Abandoned Test still haunts Kingston groundsman
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Getty Images
A piece of notoriety has seized Joseph and it will accompany him to his grave, for he was the groundsman here 11 years ago when the Test match between West Indies and England was abandoned after only 56 minutes. All sorts of things are abandoned, including cars and ships, houses and careers, even spouses and babies. But not Test matches, writes Paul Weaver, who spoke to the groundsman Charlie Joseph, in the Guardian.
There had been almost 1,400 of them in 121 years of Test cricket when the game was called off in January 1998, after 10 overs and one ball. England were reeling at 17 for three, but if that sounds familiar the circumstances were not. On a new clay surface that bore an uncanny resemblance to a strip of corrugated iron, the ball flew, from a length, towards the throat, or scuttled along the ground, so Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, who could never be negotiated with comfort in the most benign of circumstances, were unplayable.
If Kevin Pietersen was at all concerned about how he would be received by team-mates in the England dressing room post-"Mooresgate", maybe he should spare a thought for a player he is likely to encounter during the current Caribbean tour. That man is Brendan Nash, an unlikely face in the West Indian team because, when he made his Test debut against New Zealand in December, he became the first white man since Geoffrey Greenidge in 1973 to play for West Indies, writes Matt Gatward in the Independent.
"I guess when I first arrived the Jamaican people weren't so understanding of what has happened," Nash said. "It was a bit unusual. The reception I got from the local crowd was probably not that great. [He was met by shouts of abuse from the stands during trial matches]. I was always asked what would happen if I took the spot of a young Jamaican player. I am taking the spot of a younger player, but hopefully that younger player can learn from me and maybe take things that I do on to his game to make him a better cricketer. I had to break down a few barriers and I think once the Jamaican people realised that I wasn't there just for myself they let down their guards a bit and welcomed me a little bit more."
On a few things in the disparate lands that form the Caribbean all are agreed. Their cricket team is rubbish, the game is in crisis and it cannot be allowed to continue. They have been agreeing on this for 15 years and the continuation has been virtually unchecked, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.
Go anywhere in the subcontinent from the back streets of Multan to the maidans of Mumabi, or indeed in parts of rural England and impromptu games of cricket are to be seen. In the Caribbean, except where there are Asian communities, they are not. There are abundant reasons: a losing team, ill conceived development programmes, the so-called American influence and as Sir Garfield Sobers pointed out in these pages a while back the changing culture which sees kids, like kids everywhere, using their time in different ways, such as watching telly and playing computer games.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo