Hurt fans running away from cricket
Vinode Mamchan
Published: Guardian
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Adison Charles, centre, with his son Miandad Charles, right, and friend taking it easy in Roseau.
You could see the pride in his eyes when he spoke about Sir Viv Richards, Curtly Ambrose and Jeffrey Dujon and then the dejected look when he spoke of the current crop of cricketers.
Adison Charles sat on a wooden drum at the front of Chickerz Bar in Roseau as he spoke of his love for cricket back in the day. The West Indies had just lost the first Test match against Australia in the Sir Frank Worrell Series inside three days, just a stone’s throw away at the Windsor Park and Charles asked: “What happened to the Test match? He did not know the West Indies had lost in three days nor did he care because according to him: “I cannot take the abuse anymore. There was no bigger cricket fan than me in the West Indies. I remember getting injured in my garden and having to lie down for eight months back in the day. Well for the eight months I ate, slept and breathed cricket.
“I had a radio next to me all the time and when I could not see matches on TV, I was listening on the radio. While I lay there, great comfort came to me because the West Indies were winning and Richards was telling the world that we are champions, that we are not second class citizens of this world.
“That team he led brought real joy to me because we did not have much to tell the world about ourselves that was good. We had a team that could beat anybody and when Ambrose and Dujon and them went out there, they played cricket for the people of the Caribbean and not for their bank accounts.â€
Charles actually named his two sons after cricketers. With him at the bar was Miandad Charles (named after Pakistani great Javed Miandad) and Sikander Charles after another great Pakistani cricketer Sikander Bakht.
He told the T&T Guardian that he had been given complementaries for the five days of the Test match but did not go a single day. “I have been getting complementaries for the cricket since last year, when New Zealand played in Dominica but I am not going to any cricket. The tickets are there, I am not going to put myself through that because I deserve better.
“I want to see a brother go out there and play cricket for the people of the Caribbean. The players today is all about money. They don’t care about the people. Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo go out there and play T20 cricket and all they are looking towards in how much money in their bank accounts. I am not about that because I see better men play for pride.
“Viv and the boys used to get peanuts and sometimes not even peanuts and they went out and played cricket for us. They wanted to make us happy, they were not selfish. These cricketers today focussing on money and they could not have even cleaned Viv Richards shoes.
“Look at Brian Lara. He dominated the world and showed us that we can be champions, although the team was not winning. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a next one who fought the world for the brothers and sisters here. These men are heroes, they are the men who people would remember, not the men who on bling.
“The men who on bling only care about themselves, they don’t study how its looks. If the match done in three days as you say, you feel that worrying them fellas. I am sure they looking to go on a hike and see what Dominica have for them, not what they have for Dominica.
“Man you see me, I done with that cricket. Let them play, I will stick around here and enjoy the friendliness of my Dominican people because you know we are the best. It happier here in the market that at the cricket.â€
Another disgruntled fan was renowned Queen’s Counsel Anthony Astaphan who said that it has been years he has turned away from the cricket. “If you see me at the cricket, I would buy dinner for you for the next year.†Such was his conviction that he would not return to view the game.
“I don’t see the fight anymore and this is what worries me. People come here and roll us over time and time again and it is just business as usual for us. I think I have had enough of taking that sort of pressure.â€
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