Cricketers no longer gentlemen

Every day we keep our fingers tightly crossed, look to the heavens and pray that there is some sign of light at the end of the dark tunnel in which West Indies cricket has been lost for so long.

Instead, the prospects get gloomier as the administrators and the players match each other for sheer ineptitude at every turn. They are, of course, inseparably linked.

The fiasco of the selection of several over-age players for the 1998 Under-19 World Cup was followed by the ignominy of the team's defeat by Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and a tenth place finish.

The confusion over the captaincy preceded the drubbing in Pakistan in 1997. The players' strike and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB's) limp capitulation a year later led on to the disgrace in South Africa. The recent long-distance bickering between manager and chief selector coincided with the whitewash in New Zealand. And so on and so forth.

The latest nonsense to further entrench our status as the laughing stocks of world cricket and undermine what little credibility the WICB has left and further depress those who helped create the proud legacy of West Indies cricket, occured last week.

After charging, hearing, convicting and sentencing Philo Wallace, the Barbados captain, to a one-match suspension for showing dissent at the umpire's decisions in the match against Trinidad and Tobago, the WICB was obliged to retract when the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) pointed out that there seemed to be certain 'discrepancies' in the way the matter was handled by match referee Anthony Lalacksingh.

The WICB said it was satisfied there were substance in the allegations against Wallace but that 'procedural errors' by Lalacksingh had 'precluded the imposition of a ban'.

Wallace was reported 'to be all smiles' afterwards. He did well to suppress his reaction. All over the Caribbean and the rest of the cricket world they would have been either doubled up in one of those good old Charmer belly laughs at the absurdity of it or sadly weeping at the shame.

The initial issue concerned two issues that, both by first-hand observation and trusted, objective and widespread reports, have been in disturbing evidence in the Busta Cup this season.

They are the behaviour of the players and the standard of umpiring. Hopefully, its administrative blundering will not deflect the WICB from its responsibility of urgently addressing both.

In both first round matches in Barbados, it was commonplace for bowler and close fielders not so much to appeal to the umpire for a decision as to demand it with a screaming, high-fiving grand charge in his direction. When their war dance didn't get the desired response, it was regularly followed by open-mouthed, foot-stamping disbelief.

My information, from listening to reputable radio commentators, reading believable writers and talking to former players, was that this was standard operating procedure everywhere.

The match most highlighted was between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana at Guaracara Park where the conduct was reportedly unbecoming of West Indian cricketers, some of them the most prominent.

Colin Croft reported on Cricinfo, the game's most popular Internet site, that Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Guyana captain no less, had to be led away by Brian Lara, his opposite number and, in this instance, the peace-maker, or else a set-to with Richard Smith might have come to blows.

Yet only three instances have come to the attention of the match referees - Wallace's and two by the Jamaicans, Franklyn Rose and Wavell Hinds, who were duly dealt with, apparently under the correct procedure.

If unchecked, it is an infection that quickly spreads. There is need for urgent action - and not only concerning the players.

As any sportsman knows, such situations are exacerbated, if not created, by bad, weak or, worse, officious officials. Players are adamant that such individuals should be as liable to censure as they are and the WICB must now be prepared to quickly remove from the panel those who are clearly not up to it.

All of which does not exonerate those who throw tantrums or abuse officials. Wallace would not be alone in pleading that, in a finish as tight as that at the Queen's Park Oval last Sunday, it is difficult to remain calm in the light of dubious decisions. But he, and all other captains, must know, and be made to know, that, under the laws, they have a specific responsibility to uphold the spirit of the game.

The WICB needs no special procedure under its code of conduct to sternly repeat that message to all players.