Jamaicans feel Walsh 'treated like dirt' (12 Jan 1998)

Monday, January 12, 1998

Jamaicans feel Walsh 'treated like dirt'

By RIA TAITT

JAMAICANS feel that their countryman Courtney Walsh was treated "like dirt" and some of them are urging him not to play under Trinidad and Tobago's Brian Lara, who replaced him last week as West Indies cricket captain.

So said Bobby Fray, sports commentator of Super Supreme TV in Jamaica.

Fray, in an interview with the Express yesterday, pointed out, however, that a group (including himself) was trying to persuade Walsh to "take the higher ground".

Fray said there is a strong feeling in Jamaica that Walsh was "undermined" by Lara and that he was "shafted." He said Jamaicans felt Walsh was "a big-hearted trier who never short-changed the West Indies team in terms of effort".

People in Jamaica had doubts, though, said Fray, about whether Lara gave his best in Australia and Pakistan under Walsh's leadership.

Fray added that if Lara was treated with hostility at Sabina Park, where the First Test against England starts on January 29, Walsh would be booed at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. He called on both nations to be mature enough to treat the issue "without it moving to the ultimate nastiness". And he suggested a sort of "twinning" of Santa Cruz and Melbourne, the respective communities from which Lara and Walsh came.

Fray, who earlier was part of a distinguished panel on the TV6 talk show Counterpoint, was asked about the kind of reception Lara was likely to get at Sabina Park.

"There is a feeling of hurt (in Jamaica) that a man of 96 Tests (Walsh) was treated like dirt. And that he was taken to Antigua to have his nose rubbed in the ground," last Wednesday when West Indies Cricket Board president Pat Rousseau announced Lara as the new West Indies captain.

Fray said it was because of this he was going back to Jamaica to plead in the interest of Caribbean unity. "To say 'for God's sake, stand up and be counted'. We failed at a referendum in 1961 at not having a unit. The great Dr Eric Williams said one from ten leaves nought. I don't want that again".

Noting that Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago achieved independence around the same time, he said the people of Santa Cruz and Melbourne must work it out in the interest of West Indies cricket.

Fray said that some Jamaicans did feel that Lara would be a better captain, but he said there was a strong sentiment that the changeover was not handled properly.

The TV6 panel also included Sir Clyde Walcott, one of the legendary Three Ws, a former chairman of the International Cricket Conference and former president of the West Indies Cricket Board; Erskine King, former sports editor of the Voice of Barbados and now Barbados' Director of Sport; and Senator Tim Hector from the Outlet newspaper in Antigua.

Fray stated that there was a Jamaican phase to which he hoped Lara would not fall prey-"the same knife that stick sheep, stick goat". He said that Lara was "tactically sounder" than Walsh, adding that there have been very few fast bowlers to lead a nation. Fray also said that Lara, because of his excellence, "his 375" had "set the world alight", but he observed that if Lara performed well in the upcoming series, people would say he was "withholding" his magnificent talent before, while if he did not perform they would say he is no good. He likened Lara's function as captain to that of Secretary-General of Caricom.

Walcott said he was "a little worried" by Lara's statement that he did not want to be winning 'down the road, he wanted to win now'. He said he could not see the current team, unless there is a drastic improvement, doing all that much better. He said a long-term development plan aimed at building the best WI team was necessary.

Hector, however, felt that the present crop of players was not that bad. But former West Indies offspinner Lance Gibbs, speaking from Miami, felt the team was not good enough. Fray said that genius was "about" in the West Indies but felt that the region did not have a culture of being able to deal with "greatness". He said the region was not utilising the "geniuses"-the Viv Richards, the Clive Lloyds, the Lance Gibbs. He also said cricket was the only sport which had the effrontery to train people to coach players to the highest level and then say to them (the coaches) ''you cannot deal with Test players because you never played in a Test''.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)