History, as the historians are fond of saying, has an uncanny knack of repeating itself. Even cricket history. And the present plight of Brian Lara in relation to his place on the West Indies team is the most recent example.
Rewind to the year 1970. India is due to visit the West Indies. Garfield Sobers is the West Indies captain. But would the tour come off as scheduled?
Not if Guyana's President, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, used his power to ban entry to his country of Garfield St Aubyn Sobers. For Burnham issued an edict:
Sobers, the West Indies captain, would not be allowed past into Guyana unless he first apologised for taking on a coaching assignment in Southern Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe.
Faced with the challenge of multi-racialism at a time when white supremacy was the rule in neighbouring South Africa, Ian Smith, the Prime Minister, declared independence from Britain, and set up a government that was a carbon copy of the detested apartheid policies then in force in Capetown.
It was in this setting that Smith invited Sobers to take up a coaching assignment in Southern Rhodesia. He would coach black youngsters. Sobers said "yes" and set off a storm of disapproval in the West Indies and among the newer nations in the world of cricket.
In a column that I wrote in this newspaper at that time, I commented: "The whole trouble with Gary Sobers is that he doesn't give a damn about anything, except, of course, playing cricket. Otherwise how could the West Indies cricket captain be so utterly insensitive to say the things he has been saying about Rhodesia and to pose happily shaking the hand of Ian Smith whose attitude to his fellow Rhodesian blacks is well known?
"How could Sobers admit that he played before white only audiences and give the foolish excuse that black people in Rhodesia are not interested in cricket but in football?
"How dare he boast that Ian Smith has invited him to visit Rhodesia any time and he would be welcome?"
The India tour was in jeopardy. Talk was that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had expressed her concern.
It was no doubt due to this and the determined Burnham stance that our Prime Minister, Eric Williams, got into the act. He drafted a letter of apology addressed not to Burnham but to the West Indies Board for Sobers to sign:
"When I was invited to play cricket in Rhodesia, I thought of only two things-my love of cricket and my hope that I would be able to contribute to greater West Indian dignity.
"I had not realised the deep feelings of the West Indian people in this issue of Rhodesia. I have since learned of the wider international issues involved on the question of Rhodesia.
"If I had known or thought of these matters before going, I would never have gone to Rhodesia. If another opportunity came my way to go to Rhodesia, I would not now accept it."
Wes Hall, the great West Indies fast bowler who was on a coaching assignment in this country, was asked to take the letter to Sobers for him to sign. He agreed and flew off to Bridgetown. Sobers signed and the crisis was over.
The late Jamaica Prime Minister, Michael Manley, refers to this incident in his book A History of West Indies Cricket. He described Sobers as "politically unconscious" adding:
"To say there was an uproar in the Caribbean is comprehensively to understate what took place. Caribbean political leadership in government, in opposition, and of course in the lunatic fringe, found one voice in which to denounce Sobers for going to Ian Smith's rebel, racist nation.
"When Sobers became aware of the reaction to his visit he was aghast. It had simply not occurred to him that he had done something wrong.
Manley commended Sobers's apology as "patently sincere", adding: "A grateful Caribbean grabbed the apology with both hands. He was, after all, the first complete Caribbean folk hero, after George Headley.
"The thought that he might be lost as a consequence of a political gaffe was intolerable. For the great majority, the incident was forgiven and promptly forgotten."
Sobers had another response for his fans and his critics. In the Georgetown test against India, he scored 108 in the second innings in an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 170 runs with Charlie Davis who scored 125. Sobers also took three wickets for 72 runs in the India first innings. The match ended in a draw.
And so we come to Brian Lara 35 years later with the Georgetown test against South Africa coming up and the likelihood, he would not be representing the West Indies this series.
Charlie Davis's brother, Bryan, in his comment in the Easter Catholic News bowled a bouncer at Lara: "Had it not been for Lara's involvement with C&W in a personal contract he signed two years then all these problems would not have taken on the intensity that they have.
"Lara," Davis adds, "has a lot to answer for and no matter what a wonderful player he is, and he's truly the best, no man is an island and no individual is greater than the game he plays."
I say with the calypsonians: Sans humanite!
