The rot continues
trinidadexpress
Fazeer Mohammed
Friday, January 20th 2006
Symptoms of a chronic illness. Tony Cozier writes what he believes is a scoop and Joey Carew is embarrassed by the premature revelation on the West Indies cricket captaincy. Leo Beenhakker refutes suggestions of wholesale changes to the national football team for the finals in Germany and Lasana Liburd highlights another curious twist in the tale of World Cup tickets.
And just so we don't get carried away believing that our local sporting, social and political issues-both uplifting and deflating-are of paramount importance to us, much noise is made and much visual prominence given to a Soca Warriors fete being hosted by a foreigner who struggles to keep certain body parts to herself.
Listening to all of the trumpeting, pontification and sermonising emanating from liming spots and media houses alike, you would think the sky is falling. But just as one of the principals in one of these dramas said last week, not only was yesterday yesterday and today today, tomorrow is also tomorrow, when much of the recent hot air would have evaporated and been replaced by another series of apparently critical, earth-shaking issues that will surely be the stuff of fire and brimstone, at least for tomorrow.
Cozier, as a journalist and broadcaster covering West Indies cricket for almost 43 years, needs no advice from me on how to cope with the fallout of a big story backfiring. It's just one of those things. Carew, as convenor of selectors, just has to take the licks being dished out as a result of his slip of the lip while also avoiding eating poteegal for the next week or so.
Why? Because, as I found out when set up by a sworn enemy in primary school before a game of hide-and-seek, it is impossible to keep a low profile having eaten the pegged fruit.
Incidentally, I have learnt indirectly from a French teacher that the colloquial name of the said fruit is not derived from Portugal (as most of us seem to believe) but from the two French words "part egale", literally meaning equal parts, and obviously referring to the almost identical pegs of this popular aromatic fruit.
By the way, how come, in a country where we can enjoy poteegal, guava, mango, sapodilla and soon-to-be-in-season pommerac from our own backyards, are we so obsessed with apples and grapes?
I suppose that attitude also explains the Janet Jackson hype.
Why am I making light of what are being described as raging controversies? Simple. None of this is new, even for someone with relatively little experience in the ways of the world.
The only difference between the latest issues and similar ones previously is that there is more noise and clamour about it from the media, the end result still being that very little in terms of fundamental change takes place.
People quarrel and get on, callers call in, statements are released, media conferences are held, then everything boils down like bhaji and we light the fire under the next pot pretending not to notice that all the hasikara made over the last issue resulted in not one iota of difference.
Meantime, the almost irreversible decay continues.
Liburd is doing what his journalistic instincts and principles demand that he should, which is to seek out what he perceives to be the truth, even if it is unpopular.
But this is a culture of expediency. Even the ugliest sores can be covered with baby powder for a while, and in an environment where the lessons of history leave no lasting impact, no one will take notice of what lies beneath so long as they are sharing in the wealth, at least until the sore erupts again.
Tickets for sale. Tickets not for sale. Tickets overpriced. Tickets oversold. Nothing new, although I have to say I much prefer local journalists doing the investigating than having to read Andrew Jennings' take on the whole issue last week in that condescending, corner-of-the-mouth, wink-of the-eye manner that the British seem to have perfected after centuries of telling us what is best for us.
Even as we hear that there may be dissension in the ranks of the West Indies Cricket Board over the selectors' nomination of Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the captaincy again, the overriding feeling remains one of cynicism that all will appear fine and dandy in a couple of days, that everyone will eventually toe the line humming the mantra of collective responsibility.
Whether it is Chanderpaul, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara or Tantie Merle, one man (or one woman with a pretty parasol) will not make a significant difference in the fortunes of the senior regional side.
Fish rots from the head, but strong leadership- either on the field or in the boardroom-can still lay the foundation for real change later down the road, however.
Yet true leaders are thin on the ground, while the handful with even a modicum of inspired, principled thinking are mentally beaten into submission by the hordes of mindless followers, preoccupied only with fighting for the scraps thrown in their general direction.
West Indies cricket will continue to struggle for the foreseeable future, with or without a Cozier scoop.
More bacchanal will follow Trinidad and Tobago to Germany, even if Liburd gives up his job tomorrow. That's just the way it is.
So what do you do? Have a poteegal. It reminds me of happier times.
fazeer2001@hotmail.com
