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IMO this is even more tragic than it appears.Poor windies looked like doing some amount of damage to the english team.These are my semester holidays so I can shamelessly laze around doing nothing/sleeping the whole day and watch TV/test cricket at night.Love watching Gayle bat.Now i will have to make some other late night programme.
Not good.Not good at all.
The flimsiest of foundations
By Will last year, mid-February Add your comment below
I’m still feeling slightly euphoric and exhilarated, which are two adjectives no cricket fan could describe themselves after a day of unprecedented farce. As I’m in the fortunate position of being able to cover such chaos, today has been hugely fun: exciting, depressing in parts, even quite funny and a joy to report on. But it’s a feeling of detached delirium – how in the name of the three Ws, and Sir Viv, could this possibly have happened?
Sand stops play. It’s such a feeble, flimsy excuse on the surface (or, rather, just beneath the surface), yet we all take for granted that the green grass will be sufficiently thick to allow size sixteen boots, attached to sixteen-stone athletes, the cushioning and traction required for bowling. Without that, the game can’t happen. It’s like asking a pole-vaulter to do his stuff with a stick made from paper mache.
Just when we thought West Indies cricket was on the up after that sensational fourth day in Kingston, it regresses back to the laughing stock on which much of its administration is based. North Sound – the ground named in honour of Sir Viv – isn’t fit to host an execution let alone a Test match lasting five days. You could count the number of locals at the ground on two hands. They hate it. It’s a disgrace to the country, an embarrassment to the passion and soul of the West Indies’ supporters and a reprehensible waste of money.
Sir Viv later said: “This is not shooting me in the foot. This is shooting me straight through the heart.” That his name should be associated with such a contemptible construction does everyone in the region a huge, horrible, crying disservice. The ground is everything he is not: crass, ugly, broken, embarrassing and dishonourable.
Vaneisa Baksh, a fine Caribbean-based cricket writer and historian, popped up on messenger during the chaos and sounded almost in tears. Likewise, a friend in Jamaica asked simply: “Why now?” That the Test was ever allowed to take place is just one awful blot on the WICB’s ink-sodden copybook. But that it should happen days after the Caribbean’s brightest moment for a decade is a wound which will take a long time to heal.
Organisations and cricket administrations, like the grounds at which their product should be on glorious display, need sturdier foundations than sand.
Oh – and read this. We found an insider (or rather, Caribbeancricket did. But we’re all friends in cricket land).
Tags: england, england-in-west-indies, farce, sand, sandy, sir viv richards stadium, sir-viv-richards, viv-richards, west-indies, WICB |
5 Responses to “The flimsiest of foundations”
February 14th, 2009 at 2.37 pm
February 14th, 2009 at 7.44 pm
That no-one in the WICB seems to believe this is a resigning issue is incomprehensible. After the farce at Sabina Park a few years ago, you would think that everything would be triple-checked at a ground like the ARC where only one Test has been played.
Let’s hope that the condition of the St John’s ground doesn’t result in any injuries and that a decent game of cricket can take place.
I also hope, with a fair amount of trepidation, that the ECB don’t end up looking similarly foolish when the Ashes come to Sophia Gardens this year. I remain doubtful that a proper Test wicket can be prepared so quickly.
February 16th, 2009 at 3.31 pm
Like the fact that a test has been added.Now I can continue lazing around in the very cold nights here.
Ahem….Chris Weston-St John’s ground and the ARC ground or the ARC, are the same thing.lol.
Hope you know what you’re talking about.
I can safely assure you, the ARG has played host to more than 1 test.
You probably mean the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium which is at North sound in Antigua.
LOL.
Shivender Rana
February 16th, 2009 at 6.53 pm
Isn’t the ICC also responsible as the administrative body of the game?What role do they play here?
Another question that entered my mind was that didn’t the windies team, who bowled more than the per day quota of 90 overs,deserve some prize money from the ICC?How often do such situations present themselves in this game?Teams always get penalised for being a few overs short.Here the windies were a few overs up.Unbelievable in these times.
Chris, tut-tut.
It’s safe to say you’re in atrocious form.
February 17th, 2009 at 4.04 pm
Sand stops play is pretty hilarious,come to think of it.
And Vaneisa Baksh IS a fine cricket writer.Thankfully,common sense prevailed in the end.
Shivender,
Chris Weston is a little bit of a special child,if you know what I mean.He/She(Chris Evert was female wasn’t she) will most probably submit 20 different comments telling you why he’s/she’s right & the entire world conspires against him/her.Ignore.
Are you presently in Himachal or are you a permanent Himachal resident?
Absolutely love the place.I hope there will be international cricket there someday.They made the Quarters in the Ranji trophy,didn’t they?
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