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I’ve been going through files from the West Indies Cricket Board of Control from the 1950s.
I was fortunate to get access to these rare documents which go back 75 years, and I am revisiting them because I feel a sense of responsibility to put the information surrounding the career of Roy Gilchrist into the public domain.
When I was researching the life of Sir Frank Worrell for the biography, Son of Grace, I came across material on the ill-fated fast bowler, Gilchrist, within these files.
I shared some of the documents with Clem Seecharan for his biographical work (with Ian McDonald), Joe Solomon and the Spirit of Port Mourant—a comprehensive study of the historical context of the unassuming cricketer, who passed away in 2023 (at 93), a year after the book was published.
Clem practically reproduced in their entirety the documents I passed on. That would have been the first time they were made public, I believe.
Front, from left: Sonny Ramadhin, Frank Worrell, John Goddard (captain), Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Alf Valentine.
Photo: Getty Images.
Last year, the English writer, Simon Lister, published an excellent biography of Worrell, and he cited the material from Seecharan’s book with regard to Gilchrist’s story. But you would have had to read either or both books to find the information.
In my own biography of Worrell, I described it briefly, particularly to make the point that Gerry Alexander had been unfairly blamed for ending Gilchrist’s career.
I mention these things to make the point that considerable information is already out there—but there is more regarding Worrell’s role. That is what I will be focusing on when I write the essay. (I also plan to write one on the role of Learie Constantine in West Indies cricket.)
Anyway, this column is not about Gilchrist—at least not directly. It really seeks to compare some of the similarities of the issues surrounding West Indies cricket then and now.
The fifties were an extraordinarily volatile period for West Indies cricket. Although there was always discontent about the racially designed hierarchical structure of both team and management, the inequities were starkly obvious with the emergence of the three Ws: Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott.
(via Skynews.)
The battles were not simply on the field; there were several streams of antagonism—particularly common among alpha males. Players didn’t get along with each other; administrators clashed with each other, and the relationship between players and administrators was full of contempt.
What little trust existed was brittle, so that friendship and camaraderie were fragile. A case in point was the bond between the three Ws, which was fractured by the end of the fifties, after Walcott was named vice-captain for the tour of England in 1957 and was deemed to be high-handed with his team-mates, including Worrell.
In today’s environment, how much has changed?
(Copyright ICC/ Getty.)
Cricket supporters have vented every which way over the ignominy of the Test score of 27 all out against Australia. Although we have never sunk so low, our team has suffered some crushing blows against Australian attacks in the past.
(In the turbulent and riven fifties, Australia won 4–1 and then 3–0 in the five-match series.)
More than once, Brian Lara spoke about the toxicity between the WICB and the players. In 2017, giving the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture, he spoke of that disharmony “as the one cancer that I believe has destroyed West Indies cricket over the past 20 years”.
Not long ago, he again raised the issue, saying: “I don’t think the West Indies Cricket Board or the administration has done anything meaningful to keep players loyal to West Indies cricket…”
Lara mentioned the abrupt retirement of Nicholas Pooran from international cricket (at 29) and the proliferation of leagues which offer much more lucrative contracts for players to illustrate his point that players needed some kind of security.
Interestingly, if we go back to the past, we can find similar situations regarding money.
Frank Worrell was prepared to take a team to apartheid South Africa in 1959, Lawrence Rowe led a team there in the early 1980s, Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket attracted all the big names in international cricket in the late seventies.
The Boards at those times were all felt to be indifferent to the professional needs of the players.
You can take or leave Lara’s analysis of the pox that plagues West Indies cricket—there is no gainsaying that things are at a wretched stage.
Photo: Sydney Herald.
On the ESPNCricinfo website, the opening paragraph of Nagraj Gollapudi’s article on the two-tier model for Test cricket reveals how important the lucre is.
“The ECB is not keen on a two-tiered World Test Championship (WTC) in which relegation could lead to England not being in the same division as Australia or India, thus potentially depriving them of their two most lucrative rivalries.”
Writing on the Wired868 website, Earl Best gives a dismal analysis of West Indies’ chances at coming up in the top 6 category. Lost in the Rubble, he called it, invoking the words of West Indies’ most profound twelfth man, David Rudder.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
Part of the ongoing discussion is about what the Big Three are prepared to do financially to help lift the game in countries with few resources. Given the trends, it’s precious little.
How the current Board sees its relationship with players, the future of the game and West Indian supporters will tell in its next move.
Several dismal factors have affected the health of West Indies cricket. Many have spoken about the need to strengthen the youth cricket system to provide for some continuity during transition periods.
Speaking with the presenters of the Caribbean Cricket podcast a few days ago, Carlos Brathwaite shared some useful insights into the ailments.
There is much to be done. None of it can change overnight—it requires true commitment and vision to the greater good.
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Vaneisa Baksh is a columnist with the Trinidad Express, an editor and a cricket historian. She is the author of a biography of Sir Frank Worrell.
