The region on bended knees

If anytime the Caribbean region needs a miracle of any kind is now. A bright spark of top quality performance in one of the matches, filled stadia, anything will do at this stage.

The Region as host of the 2007 Cricket World Cup has been at the mercies of all and sundry as cracks and any short comings are magnified to astronomical proportions.{{more}}

All of a sudden, it is not we thing, but “an ICC event”, when criticisms are levelled at the various Local Organising Committees in the Host Territories.

The promised windfall and spin offs from the mega event seemed a distant dream as day by day, the crowds dwindle and the anticipated influx of visitors seems wishful thinking. Pre -sold as the economic Messiah of the Caribbean at this juncture has been false preaching.

Businesses are crying out as the bounty has not come in, vendors and other expectants feel duped, while Caribbean Governments which backed the venture with unending financial input await their returns.

The murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer in a Jamaica hotel, three weeks ago, when thrown in the mix, questions the level of the region’s security capabilities. Whatever the outcome of the inquest into his death, history will recall that it occurred on Caribbean soil.

And these are not helped by the performance of the host nation’s team, the West Indies. The home team came out of the preliminary round with a one hundred percent record of wins. However, the Super Eight round has proven to be a debacle for the fifteen players who don maroon colours and carry with them the hopes and aspirations of a conservative ten million people.

During this phase, we have been out-played, out-classed and out strategised by our opponents. The team has been reduced to a hapless bunch of amateurs in a big man’s game. Their body language, the manner in which they are dismissed along with the indifference shown when a catch is dropped or there is a mis-field epitomise the state of play.

The lack lustre performances versus the heavy weights of One Day cricket Australia, New Zealand, then Sri Lanka were too much for a side that self imposed its stardom status pampered by the region’s cricket administrators.

An overwhelming crowd support against in the crucial encounter last Sunday against Sri Lanka at Providence in Guyana did not even prick the consciousness of the team who strode around aimlessly holding aloft with pride the reward for underachievement.

The World Cup has also showed up the divide that exists among the sport’s administrators in many respects. The war of words between captain Brian Lara and former Test player and current selector Andy Roberts make us look as a house divided. And we know that a house divided cannot stand.

Unwittingly, the two brought out an aspect of West Indian culture to the world of that of “throwing words”. An aspect we could well do without exposing.

Criticisms from other former players are not helping the team’s cause as it was and maybe still is, even though remotely, the aim of the West Indies is to become the first host nation to win the World Cup. The hopes evaporate with each passing day as the team slumps into a position of mere marketing mules, to get the remaining die-hards into the venues.

No matter how much West Indian we may want to be, the acrimony can no longer be contained in the vessels of our patriotism.

The other teams and their entourage of unforgiving media personnel are having a field day of us as they are never short of stories on our showing both on and off the field. But bacchanal is an integral part of our folklore.

It may not be coincidental that the World Cup is staged at time when the region marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Our foreparents, those who claim to be of African descent survived the gruelling Middle Passage. We are presently in the modern day Middle Passage and we can successfully navigate this one too.

Probably, some lines of this country’s Nation Anthem should serve the West Indies team and those charged with directly staging the World Cup with some inspiration, “What e’er the future brings, our faith will see us through”.

Or as we commemorate Holy Week, maybe going down into sack cloth and ashes could be the panacea.