Cricket and Emancipation are Caribbean

Arrangements for the Emancipation Cricket Festival, a novel idea being concretised on an initiative of the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, was formally launched on Tuesday night of this week. While the organizers may not have imagined it that way, it appears to at least have injected some hope among Caribbean cricket fans just one day after “the shame of Sabina”, the crushing defeat of our Test team after being bundled out for the second-lowest total in the 140 plus years of Test cricket.

It is a tangible attempt to show our appreciation to those we fondly refer to as our LEGENDS of cricket – the cricketers who made West Indies champions of the world in Test cricket and one-day cricket, respectively 60 and 50 years ago. Apparently, our Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, had earlier proposed to the West Indies Cricket Board that those legends be suitably honoured. But Cricket West Indies chose instead to honour the legends at a ceremony tacked on to the West Indies Players Association’s annual Players Appreciation Awards.

It is sad that such a noble idea should come to this divergence, even creeping acrimony, but such is typical of our history of handling such occasions. We may have differing ideas on how to go about such honouring, but Caribbean citizen with even a vague inkling of our cricket history would not dispute the appropriateness of such an honouring. In addition, it is an excellent idea of linking our Caribbean success in cricket with emancipation.

Many of us may not be aware of it, but the first Vincentian to play Test cricket, Alfie Roberts, was himself, in day-to- day life, a staunch anti-colonialist and advocate of national independence, a local emancipator.

His immediate successor as a Vincentian Test cricketer, our local legend, Mike Findlay, in addressing the launching, made the clear connection between Caribbean cricket and its role in fighting discrimination.

He ended by appealing to us to “teach our children the consciousness of being black”as a means of overcoming the legacy of slavery.

Before these outstanding local cricketers, the famed Caribbean author, Pan Africanist and anti-colonial fighter, C.L.R. James had made a lucid connection between West Indies cricket and the role it played in combating racism, discrimination and bias in the entire Caribbean society. We have produced some of the giants of international sport and this has had repercussions in all aspects of the society. Caribbean people all over the world have been able to lift their heads higher due to the feats of our cricketers.

The idea for a fitting tribute to our legends is one therefore which no Caribbean person should spurn. We may disagree on how to go about it, but surely those disagreements must not be such that we cannot find common ground and even give support to initiatives even when we may have approached the matter differently. It is also sad that our differences should descend to attempts to denigrate these noble ventures, as well as individuals in the administration of cricket at the Regional level. Our Legends, and our hapless cricketers of today deserve more than that. Let us not allow narrow political considerations to undermine a noble cause. We owe that to our legends.