We beginning to look good again

Arnos Vale was on Fire last weekend wid three days of exciting Cricket. De West Indies team played hard against Australia, dat is how yuh got to play de Aussies to win dem, hard! Mind yuh, dah’s not de strongest Aussies Team to visit our shores; just de same our’s is not de strongest Windies team either.{{more}}

Ah took ah chance and bet Lie-Za dat de Windies go win two games to one, we should ah win all three, but it ended up one each and ah tie. De home side benefitted from de experiences ah Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Roach who along wid Chris Gayle “making ah name” foh dem-selves, correction “making ah fortune” in India, Bangladesh, Australia and Zimbabwe playing the shorter version (T20) ah de game.

De WIBC should forget bout Gail, he’s ah good player but ah bad influence; furthermore he wants to play way de money dey, good foh de brother. We got plenty more Gails way he blow from. Watch out foh Soon-hit Narine, de 21 year ole T’n’T spinner, he Miss-more-eyes de Aussies at Arnos Vale. Already he got ah US$700,000.00 contract to play in India.

In de three matches played hey, Pollard and Bravo wid dey all around ability, helped to turn things around. De fault finders, some who never bowl ah ball, criticized Sammy, but in my limited no-ledge ah Cricket, in de first ODI on Fry-dey, Sammy handled his bowling quite well, our batters failed to bat wid any purpose. We however played like men on ah mission on Sun-dey and won de second game.

But was during de third ODI match dah de commentators got on Sammy’s case. Ah watched and listened all day on my Black Berry, ah cheap $75.00 Samsung phone, see me like “young boy” wid earphones plugged in. De talk generated when Bailey and Hussey took de Aussies’ score from 58 foh 3, to 170 foh 4. “Sammy ain’t bowling to no plan, bla! Bla!” dey said. De WI struck at 202 foh 4 and den all fall down foh 220, six wickets fell foh 18 runs.

Dey was no more talk bout Sammy’s No-plan from de commentators. Ah will add-myth however, dah de ten-shun was too much foh Sammy in de final over, wid one run to mek and three balls to bowl, even his critics felt dat dis was his time to prove his capt-aint-see. We didn’t win, and we didn’t lose either, but ah tied game is still unique.

Attendance was good, wid de exception ah Fry-dey which was ah wuking day, de stands were full on Sun-dey; and after such ah great performance, de Pry Minister graciously declared Chose-dey ah Holler-day, de crowd did not forget to holler foh de players. De out-field held its ground, again de critics had ah go at de wickets, interestingly de pacers got ah good bounce, and got wickets; de spinners as well got turn, bounce and wickets. Ah lot ah sixes and fours were struck all over de field. Years ago de recommended soil type foh de wicket was ah clayey-sandy loam, de clay will provide bounce and de sandy loam will encourage grass growth. De soil map of SVG dat was available back den in 1972, indicated dat dey were deposits of dis soil type all over. Maybe we will have to get de hard wuking Minister, So-butt-her Sees-her to send an Agricultural Officer to assist de Grounds-men. Was dey ah Minister ah Agriculture before So-butt-her, what was Gomry doing? All of ah sudden we hearing so many things happening at de Ministry ah Agriculture, Our-root, Poultry Farming, refurbishing ah de Bananas. Sorry So-both-her, ah know ah should be more up-to-miss-take, but somehow ah feel yuh Banana trust is an exercise in in-foh-till-her-tea, we miss de bus big time!

AH MASTER STROKE Back to de Cricket. De Cricket Association gave free tickets to senior citizens and school children to watch cricket foh all three days, so ah got ah scholarship (student pass). Dat is what ah will call ah “master stroke,” building ah clientele foh de future. And please tell de Pry Minister dat’s what “Master Stroke” is all about. Not selling-out de National Commercial Bank.

Ah sat in de Pure People stand, de Double Decker, way ah could get de come-mess, ah lovely lady from Union Island filled me in, Hi Learner! And ah does like to walk around at Lunch time to see de different colour Pill-low and inhale de smell ah curry. Ah even caught KFC big man Ken-Boy-yeh, wid ah plate ah would yuh believe it? Ferdie’s Creole. Ah never see foh more KFC boxes and paper cups, very lickle Pill-low; in fact not much cook-food was available, de caterers not ready foh de big occasions. Who impressed me was ah family group of about ten, mammy, daddy and de children, all man line off in de front row wid dey plate ah roast Breadfruit and stew-chicken, me mouth run water. Apart from people unable to get cook-food to buy, one ah de negatives was de toilets or wash-rooms. Like de plumbing broke down on de first day and it was like ah flood in dem washrooms foh de remaining days. Come to think of it, didn’t we spend some fifty-five million dollars ah few years ago, upgrading Arnos Vale foh de World Cup? All dat money spent, and de toilet facilities in de Double Decker stand gone thru. What about de Contractor Gibson, did he ever get his outstanding money? Not yet eh. What ah ULP Harvest de Businessmen, Farmers and Contractors reaping in dis country! Lie-Za was telling me dat when people bank-erupt, owe bills and can’t pay dey death, yuh does wake up one morning and hear dey can’t find such and such, dey run-way! Please Come-red Pry Minister, nah worry wid dah Lie-Za. Stay till de end, nah run way lef are-we!

And wid dat, is gone ah gone again. One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.