West Indies cricket declined due to loss of nationalism

West Indian people have made their greatest single cultural investment in cricket. This commitment of effort and emotion profoundly shaped the mindscape of citizens, and led to the allocation of scarce financial resources that enabled physical infrastructures to dominate the landscape of each territory. As a deeply rooted historical process it has had several implications for critical aspects of anti-colonialism and the nation- building project.

While the enormity of this enterprise is generally grasped, there are important aspects that often elude general attention. Two such aspects are the historic depth and ethnic participation of the process. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the zenith of the slavery period, masters and slaves were passionate participants in the game, and made separate preparations for its future. By the 1830s, when the regional slave system collapsed in the face of intense human-rights pressures, cricket was well on its way to becoming the first expression of Caribbean popular culture.

This experience in cultural development is often narrated without specific reference to its fundamental multi-ethnic nature. While colonial white elites imported and domesticated the game, branding it for respectability with the ‘whites only’ tag, equally important was its appropriation by disenfranchised blacks who propelled its development as a site of racial and class contest. By the mid nineteenth century cricket had spilled out from these narrow social confines and found fertile ground in the larger communities of the emerging white and coloured middle classes, and the black labouring poor.

West Indies is a gathering of soverign caribbean islands and mainland Guyana !!

Insularity rearing its ugly head is unable to be conquered by these so called disenfranchised blacks !

racism practice against non blacks is evident....

the Go It Alone movement is growing 

Other cricketing nations have more or less ‘worked out’ the West Indies. They have discerned that rather than a paucity of talent, it is its predictable propensity for ‘softness,’ for caving in under pressure, that is perhaps the West Indies’ biggest weakness.  Opponents have come to believe that such interludes of ‘quality’ – whether with bat or ball – as the West Indies displays – can be made to melt like butter against the sun under sustained periods.

it is one problem and one only that has killed west indian cricket..and that is the growth of the bureaucracy that runs it now

there is even more west indian integration currently than in the federation from which west indian cricket domination emerged.  when west indies almost beat Oz in Oz and Indian at home we were still federated.

and take a look at the wicb today..it is more integrated than ever yet the cricket is dying. all the boards are of one mind.  they are the ones who turned the wicb into what it is.  they all participate in upholding it the way it is.  just take a look at them..it aint hard to see.  there is no insularity anymnore

allyuh want more integration than that ::confused::

it is what they are united in doing..how they run the cricket and for what purpose.

wen the white man ran the cricket they worked for nutten.  they were all rich anyway..business men, manufacturers, agriculturalists. they paid honorariums to those who had to do regular cricket wuk but that was it.

but but these guys.  they have nutten..or had nutten. so if they spend all their time at the wicb what..deh have to get paid.  that was the whole point about 1995...a change from those who had to those who had not and who have used the wicb ever since to get .

the west indies from the top down to the professional middle seems totally integrated to me..not insular at all. the question  is ..integrated in what, for what and why. ::LOL:: ::LOL:: ::LOL:: ::LOL:: ::LOL::

One only has to reflect on the manner of the protracted succession of defeats that has characterised the decline of Caribbean cricket to get the point about what, invariably, has been the lack of stomach for a scrap. In far too many instances outcomes of games are characterized by mind-boggling batting collapses and dispirited bowling performances…sudden, dramatic declines in fortunes that have given rise to the West Indies being labelled a team that ‘can’t tek pressure

the Federation broke up but left the west indies very united in certain ways....

there is a west indian federation for the rich west indian and professional middle classes,for the politicians and officials like professors and so forth.

these people have the means to pass through all customs and immigration with no questions asked...have the means to transcend what are insuperable costs of travel for ordinary west indies. they have access to the inner circles of the west indian elites all over the region.  they all know each other, are aware that they constitute a class of west indians with special privileges..an elite class in charge of the region.

unofficially no west indian barrier contains them as the contain and limit ordinary west indians in accessing the region.  so they do not change regional law their own status is concerned because all those things do not bother them.  we ordinary folk are bothered..they don't care

that is the west indies I came to know by years of travel in the region.  they don't care! that is why the cricket has gone to the dogs..because its purpose is to uphold the class status of those who run the game at all levels from the wicb to the regional boards.  they are all parasiting the cricket.

players who.... ::confused:: ::confused:: ::confused::  they don't care.  if they cud get away with paying them nutten they wud

insularity is no problem as far as I see...the cricket bureaucracy is..in fact is THE PROBLEM! :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

Trending shows that the Selectors will pick their home island boys.

and the mantra  "Iz we turn now " when elected to the Board : gives further rise to Insularity and Nepotism.

But I confess it is a wider society trait of the Individual islands !

NOT confined to Cricket only !

I reason that the players see and understand all that's going on and that the wicb is in it for themselves and do not care about their interest.

THAT IS WHY THEY MADE A UNION

the players would know for instance the manipulated conflict that underpins why the wicb will not move around dates to allow the players to be available for the west indies without conflict with the bread from the T20's

the wicb gets big money off the players from the IPL for sure. and they can manipulate to have grounds to terrorize players with descriptions as mercenaries and disloyalty to the west indies etc.manipulation to keep the players at bay and off balance

as a zero sum exploitation the wcb is unconscionable in its rape of the players and they know this...so they do not fight for the west indies when they play...if they play at all. some do not even want to get near to the west indies team such as Russel for example. most would not play for the west indies at all if they had their way

well dat is easy...insularity fo rthe boys an' dem...but not for the middle to the top. 

it is the wicb with 'is we turn now'..not the players.  it is Hunter who made Sammy the captain.  based on its we turn now I predicted that Sammy would be made captain by Hunter.

the wcb play the most vicious insular games with selection. but look at them who do it..all represented there..Guyanans, Leakies, Wyndys, Trickies, Bim and dem, Yardies..all ah up in deh.  deh might fight each other in elections but look at the integrated slates that run for office.  but their policies are divide and rule

Thats current news :

Insularity was evident PRIOR to the Invention of T20 !

Even b4 Champions Trophy where Guyana went to the Inaugural :de ress of Islands vex too bad.

Then TnT went and suddenly they were the " Australia of the Caribbean"

Then India IPL gathered some wastes and tunn them into T20 Stars ...


Point is , homeboyism and insularity and nepotism PREceded T20 and ODI champion leagues.