There are times when, after approximately 10 years of being a sports journalist, covering international cricket featuring the West Indies cricket team everywhere around the world except Bangladesh, that I am thoroughly embarrassed, amused, concerned and some-times even angry at the stupidity and great un-professionalism that exists in staging cricket series here in the Caribbean.
Sometimes, I get the distinct impression that we in the Caribbean only actually realize that international cricket is on when the players leave the dressing rooms, clad in their white attire, to take the field for the first game. Our annual, continual state of un-preparedness is now chronic and laughable.
SECURITY
The West Indies and English cricket teams were being housed at the Hilton International Hotel. Incidentally, the hotel staff has been excellent for transmitting messages etc. My worry comes from another situation; security.
In these days of the "smart bomb," the "telephone" bomb and any other type of bomb that you can conjure up, imagine my dismay and chagrin when I realized that the larger mini-busses that transported the two teams in the recent second Test match in Trinidad & Tobago had been left totally unguarded for very long periods of time.
I did not hear this. I actually proved it by being in the vicinity of the busses at the Hilton car-park for at least an hour on the Sunday (third day) of the second Test, yet no-one appeared during that time to ask any questions or challenge me at all. Later, a detail of policemen arrived in their own vehicles to escort the players, in the bus, to the cricket, but still no-one checked the busses before asking the players to board them.
One may not understand my concern, hence the following information. The coach used to transport the West Indies cricket team in the recently concluded South African cricket tour was ALWAYS under police guard and scrutiny during the entire three month tour. There were always police personnel guarding the vehicles when they were not being used, the vehicles parked at the relevant police stations. Before the team would be allowed to board the buses, the vehicles were searched, daily, and scanned, for foreign devices; bombs etc.
In the meantime, every vehicle entering the immediate activity areas of the players; the practice nets, the dressing rooms, vendors' vehicles etc; were scanned and individually checked.
In the United Kingdom, the practice is similar. Daily, the bus is scanned and searched, then after use, parked in the nearest police station, not bus station, with the specific instructions and continued surveillance that NO-ONE, unless authorized, should be within 50 metres of the bus. Again, I found this out by experiment.
In the instance of the situation of the mini-busses in Trinidad & Tobago, all one had to have were some bad intentions and some "special device." Then, there could have been no Test match, since there could have been no teams, if you catch my specific drift here. Any incendiary device could easily have been planted on the vehicles, the results probably making headline news on CNN in the "terrorism" column.
At one stage on the Saturday (second day) of the second Test match, there were at least four unclad males (streakers) on the Queens Park Oval. Only one policeman was visible to chastise them.
This is the real world of 2004, folks, not 1954!!
PARKING
For these cricket games, the areas adjacent to the cricket grounds; the Queens Park Oval in this instant; become prime land. The folks who are sent to manage the parking lots and environs suddenly become "mini-gods", more important than they have ever been in their lives; for five days. Here is a scenario.
To the north of the Queen's Park Oval is the King George V Park. The Oval is run by Queen's Park Cricket Club, the Park by the Port-of-Spain City Council and the County Council. The mini-gods who operate the parking for the Park are either not informed, or there seems to be no cohesion between the two entities, making information available as to who are authorized personnel for parking. Maybe even the WICB should be involved in that. Press men, commentators and even vendors must park somewhere. Unlike everywhere else in the cricket world, there is no area provided for this. The obvious result is continued confrontation with the generally very uncouth attendants. At least twice during the Test match, a few of us were actually accosted by a female attendant who demanded that "we pay TT$10 or leave, since this is for cricket personnel." Only someone uninformed would not know that television and radio cricket commentators are also `cricket personnel.'
PRESS ACCOMMODATION
For more that five years, I have been repeating loudly that the press boxes in the Caribbean, from Guyana in the south to Jamaica in the north, are the worst in the cricketing world. That is an equivocal fact. In some of them there is no running water in the toilets, in some of them, no continuous electrical power. This, mind you, as recently as this present tour!!
Much has already been written about the lack of preparation of the massive influx of predominantly English journalists for this tour, but as the saying goes, "when one fails to prepare, then one must prepare to fail."
Repeated requests and complaints have been made about supposed journalists who are basically spectators-cum-supporters being housed in the media centres, hence further enhancing the obvious lack of available and usable space.
In Jamaica, unlike what is done at perhaps Super Sport Centurion, in South Africa, the press box was extremely filthy on the second morning of the first Test.
It was obvious that the cleaners had not visited overnight. In South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom, the hoards of cleaners would have gobbled up the entire Sabina Park mess in about two hours, some time between 6:00pm and 6:00am next morning. Preparation is everything!!
There are about twelve pieces of canvas covering at the Queen's Park Oval and maybe twelve men to move them. Again in South Africa, there are so many recruited for the occasion that the covers fly off the playing arenas!!
Also, our "Massa" days in the Caribbean are far from over. We, the descendants of slaves and indentured laborers, are, in effect, more slaves now than ever before. We denigrate, disrespect, sometimes downright dispose of our own, showing great contempt for our own, so that the visitors, could be accommodated. Charity begins at home!!
As regards the Queen's Park Oval's Gerry Gomez Media Centre and the debacle of the English media, one wonders which Caribbean news/sports entity could go to Lords in London, or Old Trafford, in Manchester, and have preference over of the local British media. Yet the people who arrange the media in the Caribbean do not only not plan for the numbers, but even remove local media to accommodate visitors. Unbelievable, but true!!
TECHNOLOGY
Thankfully, at least so far, the technological aspects of the tour are acceptable. Cable & Wireless have done an excellent job at getting the telephone lines activated and in place in a timely manner this year. That has not always been so.
BWIA really pushed itself hard to get everyone out of Jamaica in very short order to the second Test in T&T and must be commended for their efforts and planning, a great improvement. We really can make it if we try!!
So, while Brian Lara and his men try their best to do something positive for the Caribbean on the field of play, certainly not an easy task, as we have already seen, we must understand that much is needed off that field of play to bring us to being, as Mr. Patrick Manning, the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago has suggested; "'world class."
Some of us fool ourselves every day that we are ready. I am here to tell you that the readiness of the Caribbean for international cricket is so far off of the mark, generally, that we must revisit the scene, and quickly. 2007 is not so far away now!!