Is Dr Shallow too thin-skinned?

There is a lot of insularity in West Indies cricket. That, at least, is what many believe.

“Jamaicans have to be twice as good as players from other territories to make the team,” we often hear, or such and such a player was only picked because he is a friend of the captain or coach. It is an article of faith that selectors always prefer players from their own territory. The administrators, pundits, umpires, and fans are all biased actors who favour their countrymen over all others. This kind of talk occurs in bars, on the street, on social media, at cricket games — everywhere cricket is discussed. But I never expected to hear it from the president of Cricket West Indies (CWI).

Dr Kishore Shallow, CWI president, uttered the following words on the Mason and Guest cricket talk show on Voice of Barbados (VOB) radio, “Daren continues to get unfair criticism because he is from a small island. Some people run from that fact, but I won’t. Insularity is something that still exists in our system that I believe we need to get rid of. Some of our former greats mentioned that in some of the texts that they have put out over the years. So we can’t run from that.”

With some justification, Shallow felt that calls for Sammy’s separation from the team after just one series was unfair. Where he enters troublesome territory is when he says Sammy “is being unfairly treated because he is St Lucian”.

Firstly, how does he know that? I doubt anyone would admit that their opposition to the former West Indies captain was based on his home country. And why would the CWI president make such a controversial assertion — one he cannot prove — based on pure speculation.

Calls for Sammy’s head is most likely due to the high level of disappointment felt by the Caribbean cricket community. The call for comeuppance after such a catastrophe should be expected. Naturally, fingers would point in the direction of the coach, captain, and others in charge. For the CWI president to have chosen to react like this to something that was totally expected is a little disappointing.

His claim is also untrue. Shallow is from St Vincent and the Grenadines, which is even smaller than St Lucia. And yet all the territories that make up West Indies cricket got together and selected him as leader.

That is not to say there is no insularity in WI cricket. I’m sure there are individuals involved in the game who exhibit preferences that are not always based on merit. But I am suggesting that there is no evidence that those currently opposed to Sammy continuing in his post are making their calls based on where he’s from.

I doubt even Sammy himself thinks that. He has had to endure harsh criticism before. When he ascended to the captaincy of the West Indies team in 2010, there were pundits and fans who felt he was ill-suited for the job. The popular sentiment was that he did not make the team on merit and, therefore, had no right being captain. He was not a good enough bowler or batter to have a place in the side and so his inclusion prevented the team from being a properly balanced unit.

But he was made captain during a period of turmoil in West Indies cricket when other, more suitable candidates, had issues with the authorities, with some refusing central contracts.

I had my qualms about Sammy getting the job. Still, he was conscientious and reliable, and I understood the situation that led to his appointment. He was a good man forced into the wrong line of work. The questions surrounding his elevation were somewhat justified, but the acrimony directed at him was unfair and often unkind.

The West Indies did have some success under his leadership, achieving Twenty20 (T20) World Cup victories — 2012 and 2016. Many thought, however, that these successes were despite his presence and not because of it.

Not unlike his rise to the captaincy, he came to the job as head coach for all formats amid some controversy. People argued that Jamaica’s Andre Coley was doing an admirable job, as indicated by the two historic wins the team achieved in Australia and Pakistan. Stalwarts like Jeffrey Dujon and Carl Hooper felt replacing him was a mistake.

And maybe it was. Blame for the West Indies poor batting performance does not lie with Sammy, however; it is more complicated than that. What is clear is that there is a dearth of batting talent in the Caribbean — it has been so for a long time. That is the issue Dr Shallow should be grappling with and trying to remedy. Criticism comes with the coaching job. It comes with the president’s job as well. Jumping to the defence of the coach in this matter is unnecessary and might signify a thin skin, a quality quite unhelpful in such a public and high-profile office.

The problem with their 27 all-out debacle against Australia is that nobody who follows cricket could realistically claim to have been taken by surprise. Dr Shallow — and indeed the whole Caribbean — need to accept that cricket in the region is in a bad place.

The legends, who he called upon to step in to help, can probably provide some inspiration to the current players. But West Indies cricket needs concrete plans from the very lowest level upwards if they hope to significantly improve the product. That should be the focus of the regional authorities. They need not expend any effort providing spurious responses to fans and pundits. Criticism comes with the territory.

Garfield Robinson is a Jamaican living in the US who writes on cricket for a few Indian and English publications. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or garfield.v.robinson@gmail.com.