Drum Magazine Issue 2 | Page 31
What Do They Know Of Cricket...? 2 9
Carlton Baugh. Test match between
England and the West Indies 2004.
I give in ‘cos I know
he’s right. I will never
appreciate the sport,
but even I can’t deny
the magic
Photography © Smilie
“We took their game and we made it ours. They
didn’t even give us test status until 1928, and yet we
went on to produce some of the best cricketers ever
to play the game; the team of the late 70s and 80s
that anyone who knows the game has to admit is the
greatest ever. And we did it on our terms, son. West
Indian cricket isn’t about tea and polite applause and
being a damn ‘gentleman’! It’s colour, it’s life, it’s
freedom. It’s a party! We conquered the world
playing a style of cricket that put the whole region
on the map: cricket with style, cricket with flair and
power. And we won.”
“Ok, ok. You won. So…um…what happened?”
“Watch that tongue, heathen! So this isn’t the
best Windies team ever, I grant you. But things are
changing back home. Some people are worried that
cricket won’t be the game of the people forever.
Satellite TV is beaming football and basketball into
people’s houses. The world is changing, opening up
cricket isn’t the young West Indian boy’s most likely
way out of a life of hardship anymore.
“But there’s too much history…as Sir Clive Lloyd
said: ‘Cricket is the glue that keeps us together’. It
won’t die, it’s too strong. “A successful team, a new
set of heroes, and cricket will be back again, front
and centre where it should be.”
“Aagh! I give in…”
I give in ‘cos I know he’s right. I will never appreciate
the sport, but even I can’t deny the magic, the hold it
has over so many West Indian men and women. I
can see it in my Dad’s eyes as he watches his heroes
thousands of miles away on Sky Sports. All over the
country, all over the world, there are thousands,
millions more like him, for whom this sport is their
link with home. It is their home. I still wouldn’t put
money on my lasting an entire test match if the dull
bread knife option were open to me, but if I am
honest with myself, my Dad’s years of hectoring and
badgering have paid off in a way. For what it means
to him, for what it means to where we are from, I
can never really hate cricket. In fact, I’m prepared to
love it. But from a distance.