Lovely Cricket minus de bottles

Inspite ah some heavy showers late Monday evening, Tuesday turned out to be ah nice day foh cricket. Ah light overcast but no rain and no set ah bright sunlight either; it should ah bin excellent conditions foh our seam bowlers, but de Aussies still made 270 runs, enough foh their bowlers to use de seam to bowl us out and win convincingly. {{more}} But de cricket was good, people enjoyed dem-selves, de Party Stand, now sponsored by Carib Beer, lacked sum-ting, ah feel is Glen Jackson, boy how we miss Glen.

De West Indies was not disgraced, gradually our young lads coming together, dey look business-like on de field, de batting is coming to come, fellars got to develop ah passion foh batting long innings like Tiger and Sarwan. Ah got to big-up de selectors foh de way dey experimenting wid new players. Dey got to mek ah serious decision on Chris Gayle, he is not only nursing injury, he is out ah nick, slow on the field, looks more fat dan fit, ah bad image foh ah leader, ah think he should stay out until he could pass ah fitness test. I’ll bet he mek runs in Grenada though.

Now once is Cricket, me and me buddy Sheller does have ah bawl, say-down and reminisce on almost every-ting, Paula-ticks, cricket and Kaiso his navel-string, remember he’s SVG ‘s first gentleman of Kaisoes. But Sheller is always ah serious man when come to his die-eat, always talking bout carbs and veggies and burning calories, he is not slim by chance. So at these games he brings de drinks, I de eats, he never forgets to put in order foh tuna sandwich wid pickled onion and tomato, and look foh him bringing his 100% pure grape juice, low-fat your-gut and dried prunes or raisins. All ah dat is good, but foh me, ah plate ah back and neck pill-how, hot sauce, wash down wid ah big glass ah mauby is de cricket menu!

We sat high-up in de double decker stand, ah fantastic view. Ah must big-up de organizers foh keeping de stand in good maintenance, toilets wuking and dey were cleaners on standby all day. But dey fell down badly in some key-areas, what ever happened to de big screen score-board foh de replays, and de green and red lights foh de third umpire’s decision. Dat big screen is critical, especially foh international matches. And Umpires need, if possible, to call on de third Umpire foh ah lot more confirmation, except clean bowl, dis will avoid all controversy. If we had ah big screen and de Umpire had called foh de third Umpire, de bottle-throwing incident on Tuesday would ah bin averted. But way de saying is? If sh……t had bones, it would ah walk!

What ah found very embarrassing was dat we had no score-board foh de entire match. De ole score-board dat was designed by Hugh Drakes since 1971, is now obsolete but still standing and could wuk. De Arnos Vale Sports and Cultural Org (AVESCO), uses to operate it quite effectively. But on Tuesday, nobody was there to operate it and provide scores. In any event, at our dis-ad-vantage point we could not see de face ah de board, luckily we had Sap-pee wid his transistor to give us ah ball by ball repeat. And if yuh know Sap-pee how he show-self, he literally repeated word foh word, verb-beat-um, every thing de commentators said.

Ah left de ground when Sammy was given out and he was walking to de Pavilion. To my surprise ah friend phoned, jokingly to tell me dat he saw me on camera throwing bottles on de cricket field. Was den ah knew bout Bottle Throwing. Somehow de crowd in de lower floor ah de double decker stand was wuking up ah frenzy all afternoon. First dey were booing de Aussies when dey appealed and dey started calling “to hit Bret Lee” foh six or four ah suppose. De batsman Sammy didn’t help, I am told that on his way to de pavilion, he stopped, probably saw de Umpires on dey cell phone, assumed dey were getting an opinion from de third Umpire, and den he headed back to de wicket. But dat was unfortunate, reminds me ah de Kaiso “Bottle and Stone on Queens Park Oval”. Those were de days when rioting and bottle throwing at test cricket was ah Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad ting, we and Bo-bathe-us were considered safe Sunday school grounds. But only ah few years ago de Bajans turn beast and close down ah game when one ah dey players didn’t get pick. SVG should not ah gone down dat road. Now we mek it easy foh de West Indies Board to black list SVG foh any future international match playing here.

But Lie-Za in her own folly say Sin-Vin-Sin is now our name, and ah lot ah things dat happening today, is ah culmination or harvesting ah de pull-it-tek-all culture we germinated and nurtured, ah short division crop, Red and Yellow steeped in law-less-ness and miss-behave-yah at all levels. Young people are no longer ah gentle and polite lot, is ah new civil-lies-say-shun of divisiveness, dey into gangs, drugs in one hand, de other hand stretching foh de money! Dey will kill yuh pet, yuh family, drive pass in vehicles and shoot down one another foh what is dey’s. Throwing plastic Mountain Top Spring Water bottles and plastic glasses on de cricket field is soft ball cricket. Yes ley me big up Mountain Top foh supplying free water in plastic bottles, all day foh every body. Ole people say “Freeness nah good” is true, dey mek trouble wid de MT’s.

But now Lie-Za like she want to tie up me foot, she asking me if ah think dem youths pick up dis men-tell-at-tea from de blocking roads and promises to mek de country un-guv-unable. Ah tell her answering dat is like telling her some ah de prominent names listed on de seven page document dat Kay and Kay Posse got de black squad treasure-hunting fah!

UP DE APPEARANCE FEE

De kaisonians dem making noise foh ah fifty percent increase in dey appearance fees foh de Kaiso Semi Finals. Dat $800 fee was dey foh over ten years and when yuh consider dey chaps got to pay arrangers, go to de studio and get two songs ready foh de competiton, in addition six ah dem paying dey passage, coming in from de USA to appear on de Show foh US$300, nah, it ain’t sound right, time foh an increase. In fact it does be embarrassing foh ah number ah dem, dey does be literally scrunting all over foh help to record de first song.

Ah think we ah lickle behind time, in T’n’T de Kaisonians sing one song from Preliminary right thru to Finals, we still pushing foh two songs foh de Semis and Finals, making it X-pen-save foh de guys. Kaisonians here do dey best to appear professional on stage, which is good foh de professional level ah de show, but very costly foh de guys. So Mr. acting cheerman, Lennox Bowman U’s ah Kaisonian in yuh own rights, see way yuh could do foh yuh fraternity, nah mek Abijah sing no chorus line pon yuh say how “ De acting cheerman ah CDC, refuse to increase de appearance Fee, jumbie go slap he”! And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy