WHAT sheer pleasure and joy there was to be had watching the "real" West Indies in action at Newlands and the Wanderers over the weekend.
Only three faces remained from the outclassed team of honest triers which did duty in the Test series. In their place came half-a-dozen power-hitting allrounders and the most devastating opening batsman in the world.
SA’s response to the arrival of the Caribbean big guns was to drop most of theirs. Sorry, "rest" them. A capacity crowd at the Bull Ring paid good money to park their cars several kilometres from the stadium and tolerate officious security to watch the contest and many of them felt short-changed by the absence of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
The Proteas coaching staff are right to talk of "managing workloads" for their multiformat players but the supporters are right, too, to ask how hard it can be for the players to play a Twenty20 in the biggest stadium in the country in front of the most enthusiastic and committed crowd. After all, it is their job and they are extremely well rewarded for doing it.
Imagine if we could all take a rest from filling teeth, doing the books and teaching English to children for fear of burnout.
At least it is not a question of loyalty or commitment from the Proteas players. Fortunately, the award of national cap remains the single greatest honour a South African cricketer can achieve, with the Test cap infinitely more precious than the one-day international cap and the Twenty20 cap’s value significantly below that of the one-day international cap.
Nonetheless, David Wiese is a South African cricketer and damn proud of it — rightly.
Not so the West Indies, not any more. Where once stood men steeped in the honour of representing all the people of the Caribbean, there now stand men whose priorities are to maximise their earning potential in the limited window their playing careers provide. Can they be blamed for that?
Equally, can the islands which provided them with the initial means to perform on the greatest stage in the first place be blamed for resenting their subsequent abandonment?
When Trinidad and Tobago first reached the final of the Champions League, Kieron Pollard was their star performer. He burst into the international consciousness with an explosion of sixes and canny deliveries and the contract offers flowed in similar abundance after the tournament. Pollard was hot property and wealthy. But when Trinidad and Tobago asked him to play the following year, he wasn’t available to them.
It has been a similar tale with several more of the big names. Sick and tired of making sacrifices for scant reward when far better contracts are available elsewhere, the best West Indians are looking after themselves.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) may be on the verge of financial bankruptcy, but its moral and ethical vaults are similarly empty. Respect and appreciation go a long, long way with professional sportsmen who battle paranoia and insecurity daily. Show them some love and they’ll do anything in return. But treat them like chattels and you’ll end up with a change room of vengeful serpents.
For example, the WICB is the only international administration which contributes nothing to players’ wives or partners joining them on tour. Nothing. Even the conservative suits of the United Cricket Board of SA introduced such a system in the late 1990s.
It wasn’t perfect at first and there were some awkward times when young players arrived at the airport with a girl they’d met in a wine bar the night before, but there was no doubting the principle of enhanced performance in the presence of loved ones.
But there has been nothing from the Caribbean board. Test captain Denesh Ramdin flew his wife out to join him in SA at his own expense and barely broke even during the series as a result. The administrators who make these rules, however, consistently fly themselves around the region and award lucrative catering and accommodation contracts to their friends. They make hay while the cricketers play, and if they don’t play they drop them.
So Pollard and Dwayne Bravo won’t be at the World Cup because they chose to play on their terms.
And with respect in such short supply, nothing is likely to change any time soon. Which leaves us with no choice but to watch the best West Indian team thrash SA "B". Enjoy.
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