ST LUCIA: In the film Fire in Babylon, there is a beautiful shot of a young Michael Holding --- silky strides of a lean, athletic man as he effortlessly runs in to bowl. “What you are looking at is an African individual with African rhythm,” cricket photographer Clyde Cumberbatch had famously said about the fast bowler in that film. “You don’t find them anymore,” Cumberbatch mourned during a lunch conversation at the Antigua Test last month.
Cumberbatch was slightly wrong. Those lithe athletes are now almost always found in track and field events in the Caribbean, or, maybe in basketball and football. Cricket features lower down the order. It would be too drastic to say Usain Bolt’s magical success has triggered this shift. It certainly expedited the process. But track and field was always the foundation for all natural athletes in the Caribbean. West Indies cricket losing out on its athleticism, along with its dominance, was essentially self-inflicted.
STRONG GRASSROOTS PROGRAMME
Among the Caribbean countries, Jamaica is head and shoulders above the rest in athletics. Since their Olympic debut in 1948, Jamaica has won 17 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze in athletics. From Arthur Wint (1948, 1952) to George Rhoden (1952), Don Quarrie (1976), Deon Hemmings (1996), Veronica Campbell-Brown (2004, 2008), Shelly-Ann FraserPryce (2008, 2012) and Bolt (2008, 2012), Jamaica’s athletics history is endowed with golden achievements. Trinidad and Tobago has two gold, four silver and eight bronze to their name. Even Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia have a strong athletics culture.
Jamaica’s dominance in athletics stems from the strong school programmes. The flagship programme is simply called ‘Champs’, an inter-secondary schools championship held over four days in the last week before Easter at Kingston’s National Stadium. Almost 20,000 people turn up every day.
{{/usCountry}}Jamaica’s dominance in athletics stems from the strong school programmes. The flagship programme is simply called ‘Champs’, an inter-secondary schools championship held over four days in the last week before Easter at Kingston’s National Stadium. Almost 20,000 people turn up every day.
{{/usCountry}}It’s considered the biggest competition where a young athlete can prove oneself in front of a huge turnout, which includes scouts for American colleges. If selected by the scouts, these athletes go to the US for higher education on scholarships and either take up track and field or basketball as a career. Look no further than Grenada’s Kirani James, a University of Alabama student, who is the defending Olympic 400m champion.
Track and field clubs in Jamaica are also a big factor in young athletes opting for it. The Racers Track Club, a pioneering institution where Kim Collins, Bolt and Yohan Blake started, is a huge draw for youngsters. Their summer camp in July drew hundreds of applicants despite costing almost $700 per week.
Even tiny St Lucia has around 12 clubs, each with 60-65 trainees. “Between January and July there are around 15-20 inter-club events based on which the St Lucia team is selected,” Rockets club assistant coach Cuthbert Popo told HT.
Previously, some of the athletes who went to the US on scholarships ‘disappeared’, but now that Jamaica have their own set of coaches, and athletes led by Bolt and Blake training at home inspires youngsters.
FOLLIES IN CARIBBEAN CRICKET
Cricket, on the other hand, has failed the new generation at almost all levels. The age-group tournaments organised by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are in a shambles. Last year, the three-day U-19 matches had to be reduced to a one-day affair. School matches are played with less fervour and the general disinterest was spiked by West Indies’ decline.
“That is a huge factor why we don’t have a steady supply of athletes,” said Rudyard Simons, executive committee member of Kingston’s Melbourne Cricket Club, which is over 100 years old. “But the next generation also seems to be built on a fast track. My children are not interested in Tests but like T20 because it’s action-packed. There are players who are not interested in Test cricket like Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo, who have shown they can still earn money,” he said.
Basketball has spread in the region thanks to attractive scholarships offered by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) of the US. Not having central contracts in domestic cricket till two years back also hurt. “The situation was such that if you don’t play for West Indies you don’t earn money. It will take some time to reverse the trend of players moving away from cricket,” said Simons.
“And then there was the case of West Indies players not playing county cricket anymore. “It is rumoured the English didn’t want too many overseas players crowding their league, but I have my own take on that,” he said.
Not being able to play county cricket meant there wasn’t enough opportunities to make a professional out of a greenhorn. And only recently have clubs like Melbourne employed full-time licensed coaches. Reforms have come but slowly and only time will tell whether the natural athletes of West Indies return to cricket.