The Editor, Sir:

I am a Barbadian expatriate living in Tacoma, Washington, United States of America. Like many West Indians, I have read C.L.R. James' Beyond the Boundary. I am not writing to you to preach cricketing virtues to those of you who are cricketing luminaries and icons in the sport. However, I am writing to you because I have pride in my heritage and for the national identity of the West Indies.

You see, every time the West Indies cricket team loses without a fight, we the people of the West Indies hurt in a way that this current crop of West Indies players can't understand. How could we go from the 3Ws, Sobers, Headley, Lara, Kanhai, Richards, Lloyd, Marshall, Roberts, Holding, Garner, Croft, Ambrose, Walsh, Rowe, Kallicharran, Fredericks, Greenidge, Haynes, Richardson, to the disgraceful representation of West Indies cricket by this current group of cricketing nomads?

It is as if this is the movie Ground Hog Day and we are all forced to relive these woeful cricketing absurdities over and over and over. I find it laughable that people think Ramnaresh Sarwan, a perennial 40-run batsman, can be a captain of a West Indies team. The greatest insult to West Indies cricket is that none of these young players truly understand the importance of their selection to a West Indies team. It is as if playing cricket borders on the playfulness of fancy sunglasses and the ability to frolic with all the various members of the opposite sex throughout the Caribbean.

Regional identity at stake

Regional identity is at stake in West Indies cricket. History in the future will not judge these dismal cricketing efforts kindly. Those of you who have been at the helm of West Indies cricket and have failed to manufacture pride, honour, character and a sense of historical perspective in these current players, will find that systemically, this nonchalance will invade our island nations and our families.

Win, lose or draw, West Indies cricket invades the souls of West Indians. Those who possess the temerity to turn the other way, and to settle for cricketing mediocrity and malfeasance, may very well find that this lack of commitment from our young West Indies cricketers is in essence pervasive, infectious and pandemic to our culture in the West Indies.

I am, etc.,

VICTOR R. CALLENDER

vrcallen@yahoo.com

Via Go-Jamaica