DURING the recent Nagico Super50 tournament in Trinidad and Tobago, broadcast globally on ESPN’s cable network, I got a call from a friend.

“This boy Jacobs… ‘im look good!” said my friend, clearly surprised.

He was referring to the Jamaican right-arm wrist-spinner Damion Jacobs.

My immediate reaction was to laugh and tease my ‘bredren’ for not paying attention.

Soon I felt sad. For I remember the days when he diligently watched not just Jamaica and West Indies cricket teams, but also the clubs on weekends.

Back then, he would have known long before now that Jacobs “look good”, in other words, has genuine talent.

The truth is that my friend and many others no longer visit cricket grounds. They watch the game on television from their settees and easy chairs.

Over the last 20 years or so, with the rapid evolution of visual technology, longer-format cricket especially has struggled to keep fans coming to the grounds. Why go to Sabina Park where your car could very possibly be at risk, when you can stay home in comfort, at no cost, no risk, and watch high-quality sport of every description?

To make matters worse, since the mid-1990s, West Indies for the most part have been a failing team. Maybe because so few of us are winners, we detest losers.

That said, up to a year ago during the 2013 four-day season, there were still bunches of hardcore cricket watchers at Sabina Park.

Not so, after West Indies cricket ludicrously shot itself in the foot by abandoning the tour of India in October. Even the hardcore had disappeared for Jamaica’s home games against Windward Islands and Leeward Islands in November and December, the first phase of the current season.

When I enquired of a fellow hardcore why he had stayed away, the bitterness was pitiful. “Mi cyan’ badda miself fi go watch,” he said. He had allowed the politics of cricket to rob him of all joy.

Some will not want to believe it, but on the two days that I made it to Sabina Park late last year I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Call it luck if you like, but when I arrived on the third and as it turned out the final day of the Jamaica/Windwards game, the pitch — which I was told had been too damp at the start — was at its best. Devon Smith, one of the great under-achievers of West Indies cricket, delighted with a fluent 74. Sunil Ambris, one of the truly talented young batsmen around, made only 30.

However, two spine-tingling on-drives off fast bowling, one burning the grass wide of mid-on, the second clearing the boundary like a tracer bullet at wide long on, will stay with me.

Then there was Jacobs, mixing a heady cocktail of leg breaks, googlies and sharply bouncing straight ones to take seven wickets.

I was back at Sabina Park for one more day in early December as Jamaica defeated the Leewards. This time I caught the second day and had the good fortune to witness one of those magic balls, seen only every now and again. The brisk medium pacer Orlando Peters swerved one away from Jamaica’s captain Tamar Lambert. Through the air, the ball seemed headed comfortably wide of off stump. Then it hit the pitch and with malicious intent, darted back from its original path into the pads of a totally befuddled Tamar Lambert — plumb in front.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with the late Allan Rae many years ago. Rae felt that the build-out of multi-storied stands would create a whirlwind effect at historic Sabina. “The ball will swing like hell,” was his opinion. I am inclined to suspect that since the erection of that towering North Stand, the ball is swinging more than ever before.

For spectators though, the North Stand can be bliss. To sit back, legs crossed, and watch cricket with that cooling breeze from the east in your face is surely as relaxing as it gets.

It’s the perfect place for the family on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Don’t worry about the bathrooms. Thanks to World Cup 2007, Sabina Park is first-class in that regard. Those men who remember playing deaf decades ago when their ladies voiced cricketing interest, will readily take my meaning.

Why, I wonder, isn’t the Jamaica Cricket Association boasting of its assets?

Now I don’t know about anyone else, but I plan to be at Sabina Park this weekend watching Jamaica against Guyana. There are a number of young players that I need to see; and who knows how much longer we’ll be seeing Shivnarine Chanderpaul, now 40 years old?

Brand West Indies may well be at death’s door, but cricket is alive and so are we. You should join me at Sabina.