BY A fortuitous confluence of circumstances, the 30th anniversary of the establishment of CARICOM and the 75th anniversary of the West Indies cricket team are being celebrated at the same time. The history of both institutions reflects the quest for a regional integration model, which can facilitate the rapid changes of a new world.In its formative years, the West Indies cricket team was not only about action on the field of play but off-field challenges to social mores of the old colonial order which sought to stifle the creative spirit of the people of the islands. Nowhere is this journey more vividly documented than in C.L.R. James' seminal work: "Beyond a Boundary," wherein cricket becomes the metaphor for the journey towards a new social order.
While many of the issues which James examined four decades ago may be perceived to have been resolved, (e.g. membership in today's West Indies team is far more eclectic and less class and colour-conscious), much remains to be done. Likewise, the CARICOM mission seeks to find unified strength and common strategies to move the region from old economic and social paradigms to contemporary mechanisms for survival.
The challenge to attain economic viability, enabling a better quality of life for the region's people, has to be undertaken by nationstates, not individually, but as units of a collective whole, at a time when even powerful nations are forging alliances so as to bargain from a position of strength. C.L.R. James put his finger on the pulse when he wrote: "West Indian society isn't easy for outsiders to understand."
The truth of this is most clearly demonstrated in the numerous periods of self-doubt and even self-negation, which accompany the times when the fortunes of the West Indies team fall below standard. Then, the very people of the islands from which the players come, turn against their own. Sharp and biting are the assessments of the players' powers. The same holds true for the ebb and flow of political direction.
Then, just when it seems that fortunes can fall no lower, a re-birth, a new flowering of talent and energy come to pass. Re-vitalised, the people of the West Indies return to the crease, as it were, to bring glory once again until the next challenge comes. In continuance of the cricket analogy, James dares us: "What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know? West Indians crowd to Tests, bringing with them the whole history and future hopes of the islands."
As CARICOM and West Indies cricket celebrate their respective milestones, the call is to build on the foundation of the past, toward attaining a bright future. The journey will still be undertaken as individual players, as separate states, but as one, when the team is called to take the field yet again. There is indeed unity in strength, when the power is fuelled by the collective will of individuals and forged into a unit with a common purpose and intent.
In the immortal words of C.L.R. James: "So there we are, all tangled up together, the old barriers breaking down and the new ones not yet established, a time of transition, always and inescapable, turbulent. In the inevitable integration into a national community, one of the must urgent needs, sports, and particularly cricket, has played and will play a great role."
