Naipaul on Cricket

Keeping with my newly found passion for reading, I discovered something about West Indian Cricket. It bears a stamp of foresight from the author, VS Naipaul. That one paragraph in the second chapter of the book titled, "The Middle Passage", Naipaul mentions about how critical cricket proved to be for Trinidad - an island that was unique in its demeanor and attitude towards life. And then comes a long-term view of West Indian cricket, which has puzzled all of us through the last one decade -

Cricket has always been more than a game in Trinidad. In a society which demanded no skills and offered no rewards to merit, cricket was the only activity which permitted a man to grow to his full stature and to be measured against international standards. Alone on a field, beyond obscuring intrigue, the cricketer's true worth could be seen by all. His race, education, wealth did not matter. We had no scientists, engineers, explorers, soldiers or poets. The cricketer was our only hero-figure. And that is why cricket is played in the West Indies with such panache; that is why for a long time to come, the West Indians will not be able to play as a team. The individual performances was what mattered. That was what we went to applaud; and unless the cricketer had heroic qualities, we did not want to see him, however valuable he might be. And that was why, those stories of failure, that of the ruined cricketer was the most terrible. In Trinidad lore, he was a recurring figure; he appears in the Trinidad play, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John.

Its unfortunate that West Indies as a cricket team has deteriorated drastically in since 2000. That was the time when Naipaul's critical cynicism comes back and reminds us how important the game is to the islands who are not necessarily in the pink of economic health or even a stable political system. Cricket means so much to the West Indies - in terms of geographical unification and beyond just that.

There was a breath of fresh air when Trinidad qualified for the 2006 World Cup, so much so that the West Indies cricket team playing against India in a Test series had its eyes firmly on what Leo Beenhakker's men were about to achieve. Trinidad found a new sport to express itself, fifteen new role-models. They might have not set the world alight in terms of scoring goals, but the football team typified the spirit the nation displays - the passionate splinter that refuses to die down.