Barbados Diary

They Are Going To Do It Again!

With a huge roar, the stadium rose as one and stayed thatway for a while before settling back down again. "What happened, Daddy?" piped a young voice behindme. Daddy replied: "We got Tendulkar out. We are going to win". "Who is Tendulkar, Daddy?""He is India's best batsman. He is almost as good as our Lara".

The man on my left was not so sure. He warned loudly "Look who is walking in. It is Laxman. He alonewill beat us!" This was a born pessimist. I first noticed him earlier when he had grabbed the empty seatnext to me to watch the replay of the Sarwan catch that Jaffer questioned on one of the TV sets in thestadium. He was a big man and after watching the replay he announced to everyone around "He is notout!" Then he put his head between his hands and moaned, "They are going to do it again!" Isaid "Do what?" "Lose this test match" he replied. "But they are 292 ahead!"."You haven't been watching a lot of West Indies cricket lately. They have lost from better positions thanthis. Look at the way your openers have got to 70 so easily"

After watching the West Indies dominate almost every session of play from the first day, it was soothing tofind out that it is not Indians alone who fear that their team will let them down badly.

Barbados' Favourite Sons

A tiny, palm fringed island of 250000, the premier culture of Barbados is obviously cricket. It makes upfor its lack of physical size by the number of legendary cricketers it has produced: the 3Ws, Hall &Griffith, Sir Garfield Sobers, Greenidge & Haynes, Garner and Marshall. The stands and bowling ends at theKensington Oval are named after these favorite sons. The roundabouts on the highways also feature some ofthese names. The recently erected statue of Sir Garfield in full flowing batting follow through on theroundabout named after him is probably the island's most distinctive man-made landmark, making a strongerimpression than the political landmarks in the capital city of Bridgetown.

The fall from grace of West Indies cricket seems to have coincided with the fall of Barbados cricket itselfwith only the addition of Pedro Collins for the 3rd test preventing the island from drawing a complete blankin the team composition. Crowd feeling for the West Indies team usually supercedes parochial loyalties butthere has been the occasional display of petulance, like in the case of the crowd boycott of the 1992 testagainst South Africa to protest against the exclusion of mediocre local lad, Anderson Cummins.

Considered the most knowledgeable of all the West Indian cricketing nations, it only takes a passingreference to the great game to melt the features of even the most stoic of its citizens. The taxi drivers whotransported me to the stadium and back proved to be master analysts of the game with an encyclopedic knowledgeof past and present cricketers from every country. The comments you hear are not just the run-of-the-millpredictions or bandying of favorites. They rival some of the most insightful articles written by respectedcolumnists.

East or West Indian?

Crowd behaviour at the more expensive stands is impeccable to a fault. Even the raucous Kensington standsdo not seem to be generating the amount of noise that one has heard of in games past. Then, when the WestIndies were smelling blood and the enemy wickets started falling, the crowd would get behind the bowler andurge him on and probably contributed much to the downfall of the visiting team as much as the bowler. This wasnowhere to be seen during the Indian collapse of the first innings. I did hear the occasional "Bounce hishead off!" but there was really no heat or heart in it.

Like in most Indian test venues, the crowd was very partisan with hardly any sound greeting the shots thatflowed from Wasim Jaffer's second innings bat. Maybe it was the tension caused by fear that the Indians maypull off an unlikely win that inhibited their fairness. Of which one hears quite a bit. Especially in thecontext of the East Indian West Indian population that has a significant presence in Trinidad and Guyana. Pasttest matches in Georgetown and Port of Spain involving teams from the sub-continent have seen considerablesupport for the visitors from residents of East Indian descent. In an insightful article featured in thecwcricket.com magazine that was sold in the stands, BC Pires points out that such displays of disloyalty stemsfrom the electoral politics in those lands where voting has always been on ethnic lines. Another factor is thefeeling among the Indian population that they were mostly excluded (but for a handful) from the West Indiesteam based on racial prejudice. This explains why third, fourth and fifth generation East Indian West Indianssupport a team that bears only a superficial physical resemblance to them instead of a team called their own.I feel that superficial resemblance too goes a long way. I could not help feeling a little bit of dislocatedpride in the performances of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul even though they came out wearing redhelmets.

Island Life

Food and taxi rides are expensive in Barbados and surprisingly so. While the standard of living is muchbetter than that of India, Barbados still thinks of itself as a Third World country. The streets and highwaysare narrow like in India and traffic is quite heavy and congested though nowhere as much as it is in India.Despite its small size, it does take in excess of an hour to get from the placid West Coast on the Caribbeanto the stormy East Coast on the Atlantic. The buses do get crowded and are well packed on weekdays but aremuch more secure with doors closing while in motion. Other forms of public transport include vans andminibuses. The vans are the most fun with thumping reggae or rap music playing at ear splitting volume as itsdrivers speed like skiers going downhill and conductors hustling pedestrians to hop on. Most times, the rideris required to hop on and off the van while it is in gentle motion to avoid breaking traffic or attracting lawenforcement. The aisle of the van can be used for seating through collapsible/extensible seats. While theconductors (usually teenaged boys/girls) ensure minimal disruption by seating people according to destination,there are occasions that require the entire aisle column to be vacated and stowed, to let a last bencher exit.On my very first trip on one of these taxis (in fact the trip from my hotel to Kensington Oval on the morningof the first day) I banged my head sharply on the roof of the van while executing one of the"reconfiguration" exercises required when a last bencher exited. I was pleasantly surprised with theamount of solicitousness displayed by fellow travelers and conductor.

The capital city of Bridgetown, situated on the southwest corner is the only "big city" on theisland. The rest of the island is mostly countryside or seaside villages and resorts. Life is extremely laidback and moves at a very slow pace. Time passes very slowly too. Strangely enough, I encountered many localswho expressed impatience with the way things happened. Visiting from a place where urgency is the normrequires a significant tune down. On the morning of the first day at the Oval, I made my way to the ticketoffice to collect my day passes. There were about 7 or 8 people already standing at the counter with no one onthe other side. Eager to get to my seat to soak in the atmosphere before the first ball was bowled, I wasshifting from one foot to the other and straining my neck to catch sight of the practicing cricketers on theground through the window. Many officials came in and went out (including the match referee Ranjan Madugalle)but paid no attention to us. With only a few minutes to go before the start, I raised my voice and said to noone in particular "I paid for my tickets from abroad and I am waiting for my daily passes. Can someoneplease help me?" An irate woman responded "There is only one person here and she is busy on thephone" But she promptly came over and took my name and within a few minutes another woman came out andhanded me my passes. I had no idea why the others were waiting. I got the impression that they were groundofficials and were waiting for their staff passes!

The Best of Both Worlds

The main reason why one would watch a match live at the ground is for the atmosphere or that there is nolocal TV coverage unless the grounds are full. This is the case with most places except India. Barbados is nodifferent. Given the number of empty seats, there was no local TV coverage. Some stands at Kensington Ovalwere equipped with TV sets that allowed those inside to get the best of both worlds. To watch the live actionand the TV replays (sans commentary presumably to avoid players having to listen to expert comments on theirplay as they were going through the motions). This was great but the problem was that the cable connection tothe TV in front of me was loose and could not be screwed in. Some kind of taping material was required to holdit in place. Periodically someone would invariably step on it and sever the connection. The connection thatgot broken was the main line and not the spur onto the TV. Hence all TV sets downstream would also get a blankblue screen. Strangely enough, this caused no reaction among the crowd who just accepted the situation withequanimity. Those who were sitting close enough to the joint were not in sight of the TV set and hence wereunaware and/or did not care. I got up from my seat many times to place the cable pin in the socket but gottired of doing this and gave up after a while. I cannot imagine such indifference/restfulness in other places.

West Indian Celebrities

The Lara vs Tendulkar debate is as hot in the Caribbean as it is in India and elsewhere. Understandably,there is a bias in favor of the West Indian. But Lara does not enjoy the same God-like status here. Perhaps,he does so in his native Trinidad. I got the feeling that you could proclaim loudly "Tendulkar is betterthan Lara" in the stadium and come away unscathed.

One of the media stories that broke out on the last day of the Trinidad test was that Lara had asked theboisterous Trini Posse to stop playing their music between overs so he could concentrate better. This wastaken as a sign of the importance he attached to the occasion. In Barbados, I heard that the story was onlypartially true. What Lara had indicated to the Trini Posse was that they should not chant his name as thisdistracted him. He never asked them to stop playing.

The appearance of cricket celebrities in the stands is met with minor excitement. Joel Garner was spottedchatting with some friends at the top of the stands. He obliged autograph hunters as do most West Indiesplayers. I wondered if I should go up to him and ask him if the story about him punching Wavell Hinds in themouth in order to drive sense into the youngster was true but thought the better of it. I did not want to beat the receiving end of similar treatment. And from such a big man too. But I was struck by how easily theWest Indians could wear their star status without losing their other privileges. They can walk the streets, goshopping and live their normal life without fear of getting mobbed. True, they receive their share of waves,shouts, headlight flashes etc. but not to the extent of annoying them. The players recognize that they owetheir fame and wealth to the fans and the fans in turn express their adoration without excessive idolatry.

Last Paradise?

The word "Paradise" is an often-abused word, especially in travel brochures containing picturesof turquoise water and sandy beaches and palm trees. In that sense, Barbados can easily qualify as it containsall those ingredients. Stripping away shallow definitions and probing deeper, I ask myself what are theingredients of a paradise on earth in practical terms? Something that is not too fantastic that it cannotexist. A small island. Not too many people. Who work hard for a living but have enough wealth to live inreasonable comfort. With no huge gap between the rich and the poor that would create resentment, unrest, crimeetc. I am told by visiting Trinidadians that the other West Indian nations are not as gentle or safe asBarbados is. One has to be extra careful about one's belongings and in some places (like Kingston, Jamaica),travel only in groups. I am sure that there are other such islands in the world that would qualify based onthe criteria above. Which brings me to my last criterion. Do they live and breathe cricket?