West Indies Cricket Fans

"This partly depends on the opposition, however. On Thursday afternoon, as the big-hearted but modestly-talented Darren Sammy tried to impose himself on England's bowling attack, the scoreboards flashed up a message: "The Aussies Are Coming 2013". Well, if even the England and Wales Cricket Board are preoccupied by an Ashes series more than 12 months away, what chance the here and now? Meanwhile, the disturbing dearth of West Indian supporters – walking around the ground during the first-day tea interval, I counted only three, one of whom was a steward – is an even more potent symbol of the Caribbean's cricketing decline. It would be stretching a point to say that Lord's during a Test match against the West Indies in the 1980s was like Trinidad during Carnival, or even like The Oval, but there was at least a flavour of jerk chicken to proceedings. Maybe it will be livelier today."

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I can partly explain this fall-off in support among Caribbean peeps in England. It costs £60-£70-odd to go to a match in England, and it's painful to spend all that money to watch your team lose yet again. That's one of the reasons why I'm not parting with my hard-earned money to go to one of these Test matches.

Also, when I speak to young black Britons of Caribbean descent, West Indian cricketers are not their heroes, because they are losers. Their heroes are footballers such as Jermaine Defoe, Darren Bent, Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott, Joleon Lescott and Danny Welbeck, because they win trophies.

But there is one place where you will see more Caribbean peeps than at Test matches, and that's track meets. There will be lots of Caribbean fans at the Crystal Palace Diamond League meet from July 13-14, and at the London Olympics. There, they will see Caribbean sportsmen and sportswomen winning....

I have also bought tickets to Crystal Palace and the London Olympics.

mikesiva wrote:I can partly explain this fall-off in support among Caribbean peeps in England. It costs £60-£70-odd to go to a match in England, and it's painful to spend all that money to watch your team lose yet again. That's one of the reasons why I'm not parting with my hard-earned money to go to one of these Test matches.

Also, when I speak to young black Britons of Caribbean descent, West Indian cricketers are not their heroes, because they are losers. Their heroes are footballers such as Jermaine Defoe, Darren Bent, Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott, Joleon Lescott and Danny Welbeck, because they win trophies.

Also long ago a lot of WI support was from first generation migrants and students as well as a lot of West Indians who travelled to England for the games.

The children of those migrants are interested in football not cricket (as you pointed out). And of course there are few West Indians in county cricket.

Things have changed. In the Caribbean you are just as likely to be outnumbered by the Barmy Army.