Apathy in Antigua

The economic importance of the World Cup to the Caribbean is unquestioned. But, as Simon Wilde in The Sunday Times comments today, “if West Indies do go out of the World Cup early, it will be a commercial disaster for the region”.

There was only one match of adult cricket taking place as well. That was on an ill-kept field less than a mile outside the village of Swetes, where Ambrose grew up and where his mother used to ring a bell every time she heard on the radio that her son had taken another Test wicket. Even from the boundary the pitch looked rough - and it certainly played rough. Balls flew through at varying heights, making it difficult for batsmen to play shots with any confidence. They took a few blows on the body.

Those waiting to bat sat on an old church pew and discussed, in patois, the merits of various West Indies players. But noone was listening to the radio for news of the progress of the West Indian reply to Sri Lanka's mammoth score. One of them wore an England shirt. I passed only one other cricket ground. Equally scrappy, it lay unused.

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Interestingly, the cricket commentators on my car radio often distinguished the West Indies players by the islands from which they come. Chris Gayle was referred to as a Jamaican, Brian Lara as Trinidadian. Further evidence, perhaps, of the fragmentation of the West Indies as a unit.