Source: www.guardian.co.tt 
The performance of the West Indies cricket team at this year’s ICC 50 over Cricket World Cup should not have come as a surprise. Optimistic predictions prior to the start of the tournament were a futile wish for a miracle. Building a team takes more than putting talent together; it takes time for chemistry, togetherness, understanding and team spirit to become a cohesive feature and ethos. Being a professional athlete has never been about being paid. The money is a fact of life. The focus is about having a professional attitude, practices and habits. Some of the best professional athletes in local sports were amateur sportsmen and women. They received not one cent pay for playing their sport. But they were more professional than some of the most highly remunerated athletes of the modern era.
Up to the early 1990s the West Indies cricket team were a focused fighting squad with a shared social and historical perspective. Their professionalism was fuelled by a fierce pride and belief, an indomitable will and focus. Inspired by an idea—an ideal. There was a fierce determination to go beyond their perceived human limitations and a burning desire to show those who intended cricket as a tool to control that the shackles were no more. West Indies cricket diminished—an anachronism in contemporary West Indian society. To expect current day cricketers to believe in an entity and a flag that no longer has purpose and meaning is surely too big a burden for the players to bear. Where do they find the sense of purpose, motivation and inspiration? Who provides the leadership and the direction? Certainly it cannot be the politicians of the region nor for that matter the WICB.
How can the modern West Indies cricketer succeed where politicians, cricket leaders and others have failed?Caribbean community youth reserve their national pride for their individual countries. There is no one common Caribbean currency, the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Caricom Single Market and Economy struggle for legitimacy and acceptance. There is no West Indian airline. In the world of international sport the concept of a West Indies team is exclusive to cricket. Two years ago, the lack of political will and commitment to ensure the staging of the Caribbean Games left a cleavage that only the discerning would appreciate. There is no unifying philosophy. No shared vision or values. The Sanford 20/20 cricket tournament held a few years ago and now the Airtel Champions League T20 competition have accelerated the demise of West Indies cricket as we know it.
Watching the debacle against India last week, Shakespeare’s Hamlet came to mind, the match against India the final scene. What is the West Indies cricket team? its role and purpose ? Is it just about winning? What has the education system in the Caribbean, the WICB and the respective regional cricket boards, and Caribbean Community governments done over the years to foster the notion and concept of a West Indies cricket team? Or is it taken for granted that this generation and the generations to come would honour the history, traditions and culture of West Indies cricket in isolation of everyday life? What are we? West Indian? Caribbean? When we fill out the immigration form as we land in a foreign country how do we answer the question on citizenship and country? West Indian or West Indies? What are we asking our cricketers to represent and fight for other than to earn a dollar? The graveyard of history beckons. It is not simply a case of de selecting players. There may be a dark reality that no one wants to contemplate.
Editor’s note: Brian Lewis is the Honorary Secretary General of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee http// www.ttoc.org. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the TTOC.