Adding insult to injury

I played in a number of first-class matches plus many limited-over games, as well as numerous club games of two-innings and one-innings, over a period of 30 years.

At no time in my pursuit of pleasure and/or success on the field of play did I ever come across a cricketer, whether professional or amateur, club cricketer or schoolboy player, who became so angry as to disrespect his captain on the field of play.

This unseemly behaviour occurred during the third ODI between West Indies and England at Kensington Oval, Barbados, in a series which was tied at one victory each.

Additionally, this display, by a senior West Indian player, to a teammate who kindly brought him a towel to dry his sweating brow, was churlish.

Alzarri Joseph, the leading fast bowler on the West Indies team and its vice-captain, was the villain of the piece. It was the fourth over of the game when Joseph disagreed with his captain, Shai Hope, and kept insisting on a particular field placement, which Hope told him to leave as it was. The fast bowler, who is always thin-skinned, expressed his annoyance instead of getting on with the game.

Eventually, the over got going and he produced a wicket with his fourth ball, when Jordan Cox could not negotiate a scorcher, which he edged to the wicket-keeper, Hope.

Joseph refused to celebrate with the rest of the team, who congratulated Hope.

When looking to salute him, Joseph was already standing at the top of his mark, sulking, waiting to bowl his next delivery. He had literally ignored his fellow players. It was the height of discourtesy.

What was even worse, at the end of the over, the Leeward Islands fast bowler walked off the field into the pavilion, adding insult to injury.

In all my cricketing experience I had never witnessed such bad manners by a player. That type of attitude, carried to an extreme, could have done irreparable harm if not dealt with right away.

He went back on after the fifth over. The punishment given to Joseph by CWI (a two-match suspension) did not fit the enormity of the insult to the sport of cricket in an international match under the representative cricket flag of the WI, plus the flag of Barbados blowing in the wind. Maybe CWI believed it was done for “personal reasons.”

It’s all well and good for Joseph to apologise, but they were only words that anyone could have written without conveying the shame and deep feelings of all those he hurt.

I must register as one of those, having proudly represented the WI and TT.

I am aware of cricket fans in the USA, Australia, England and India especially, together with the Caribbean diaspora, who follow WI cricket worldwide, both regionally and internationally, who will have wondered at this type of attitude and quite wrongly linked it with our struggles in international cricket.

On the brighter side, in that same game, the WI team brought off a fine victory, if only to prove there’s talent in the territories.

The still-green Keacy Carty has all the attributes to play cricket in all its formats, and only needs words of encouragement, with proper coaching to tighten slight defects in technique which only need minimum adjustment, and with his fine application, plus cricket intelligence, he will be able to adapt and play marvellous innings at every level. Constant practice, when added to his approach and self-confidence, would make him a class player in the immediate future.

My wish is for the various coaches who are now visible on WI teams to know what to leave alone and what to introduce.

Batsmen at this level know enough to make the improvement to their game on their own and sometimes should be left alone except for being given encouragement.

The same could be said for the left-handed batsman Sherfane Rutherford, who was very consistent in Sri Lanka and carried his batting form into this series. He has been batting with loads of confidence.

This is a virtue that WI players have not been showing for quite some time and it was noteworthy that this Guyanese player, who is just 26, exhibited excellence to add to his sense of values in playing an innings, although it was in a losing series.

To improve, WI cricketers need more Test cricket in the West Indies.