NAME: Jepter Lorde DATE: Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 SUBJECT: According to C.L.R.

James, there is an intimate connection between cricket and West Indian social and political life. Discuss the significance of this relationship with specific reference to the experience of decolonization and the nationalist struggle in the Caribbean. Without a doubt and according to CLR James there is an intimate connection between cricket and West Indian social and political life. In order to appreciate the statement, however, it must be put into context. The statement was made post emancipation and pre independence; it therefore reflected a Caribbean struggling for an identity and using the game of Cricket, at one time the preview of an elite class, as an instrument of upward social mobility, resistance and rebellion. To what extent, therefore, is the significance of the intimate connection within the context of a decolonized Caribbean and the nationalist movement in the Caribbean as processes? This essay seeks to discuss these two broad issues by examining both processes, their impact on the institution of cricket, the effect of the aforementioned processes on the West Indian social and political life, an evaluation of the significance of the intimate connection if any and the present circumstances. Decolonisation can be defined as a process whereby a formerly colonized people seek to remove the negative effects and influences of political, economic, social and institutional domination imposed on them by a foreign power. Post Independent Caribbean has struggled with this process, it has not been as straight forward as suggested by Kwame Nkrumah Seek ye first the political kingdom and all other thing shall be added unto you. Yes independence was won by the Caribbean states during the 1960 but veiled, subtle control by the metro pole in the form of Neo-colonialism according to Nkrumah began to assert itself. This had consequences for cricket which was at this time asserting itself as an equalizing force between the former enslaved and the former coloniser. The West Indies Cricket Board of Control (WICBC), at the time of decolonization, exhibited clear hegemonic ideologies by way of the selection process of players; clearly in an effort to influence the parasitic social relations of the white elite and peasantry playing the game. (CLRJames1968). West Indians by this time had taken a keen interest on the happenings, OS Coppin column in the Barbados Advocate at the time bought attention and reaction from the masses with

respect to selection policies of the WICBC. CLR James commitment via what was described as a great, glorious and victorious campaign to make a black man, Frank Worrell, captain of the West Indies team to Australia. The campaign was waged by James in an attempt to bring to heal racialism, which was seen by him as a hindrance to Caribbean social development (James 1968). The efforts of James and Coppin to a lesser extent reflected the views of a Caribbean in search of an identity and connection through cricket. The linkages were clearly articulated by James. The cricket hero became a demi-god, a role model, invested with expectations that suggest iconic worship and idealization. James writes:
Worrell was the epitome of it all; graceful, sincere, smart, mature, visionary, morally correct and successful- all the things a young nation state should be. He was the symbol of national pride, anti colonial achievement and socio-psychological liberation. He represented West Indians as a statesman and ambassador. The cricket hero was thus ideologically constructed within a political project, and his public conduct was expected to be supportive of those objectives.

It is therefore clear cricket became hinged to nation building, it was through acts planned and executed by James and Coppin that gave rise to a social consciousness and a belief among the West Indian that social mobility was in fact possible and available for the taking. The implications of this movement morphed into an expression to an anti-colonial sentiment that could not be contained. The power base once the control of a select few was shifting. The West Indian at this time in the development of the game understood his influence and was prepared to continually own and political capital, due to the transformation of the game. The connection at this stage of the development of West Indies cricket can be considered no less than intimate. Nationalism is considered in the popular and theoretical literature in quite positive terms. It is identified as the basis for the rejection of colonialism, for the development of the political strategy for overthrowing colonial domination, and the development of a blue print for a post colonial society based on self determination and developmental transformation according to Percy C Hintzen. Hintzen postulated that the societies of the Caribbean have in fact failed to enact the tenants of nationalism, replacing colonialism by a more egregious form of in his word super exploitation and dependency. The tenants of Sovereignty, national autonomy and self determination are

less of a reality and more so ideals, the reason for these turn of events are clear. The year is 1969 and the Caribbean is one of the most unstable areas in an already unstable world. A few key areas are catalogued: endemic racial tension in Jamaica; the secessionist movement in the Rupununi Guyana; the United States blockade of Cuba; Errol Barrow speech to the United Nation where he intimated We will be a friend to all and a satellite of none. Eric Williams describes the area as fragmented and dependent on the outside world for cultural, institutional, intellectual and economic fulfillment. Ten years later nothing substantial has changed. It is becoming clear however that a level of manipulation of the system by an increasingly entrenched class elite not identified by colour but by income, religion and shared capitalist ideologies has come to the fore in West Indian social development. Nationalist elites and their successors have employed control of the state and institutions to cater to their own accumulative and power interest. Such interest, as he Hintzen puts it, has always been consistent with the development of relations of affinity with international capital, whatever its contemporary forms. Cricket was therefore a victim of circumstance during this period. The mention of Jamaica, Guyana, United States and Barbados sets the stage for the attack on the game and its players. Post Independence and the Nationalist ideology is wavering, Manley has been betrayed in Jamaica by the middle class elite bringing pause the Non Capitalist path to development, Forbes Burnham through, and supported by, the hegemonic posturing of the USA is allowed to establish divisive ethnic structures in Guyana, that included the maintenance of institutional structures at the exclusion of the Indo Guyanese. Barbados is used as a staging area by the United States to invade and kill fellow West Indians in Grenada, by this time it is 1983 and Hilary Beckles could not have put it more succinctly
The death of social idealism and the triumph of born again religious escapism and highlight the defeat of the nationalist, regionalist projects. Within the context of failure, cricket is asked to carry alone the cross of a crucified political agenda whose leaders have lost popular emotional appeal. What we have before us now, then, is a political project in crisis and a cricket culture in transition; the synergy has disintegrated, and cricket is calling for separation if not divorce.

There is now a clear disconnect between the player and the expected responsibilities as articulated by the state because of contact by the player to

cricket in South Africa. Apartheid at the time was seen as common cause around which leaders in the Caribbean could rally around. There was condemnation but on closer analysis their acts at home bought into focus the leaders involvement in duplicity with involvement with trade with South Africa, and for supporting supremacy systems and values at home according to (Beckles 1989). The resulting impact has seen a paradigm shift with respect to loyalties and identification with cricket.. The control being exhibited by the select social elite by way of the WICBC as well as sponsors Cable and Wireless who has for years profited at the expense of the Caribbean being the sole supplier of telecommunications as well as island associations has allowed the West Indian to identify with the apartheid in South Africa and his own domestic marginalization and oppression from which there is no protection from the social elite. The working class male in the West Indies saw himself, at the time, as having some advantage over most ethnic white and Indian groups by way of natural ability and it came as no surprise therefore when loyalties shifted as the South African Cricket Board secured sponsorship for the team in 1998 after a successful players strike to allow the tour to continue. Beckles was able to articulate the situation: It would be unreasonable to expect any other reaction from them given their universal belief that their own nation states have been unable or unwilling, to offer them satisfactory remuneration. It is therefore clear, cricket being hinged to a failed nationalist agenda, giving expression to an anti-apartheid sentiment that could not be maintained only frustrated the socio political relations and dampened the intimacy between West Indian and the game. Cricket in today's global environment has been altered a great deal by new technology, capitalism and revised geo-political landscapes. In the past, England was the primary provider of international competition for many of these countries. The Victorian ideal has therefore lost its luster as Globalisation takes root, so too do the theories of nationhood that are tied to, or somehow dependent upon, cricket's age-old Victorian ideal. James's has one such theory, as Kenneth Surin explains:
The claim that cricket is "a means of national expression" is just untenable, especially in the last two decades or so, when capitalism has moved into a globally integrated phase. Cricket, as a commercial sport, has had to respond to

this transformation as a condition of its financial survival. This shift is especially evident in the way in which the modern (one might as well say "post-modern") West Indian professional cricketer now earns a living, namely, by playing several "seasons" in the course of a single year: the domestic West Indian season, and English summer of county cricket, a winter tour abroad, and if this can be squeezed in, maybe a spell playing for a state team during the Australian summer (Surin 318).

Once professional cricketers become professional athletes who tour the world in pursuit of ever-increasing financial rewards, they are no longer dependent on sentiment or post colonial ideals. This has come to the fore with the characterization of Brian Lara as the Prince and Chris Gale as the Don of contemporary West Indian Cricket (Beckles 2011). The speech attracted criticism but not widespread in the Caribbean. The Don is a Jamaican term for gangster and attempts to show Gale in this light since he has been branded as one who seeks his own fame and glory at the expense of Caribbean pride. The West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players Association have clashed on the issue with the board demanding the resignation of Beckles from the Board. In this increasingly and often times acrimonious relationship what is the impact on the West Indian. As a catalyst of social change, cricket plays a less tangible and measurable role: it contributes ideologically to the complex interplay of forces involved in nation building. To what extent, therefore, is the significance of the intimate connection within the context of a decolonized Caribbean and the nationalist movement in the Caribbean as processes it is shown according to(Guyana 1838-1985) Cricket boosts peoples morale, bestows confidence, strengthens belonging to a national community and introduces credibility at the international level. It is therefore easy to understand James and the position taken that there is an intimate connection between cricket and West Indian social and political life The ambiguity of the game is in fact a critical element for the understanding of the factors that act as the motors of social conflicts and political tension. (Guyana 1838-1985)

WORKS CITED:
Surin, Kenneth."C. L. R. James' Material Aesthetic of Cricket." in Liberation Cricket: West Indies Cricket Culture. Ed. Hilary McD. Beckles and Brian Stoddart; New York: Manchester UP, 1995. 313-341 "CHAPTER 9: CRICKET AS A TRANSFORMATIVE DOMAIN." Guyana 1838-1985: Ethnicity, Class & Gender. 206-231. Ian Randle Publishers, 2007. Beckles, Hilary McD. "THE CARIBBEAN, CRICKET AND C.L.R. JAMES." NACLA Report on the Americas 37.5 (2004): 19-22. Williams, Eric. From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969. London: Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1970. Hintzen, Percy. Identity, Nationalism and Elite Domination: The English speaking West Indies. in Ethnic Cleavage and Closure in the Caribbean Diaspora. Ed. Prem Misir, USA: Caribbean Diaspora University Press, 2000.