Cameron’s mystery spin deciphered

Move aside, Sunil Narine, there is a new mystery spinner in the West Indies and he is taking the wickets of all the prized cricketers in the region.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) spinner Dave Cameron is making quite a name for himself and knows his trade by heart. The wily Jamaican is also an expert fielder, running out Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons and Narine from the West Indies teams.

The clever cricketer is known to shift the stumps at times to make himself look good and is not averse to taking his bat and ball and going home if he does not get his way.

As president of cricket’s regional governing body, Cameron showed his diplomatic and democratic skills in a charade around the region with town-hall meetings to meet the people whom he described as cricket’s real stakeholders.

At one such meeting, in Couva in September 2015, the public came out armed with questions aimed at Cameron, who showed himself to be no slouch at the crease with his ability to duck and sway out of the way of bouncers that could harm his and his selectors’ reputations.

Why was Dwayne Bravo omitted from the 2015 World Cup team when he was named in the ICC ODI Team of the Year?

Cameron had no answer.

The CWI president and part-time spinner had such an amazing 2016 that few could question his wisdom, authority and captaincy.

The West Indies T20 teams — men and women — were crowned World T20 champions in April and the West Indies Under-19 team had won their World Cup too in February. Almost every press release quoted Cameron and members of the regional board reminding the public of the achievements of these three teams and linking it to the astute governance and leadership of Cameron. He rode the euphoria all the way to his third straight term as president, when he was re-elected unopposed.

An unprecedented treble was proof that Cameron was doing something right. Right?

Fast-forward to 2017, and everything that can go wrong had gone wrong.

The West Indies suffered the ignominy of failing to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy in England and are now in danger of missing the 2019 50 overs World Cup. They have been forced to beg players they’ve sidelined to assist them now in their time of need. The West Indies women were also dumped out of the 2017 World Cup in embarrassing fashion, losing every single warm-up match and then their first four matches, eventually losing five of seven.

The management team, including head coach Vasbert Drakes, assistant coaches Ezra Moseley and Stuart Williams and operations manager Ann Browne-John, have all been replaced.

The West Indies Under-19s also failed to make it to the quarter-finals at the ICC Under-19 World Cup currently taking place in New Zealand.

Defeats in their first two matches of the group stage saw them relinquish their crown without a whimper and defeat to Sri Lanka in the Plate final on Sunday sealed a lowly 10th-spot finish for the region’s next generation.

The West Indies president and part-time spinner Cameron must not hide on the boundary as the momentum has changed, but must own these poor results, just as he was quick to claim the great ones as testament to his leadership.

He must explain what transpired in the space of two years and also give an update on his plan, upon first being elected president, to see West Indies challenge for the top spot in the Test and ODI rankings. The West Indies are 8th and 9th respectively in those formats and slipping further.

He must explain how a West Indies T20 team that was ranked number one in the world after winning the 2015 World T20 Tournament under Darren Sammy is now in fifth place and key players on the team declining to play. He must comment on the slashing of players’ salaries in 2014 that saw them boycott the tour of India.

Do the much-improved retainer packages being offered now under new CEO Johnny Graves prove the board was wrong to cut the players’ salaries? Does the temporary amnesty offered to players prove that former director of cricket Richard Pybus’ “West Indies first” policy did more harm than good, even though its name invokes feeling of patriotism and loyalty that are worth less than a dollar in the grocery?

No more spinning, Mr President. The time to come straight is now.