Muddled
season of CPL T20 cricket
Published:
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
There
can be little doubt that the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) failed Trinidad and
Tobago, despite the public relations exercise. The end result was that
T&T’s Red Steel struggled, although scraping into the semifinals. That the
T&T public booed, not once but twice, T&T captain Dwayne Bravo on
Saturday, when he appeared on the big screen, was inappropriate and wrong, but
it was a message of dissatisfaction, given the high standards of the past. What
this proves is that there must be a change of name going forward and the name
of the countries must not be used. Some of the players, with whom I have
spoken, suggest naming the teams after the capital towns in each island, which
on the surface seems logical, but given the way West Indies cricket is
administered, may not actually work.
T20 has
long been good theatre and always had an appeal even going back to the Stanford
days. However, it lost its value when T&T began to dominate and the other
teams fell short. Therefore, people around the Caribbean lost interest, not
wanting to watch one-sided matches. It is clear in the current set up that
T&T was at a serious disadvantage. Let us examine the base; the West Indies
won the World T20 Championships in Sri Lanka in 2012. The West Indies squad was
DJG Sammy, DJ Bravo, S Badree, DM Bravo, J Charles, FH Edwards, CH Gayle, SP
Narine, KA Pollard, D Ramdin, R Rampaul, AD Russell, MN Samuels, LMP Simmons,
DR Smith. Of the players above, the following are from T&T: DJ Bravo,
Badree, D M Bravo, Narine, Pollard, Ramdin, Rampaul and Simmons—EIGHT. Three
from Jamaica: Gayle, Russell and Samuels. Two from Barbados: Edwards and Smith.
Two from St Lucia: Sammy and Charles.
The
teams were divided based on these players with T&T receiving three of the
eight players above and the other five placed elsewhere. Strangely, Guyana got
three players, Barbados, one player and Jamaica allocated one player as well.
Jamaica had three players and got two selected. Mathematically, that is 66 per
cent, Barbados had two players and got one selected and that is 50 per cent,
similarly St Lucia had two players and only one was selected, so that also is
50 per cent. Now let us re-examine the Red Steel. Of the eight players, T&T
got three players which is 37.5 per cent, and if we are to use the starting 11,
where T&T had six players in the finals, they got only two of the six—33
per cent. Even if you do not like mathematics, there is inequality in all of
this. While, it is easy to say that this tournament was a success in terms of
crowd participation and because people enjoyed the fun and party atmosphere,
those who argue that it would develop young players may need to re-think that
idea, as both Guyana and Jamaica struggled to give exposure to many “young and
inexperienced” players.
Clearly
there is something wrong with this model and it may lead to asking why don’t we
do something similar in athletics? How would Jamaica feel about this if we
decided to have a special athletics games in the Caribbean and dispose of the
leading Jamaican athletes to run for various teams in the region such as
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Yohan Blake, Nesta Carter, Warren Weir, etc. Of course
Usain Bolt will run for Jamaica. And how would Jamaica feel to read online or
listen in the BBC news and be told that the Guyana or Barbados track team
defeated Jamaica? I am certain they would not be very happy. Most of the
international media stated that T&T lost and that is how it was perceived.
As it stands, the Jamaican Tallawahs will not be able to represent the region
in the Champions League cricket in September, as T&T already qualified.
Does this mean, that they will represent the West Indies next year in 2014 and
how many of the team will be eligible, given the amount of players on this team
with outside commitments to other clubs?
This CPL is very muddled in terms of
process but it seems the only interest is financial and if so, that is sad.
