by clairmont chung
Those were the final moments of the 2016 World Twenty/20 Cup
Final on April 3, 2016: four consecutive sixes to win a world tournament.
Victory for the West Indies over England meant joy all over the cricket world,
maybe not as much in England, everyone’s old rival. No cricket fan had
witnessed anything like that before. No West Indies fan had felt like that for
a long time. Earlier that day WI Women defeated Australia for their first world
title. Both games had all the elements of an epic; adversity, triumph, fear, fearlessness,
good, evil, war and peace, and the impossible. Our women beat a team they had
never beaten. These children of the enslaved and indentured had triumphed over
the old center of empire and its satellites. But this battle seemed less about
empire and more about the future of what empire left in place, the West Indies
Cricket Board (WICB). These ‘mercenaries’, as a prominent WICB director had
described some players, turned heroes, competed despite the unfair terms of the
contracts the WICB offered; and won for country. The Women’s team would also challenge
the gender disparity in salaries. Now the spectacle was over, it was time. It
was time to get paid: a reckoning. And now the ‘B’oard in the words of Rihanna,
'.... better ha ma money'. #bbhmm.
Under Simmons WI drew a Test series against England in April
2015 and in June the team showed some progress near the end of a 2-0 loss against
Australia. Ian Chappell, former Australia captain, described the team as poor. Again this was a young team in keeping with
the Board’s restated policy to focus on younger players. But this was just code
word for non-strike/withdrawal scarred players whenever possible. The board’s
team for the subsequent Sri Lanka tour reflected its plan. Its one-day
selection omitted Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard that drew the anger of Coach
Simmons. Evidently, the WICB was still angry about the India fiasco. Simmons
complained about outside interference and was immediately suspended and replaced
by Eldine Baptiste; West Indies lost the Test series 2-0. After some
uncertainty, and maybe cooler heads, the WICB decided against turning the
suspension into termination. Simmons must have been well aware that his stint
was in its infancy and with the World Cup around the corner, he could lose it
all. He was willing to risk his dream as WI coach, but assert his own stature,
his self. I believe that stance was instrumental in him getting the team he
wanted for the world cup; one that would include all the stars. Otherwise it
would have been unlikely that Dwayne Bravo would have been on the team or Gayle
or Sammy. It also stood as further
example of what can happen when you stand up for the things you believe. This
helped unify the team and raised Simmons' profile among the players and the
public. So much so, that he could call for his injured nephew, Lendl Simmons,
and have him arrive on very short notice to play a match winning innings in a
crucial match. Not only did we have players who would stand up to management,
we had a coach who would too.
“Carlos Brathwaite! Carlos Brathwaite! Carlos Brathwaite!”
screamed a hoarse Ian Bishop, as Brathwaite’s fourth successive and winning six
landed somewhere. Bishop urged we recognize Brathwaite as a star of the
future. Co-commentator, David Lloyd philosophized that ‘the future is right
here, right now!” Bishop, emotional like never before, suggested history had
been created. I half expected Lloyd to counter, “history is right here, right
now". And history is.
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| Darren Sammy (C) Getty Images |
Rihanna the superstar performer, feminist, culture icon and
symbol of Caribbean unity, of a sort, Barbadian father and Guyanese mother, told
the story in her hit song and video of being close to bankruptcy as a result of
her accountant’s financial mismanagement and what to do about it. This is the
story of so many stolen souls and their descendants; artistes from Jimi Hendrix
to Sly Stone to Lord Creator, and without a good ending. They slaved on the
road with little to show. Many of our Caribbean cricketers suffered and suffer the
same fate. Not only their careers were mismanaged but the game itself. Some
were then dropped without any recourse. Rihanna sued and won. But this current
bunch, like Rihanna with her lawsuit, song, and explicit video seemed inclined to take
things into their own hands; a kind of reparation.
Under the glare of the world’s cameras the team’s Captain
Darren Sammy made his own hit video. He placed
the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on blast with charges of incompetence and
pettiness. We had heard it before, but never this public, this passionate, and
not from Darren Sammy. Though no revelation, it may be a revolution; and for Darren
Sammy in particular. The story of West Indies cricket and administrative
incompetence, racism and nepotism is one too long to be retold here or in one
song. Forced retirements, suspensions, strikes and exiles have become the
recent norm. Two days after Sammy’s verse, Former Captain Dwayne Bravo shared
some lyrics of his own on "The
Morning Brew" with Hema
Ramkissoon on CNC3. Both Bravo and Sammy said they arrived in India without a
complete kit and were yet to be congratulated by the WICB on the historic win. Bravo
went further with a return shaming. He called the WICB president immature and
described the WICB as the worst board in the world. It was the kind of talk that saw Bravo stripped
of the captaincy completely, and from West Indies cricket until recently. For Sammy
the consequences were clear. These unpatriotic mercenaries had now shown
themselves willing to play for country, without uniform, and for near free like
the rest of us.
The WICB has had no qualms with public shaming of its employees.
WICB’s public abuse, and punishment varied but was centered on claims of anti
nationalism, individualism, stupidity, minstrelsy and mercenary greed. For the
WICB, speech was free, frequent, and unchallenged. Not so for the players. Their
speech came with consequence. Even Phil Simmons, its new coach, was not exempt
and had been suspended for publicly objecting to outside interference in selection
choices. That episode formed an important part of this 2016 victory. Like so
much of punishment and adversity, they seemed to have had the opposite effect:
a revolution. And like most revolutions they reveal the true patriots and
mercenaries.
Sammy’s revolution
On August 5th, 2016, West Indies T20, two-time
world cup winning Captain announced he received a call from the WICB’s Chairman
of Selectors who informed him they no longer needed his services. The news came
at the end of the CPL T20 season and days before selection of the T20 team to
play India on its current tour in the West Indies. Sammy seemed contented; more
philosophical than hurt. He thanked the players and those who helped him. His was
not the usual rise and fall narrative. His firing may not be a fall at all. At
one point, in 2010, he had been promoted from seemingly nowhere to captain of
the West Indies men’s team in all formats. Those who engineered his rapid
promotion had favorably compared him to Frank Worrell and lauded him as the redeemer;
the one to lead the team back to greatness. Much to the chagrin of many,
including this writer, Sammy accepted without rejecting the comparisons. Many
questioned the merit of his place on the team; much less as captain. Moreover,
he crossed the picket line to accept the job. Given the Caribbean history of
labor struggles, this should have been roundly condemned by our intellectual
class especially. Instead, the decision was defended. It was a sign of an
ideological shift in the region, maybe a consolidation more so than a shift
that reflected way beyond cricket. And that unions, worker rights, human dignity
and other leftist stuff had been long replaced by the neo liberal ideas that
support the exploitation of human and other resources for profit and
irrespective of the damage to truth and justice. It was Sammy’s early
supporters who condemned the striking players as greedy, mercenary and
unpatriotic. This seemed a major shift in Caribbean thinking, because the
defenders included major thinkers in the Caribbean. It was a costly message and
for which we are still paying. The plan failed miserably and continues to
fail as results show in the longer test format. But there has been redemption
of sorts, if not the kind the WICB anticipated, and for Sammy too.
Two months before the double World Cup triumphs, WI’s
under-19 team defeated India’s to win its first ever 50-over world title. WI cricket was definitely on top in cricket. Test
cricket isn’t everything, right. Sammy could not take credit for these
successes, though it would be foolish to discount any member's contributions to
a winning team: and he cannot take credit for any future return to greatness. Cricinfo
said that “Sammy hardly made an impact during the World T20 in India: he faced
13 balls in his three innings, scoring eight runs, and bowled three overs,
taking one wicket.” There were lots of factors that contributed to the teams’
successes and the Board had little to do with any of it. Left to the WICB none
of this would have happened and not fully clothed. Sammy may not be Worrell, but
in a strange way he began to understand Worrell. That brought a new kind of energy. This Sammy,
the 2016 Sammy, seemed fully engaged with the team whose members were still
held in contempt by the WICB and he now aware of what that means and the
consequences. He had come to understand what the players had been saying and
the reasons for the strike and ongoing discontent.
In 2009, Sammy entered the frame as a figure placed there by
the WICB at a time when the Board was experiencing its loudest critiques and a
strike that threatened to destroy the whole thing. Elevated to captaincy in
2010, Sammy was presented as the person to forego lucrative cash offers and
chose country instead. He lead a team weakened by the absence of the
experienced striking players and filled with newcomers; almost all of whom had
attended the board’s much touted Sagicor High Performance Center. The move
broke the strike but never settled the differences. Many of those same players
storming the field after Brathwaithe’s fireworks in the 2016 final did not
welcome Sammy’s arrival in 2009; and rightly so. It was not personal, except to
the extent it was felt he was being used and ought to have known. The players’
cold reception of Sammy was directed at the WICB. But failure is never without
lessons.
The first signal of Sammy’s changing state of mind and a
break with the WICB came with his 2013 signing with the Sunrisers Hyderabad of
the Indian Professional League (IPL). The board had cited the IPL and similar
T20 professional leagues as the draw for players and at least partially the
source of the problems. Players like Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo thrived in these
leagues which offered players a high paid alternative in playing for franchises
and not country. The WICB responded by reducing their salaries. To date, none
of these players submitted resignations for any form of WI cricket and to play
franchise T20 cricket: except Sammy. As a matter of record all these players
remain selectable for all formats of WI cricket. Only Sammy resigned from Test
cricket. This was a real slap in the face for the Board, because Sammy was its
chosen leader of a hopeful thrust in Caribbean nationalism to lead younger
players back to the top of world cricket. He was to advance the dictates of the
WICB and preside over its stated removal of the rudies like Chris Gayle,
Gayle’s cohort Samuels and company; and restore West Indies cricket to the
heights enjoyed under Worrell. As Donald Trump would say, “make America great,
again.” That seems a long time ago now. Sammy headed the way of the
mercenaries.
Naturally, some of the architects of Sammy’s early rise and
supporters have claimed just that; a new WI greatness. They point to this 2016
T20 cup win and Sammy’s second as captain in 4 years and of the only team to
win twice. They still lament WI’s poor fortune near the bottom of test and one
day cricket. But even they cannot discount the indispensible contributions of
the same players they wanted to exclude from the team. There would have been no
final appearance without Gayle or Samuels or Bravo or any of that team. News of Sammy's removal as captain came with his exclusion from the team entirely. The
explanation given was that he did not merit a place on performance: this seems
a little peculiar since he had a better batting average in the recent CPL than
everyone else selected except Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles. And scored more
runs and at a better rate than Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Lendl Simmons;
all of whom are in the team as batters or batting all-rounders. Statistics are
of limited use in sports, but sufficient to raise questions. Granted Sammy bats
lower in the order and enjoyed more not-outs and slugging freedom than the
others: this may explain his higher average and strike rate. But this
philosophical Sammy had more to gain and nothing to lose by speaking out. He
was a two-time world champion captain. He may not have been the golden boy
Worrell-figure the WICB had proclaimed; at least not in the way it had anticipated.
He had switched sides. But his public acknowledgement of what the players and
public had been saying for so long brought the issues to the biggest stage in
the game. Sammy acknowledged then that his role was probably over in the West
Indies team. He was right. He had nothing to lose and a lot more to gain. For
whom it was unclear, now, the lines have been redrawn. He salvaged some of what
he had lost, but the team and the whole operation would require much more.
The Simmons Revolution.
Sammy’s revolution did not come in isolation. And the 2016
victory may never have happened without the Coach Simmons' revolution. The
former West Indies opening batter took over the coaching job from Otis Gibson.
Gibson, the former West Indies fast bowler, like the early Sammy, bought into
the WICB’s talk of country-first nationalism. And he enforced its dictates and
the exile of the best players. He named discipline and hard work as his edict;
as if the exiled players were undisciplined, lazy and worse. It came to a head
during the 2014 tour of India and a player walkout that included Sammy with
Bravo as 50-over Captain. There was no turning back. Everything was placed on
the line. The board had to make a decision. Gibson had to go. The rest was up
in the air. More punishment followed. The brand of nationalism Gibson supported
did not prevent him from reclaiming his old job as England’s bowling coach. I
guess a brother has to eat. Country first only works if your country wants you.
The fiasco resulted in a claim of 42 million for damages by India against the
WICB for lost revenues and costs. 'India' would get much more as I show here.
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| Darren Sammy, Dwayne Smith, Chris Gayle Dwayne Bravo (c) BCCI |
We know what that team did in the World T20. They made Ian
Bishop loose his composure.
The WICB and Counter-revolution
As in any revolution there is a counter-revolution. The 2015
tour to Australia continued where all recent tours left off with the continuing
poor results. The drawn series against England and loss to Australia aside,
there were always encouraging signs; I am told. We have been reduced to looking
for ‘fight’ instead of wins. We know we have the talent. We are champions. But
the continuing exclusions and punishment for players and staff call into
further question the board’s sanity. They plan to return the team to greatness,
yet include batters without a single first class century, when more experience
is available. But there is a method to the madness. The board’s plan had been
outlined some time ago. It’s the same
plan that saw Sammy initiated into the captaincy. In that plan they talked
about the Sagicor High Performance Center (HPC) graduating the future of West
Indies cricket. The academy is now the West Indies High Performance Center. Sagicor the insurance
multinational did not renew its sponsorship. The academy opened in 2010, but is
functioning in a much-reduced capacity than intended. It was touted as the
institution that would graduate a smarter cricketer, perhaps more patriotic,
that would result in better fortune.
Had they succeeded at any level there would have been no
need for this essay. There is still a question whether this essay is needed at
all. There are no revelations here. Everything said here has been written
elsewhere perhaps a little differently.
But it’s not for the writer’s sake. It is not intended to attack Sammy.
Sammy was only a symbol for the hard- headedness of the board. And so, he had
to wear their burden. All
the negative things I said about Sammy were for the board’s benefit but
seemingly to no avail. However, history requires a record; something to look
back at and in the hope that future caretakers of the game would be aware and
beware.
Of the fifteen players on the 2015 tour to Australia, 10,
two thirds came from the Center. This
included Jason Holder; WI’s new Captain; elevated in similar fashion as was
Sammy: and perhaps to send a message to Sammy himself. Certainly to the rest of
us, the message is that we are proceeding with business as usual. With any success of its young team, the WICB
would have made its point. It is still to make its point. The stated purpose behind the HPC was to
produce a new kind of WI cricketer; one that knew the history, came filled with
a new kind of nationalism, against individualism, and of competitive ability.
The old model is Clive Lloyd and that team of the late 70s and 80s. The latest
prototype is Jason Holder. But things don’t seem to have worked that well.
Actually, it’s been disaster. And to help avoid the disaster the Board turned
to the very people who own the IPL; that place the non-patriots went to play.
Our Own IPL
The same people who called for selfless regional nationalism,
had no problem transferring the regional T20, its human and structural
resources, to the very foreign interests they punished the players for
pursuing. Foreign interests own all the CPL teams, specifically India based
business interests, except Guyana Amazon Warriors: and that is debatable. It is
total capitulation to capital.
Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya owns the Barbados Tridents
of the CPL as well as the Royal Challengers Bangalore of the Indian
Professional League. He owns a lot else and describes his relationship with the
Barbados government as a partnership. He is a person of interest in fraud
allegations in India. Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani owners of the multinational
Reliance Group, the second largest corporation in India owns the Jamaica
Tallawahs as well as interests in petroleum, manufacturing and retail. Anil’s
separate holdings are just as impressive and extend to Hollywood film
production. But more importantly Mukesh owns the Mumbai Indians of the IPL. Bollywood
royalty Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla own the Trinbago Knight Riders as well
as the Kolkata Knight Riders of the IPL. Sports Holdings Limited (ISH) out of
Singapore is the owner of the St Lucia Zouks and the franchise’s CEO is Fayyaz
Alimohamed. A consortium of Mohammed Ansari, Sharad Pawar, Uday Nayak and
Robert Vadra owns St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots. All the owners are from India
or of Indian descent. Pawar is a sitting member of Parliament in the Upper
House of India’s parliament. Mohammed Ansari is India’s Vice-President. I can
use up more space and highlight more of the questionable dealings and holding
companies of the owners and the owner of the CPL itself; Ajmal Khan of the elusive
Verus International. However, my point here is not about the Indianess of the
hierarchy but the hypocrisy of the Board and its misleading claims to regional
nationalism while a Caribbean resource is sold-out abroad. It was the board that
had criticized the players for seeking more money when the board is the one
seeking transnational capital and from the neo liberal playbook.
We are so completely imbedded that we have scheduled an
Indian tour in the middle of our ‘own’ CPL. Its not really ours, but you
understand. We had complained in the recent past about the board scheduling
tours during the lucrative IPL in India. This was so in the main because of the
weakness of our board in negotiating and the lack of public demand for a team without
our stars. We were forced to take tours no one else wanted. We became a test
team for hire by anyone with a hole to fill. We have dropped so low, that WI is
now scheduling tours during its own answer to the IPL. In other words, now our best
players are permanently out of the test team, a current India tour does
not disturb the regional CPL. Regional has no meaning anymore beyond geography.
This could not have been achieved before, because we needed our best players to
play test and all formats. The Indian board, BCCI, seems very quiet about the
level of test players representing the WI; contrary to what they have said
previously. The CPL is now an extension of the IPL; a satellite, the WICB a servant and seeking to leverage us too.
The recent debate was about
who really controls WI cricket; the WICB, Caribbean People, either. Now, its usurped by transnational business interests. All is not lost. The debate deserves better that
my offer here. However, it is clear that whatever little say the average
Caribbean person exercised has now been further reduced. This is an unacceptable
position and there should be protest, not over Sammy’s firing, but a start to a
real revolution; in West Indies cricket. How do we begin to write this new history, this now, this future?
With Carlos Brathwaite the new T20 captain? Remember the name: from the high
performance center and a true true Patriot or maybe another sacrificial lamb.
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