West Indies Cricket: A Muse Worth Revisiting-By Ray Ford - St Vincent Times
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 6:26 pm
West Indies Cricket: A Muse Worth Revisiting-By Ray Ford St Vincent Times
“What a difference it would have made to the side if Hall had Roy Gilchrist at the other end to help him!” Had Gilchrist been on the side I think it would have been a runaway victory for West Indies,” L. D. `Strebor’ Roberts wrote in Cricket’s Brightest Summer. The muse returned to me as nomination day for the post of Cricket West Indies (CWI) president drew to a close, and I was taking down my campaign banners and removing `Ray Ford for president’ signs, staked on neighborhood lawns. But first things first.
Spartan Strong
So let me spare a thought for the three Michigan State University (MSU) students – Arielle Diamond Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner – who lost their lives to a senseless shooting on the MSU campus on February 13th last. I have been a member of the Spartan family since January 1974. And for being so, I’ve grown a stiffer backbone. Because as Tim Alberta pointed out in his Requiem for The Spartans, “this university is the home of overachievers and underdogs, an ideal place for someone (like me) with a point to prove.” And when in America, I’d rather be in no other place.
An Intersection of Thoughts
My run to lead West Indies cricket began when during the West Indies – India Test match at Sabina Park in August 2019, I pushed back my ice-cream chair and made the grand announcement, so unbearable was the sloven I was seeing below. Not long after, I went upstairs to the TV/radio quarters got the ear of a former West Indies player and whispered, “Let’s team together and overthrow the thing!” Twenty-nine (29) years before when I was just getting out of business school, Jordan D. Lewis’s Partnerships for Profit had hit bookstores. And my thinking was to form a strategic alliance with a CWI insider or a former West Indies cricketer with currency, to shake the thing up. But alas, it was as if I was talking Greek. “I’ll soon be back,” I remember the former West Indies cricketer sheepishly saying to me. But he never did return.
Right there and then, I knew that I was embarking on a journey virtually all by myself. In addition, there were the words of Peter Roebuck coming back to haunt: “Self-indulgence and self-interest are to blame for West Indies’ present condition,” Roebuck had written in his essay Decline and Fall essay some twelve (12) years before. And today, this twin malady remains.
Inconsistencies and Contradictions
Throughout my run, of all the thoughts that were coursing through my mind the one of inconsistencies and contradictions prevailed. Arriving at the cricket, I’ve always been gladhanded by former players and media-men alike. And even on occasion, I had been asked to be an on-air guest. And two such occasions, stand-out.
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“What a difference it would have made to the side if Hall had Roy Gilchrist at the other end to help him!” Had Gilchrist been on the side I think it would have been a runaway victory for West Indies,” L. D. `Strebor’ Roberts wrote in Cricket’s Brightest Summer. The muse returned to me as nomination day for the post of Cricket West Indies (CWI) president drew to a close, and I was taking down my campaign banners and removing `Ray Ford for president’ signs, staked on neighborhood lawns. But first things first.
Spartan Strong
So let me spare a thought for the three Michigan State University (MSU) students – Arielle Diamond Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner – who lost their lives to a senseless shooting on the MSU campus on February 13th last. I have been a member of the Spartan family since January 1974. And for being so, I’ve grown a stiffer backbone. Because as Tim Alberta pointed out in his Requiem for The Spartans, “this university is the home of overachievers and underdogs, an ideal place for someone (like me) with a point to prove.” And when in America, I’d rather be in no other place.
An Intersection of Thoughts
My run to lead West Indies cricket began when during the West Indies – India Test match at Sabina Park in August 2019, I pushed back my ice-cream chair and made the grand announcement, so unbearable was the sloven I was seeing below. Not long after, I went upstairs to the TV/radio quarters got the ear of a former West Indies player and whispered, “Let’s team together and overthrow the thing!” Twenty-nine (29) years before when I was just getting out of business school, Jordan D. Lewis’s Partnerships for Profit had hit bookstores. And my thinking was to form a strategic alliance with a CWI insider or a former West Indies cricketer with currency, to shake the thing up. But alas, it was as if I was talking Greek. “I’ll soon be back,” I remember the former West Indies cricketer sheepishly saying to me. But he never did return.
Right there and then, I knew that I was embarking on a journey virtually all by myself. In addition, there were the words of Peter Roebuck coming back to haunt: “Self-indulgence and self-interest are to blame for West Indies’ present condition,” Roebuck had written in his essay Decline and Fall essay some twelve (12) years before. And today, this twin malady remains.
Inconsistencies and Contradictions
Throughout my run, of all the thoughts that were coursing through my mind the one of inconsistencies and contradictions prevailed. Arriving at the cricket, I’ve always been gladhanded by former players and media-men alike. And even on occasion, I had been asked to be an on-air guest. And two such occasions, stand-out.
Read more