Cricket without a Cause, published by Ian Randle Publishers, Beckles shows that only the Windies have been unable to field a Test team filled with its best players.
The best available occupy the bottom of Test rankings. The best are lured by the bounty of franchise cricket as ‘cash before country’ became the new mantra.
Test cricket, once the gold of the Windies brand, was devalued and diminished. The proud edifice to West Indian nationalism fell. But the rebuilding task has begun, Beckles argues. A new mentality in the academy is in the making. The return of the Windies is on the horizon.
Hilary McD. Beckles is Professor of Economic History and Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI). He played youth cricket for Warwickshire County in England and while a student at Hull University, played for Hull City and Barnsley Town in the Yorkshire League.
He is the founder and Director of the Centre for Cricket Research at The UWI and while serving as a director of the West Indies Cricket Board, designed and chaired its High Performance Cricket Academy. He has written several books on West Indian cricket, including a biography of Sir Everton Weekes and authored a play on the rise of Sir Gary Sobers.
In 2017 he was inducted into the USA Cricket Hall of Fame. He lectures extensively on cricket history and culture. (Sportsmax.com)