How inflexible and uncompromising those in authority can be. The exclusion of Sunil Narine from the Test series against New Zealand may not be a conundrum after all, but another sad example of the authoritarian streak and mind-set that continues to affect the governance of the game in our region. Here is a West Indian player who has excelled at the sport. He is rated as one of the best spinners in the world and is playing in what is now the most popular and viable cricket league, where all the world’s premier players ply their trade. He had earned the opportunity to play in what was now the most watched cricket final on the planet. Through consistent performance, he, more than established fellow West Indians like Gayle and Pollard, had perhaps done the most in the 2014 IPL to keep the West Indian flag flying high.
And so what do our cricketing authorities do? Rather than finding a way to understand his quandary, rather than supporting him, we find a way to punish him and in the process shoot ourselves in the foot. At this juncture, where we remain at the bottom of the ICC rankings, we should be exerting every effort to give our newly appointed captain the best possible team, striving to use every resource at our disposal to give Ramdin our best possible 11 as he assumes the weighty responsibility of captaincy, with the goal of returning West Indies cricket to the top. But it appears that we do not fully appreciate what winning and getting back to the top means. Cricket is the one institution that has done us proud and cemented our identity as a West Indian people. To this we are indebted first and foremost to our players and the remarkable talent that took us to the top in the 80s and 90s.
While it is debatable how soon we might get back to the top, what is not debatable is that if our governance of cricket does not rise to what is required today, then we will continue to languish at the bottom. West Indies dominance of the game in the 80s and 90s was partly due to the huge reservoir of raw talent that we had access to. But it was also due to the leadership of Clive Lloyd and the fact that the nucleus of his team was able to develop and hone their skills in England, where many of them held professional contracts. With the advent of the IPL, Sunil Narine has developed as a world-class spinner second to none. It is the IPL arena which has allowed him to grow and mature, bowling against the world’s premier batsmen in high-pressure situations. While I fully support every effort by the new administration to take us back to the top—the inclusion of former Test stars in the current preparation camp is commendable but long overdue—I wonder whether for Narine it was a case of “my way or the highway,” an authoritarian streak in which basic common sense was lost.
There is simply no room for the type of inflexibility shown towards Narine. Instead, there must be room for empathy and understanding. The new policy must also be firmly grounded in the realities of the 21st century. Here is a humble and unassuming young man who from all expert accounts has been simply brilliant in the 2014 IPL and the lead-up to the final on June 1. He carried the team to the finals being called time and again by his captain to bowl the so-called “death overs,” and on each occasion, he delivered. Any West Indian at home and abroad who followed the IPL would have similarly heard every single commentator from every corner of the globe extolling Narine’s brilliance in every game. Yet, sadly, our own administrators could not find a way to understand the player’s wish to play in the IPL final and also participate in the camp.
I wonder what the communication might have been with Narine in the lead-up to the training camp. Was he given an ultimatum? Were there any genuine efforts made to reach out to him, knowing the pivotal role he played all season long in Kolkata’s rise to the top? Was there any understanding of the predicament he faced? So thank you, Minister Anil Roberts, for fighting the good fight and for pointing out that Narine’s choice was not a flouting of the “West Indian first” policy. Indeed, your assertions are spot on. By playing in the IPL final on June 1, Narine might have been better prepared than his WI peers for the Test series as he would have been playing at the highest competitive level. But this is not just a T&T thing. For it could have happened to any other West Indian player.
And so this is what prompted me to put pen to paper. For I felt that we are punishing a player who is not deserving of this type of treatment. He has achieved global recognition as a West Indian and it is therefore our duty to support him. Surely, this situation could have been better managed, and could still be resolved in the best interests of the player and of West Indies cricket. No player who has been an outstanding ambassador for the sport, and who has achieved the highest standards of excellence, should be penalised for this. After all, Narine’s heroes are Muralitharan and Lara—two of the world’s best—which tells you something about the young man. He strives for excellence. A way could still be found out of this impasse. But if it isn’t, it will confirm the sense among many of us who believe that we are still dealing with a mind-set and a set of management tools that are wholly unsuitable for managing WI cricket and taking it to the levels required for success in the 21st century. Rajiv Ramlal is a former T&T Foreign Service officer currently serving as a senior officer on management in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, United Nations, New York.
Rajiv Ramlal