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Journalism of Courage
You can sense it as soon as you walk into the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. This is where this World Cup’s ‘group of death’ will play out over the next two weeks. This is where India will play tricky Bangladesh, and the fighting Lankans.
I look up to the skies, then to the stands, they have been done up, bright red plastic seats nailed down to the steps, and huge, plastic ICC drapes over the names of sponsors who have lent their support to this stadium over the years — India have a good Test record here.
There they are now, at the nets. The Lankans, who, by the time you read this, would have rolled over the cute little, or make that large, Bermudans. Jayasuriya, Vaas, Murali, Atapattu, Mahela, poor Bermuda.
Soon, Tom Moody, their young Australian coach trots up to face the cameras for the customary pre-match routine. The questions are usual, Moody admits that Trinidad, hot and humid, would be a bit like home for the Lankans. He is a bit worried, though, about the untested surface.
Moody drones on, I try to throw him off track. Three Australian coaches are expected to feature in the semi-finals, your thoughts, I ask. I get a pause, a stare and a quick return jab. “Well, I suppose there are a lot of Australian coaches out there.” Ouch. I wander across to the Bermudans, who have begun to trickle out into the middle. I bump into Gus Logie. Remember him? The short, skilful, stylish middle-order batsman of that awesome Caribbean side, which pulverised India in the early 80s?
How does it feel to have the cameras chasing the other team this time? How does it feel to be coach of a team that everyone knows will be thrashed? How does it feel when you meet your old teammates and tell them that you are coach of Bermuda?
“I really don’t care. That’s the way life is. I really believe these guys will give their best, play their heart out. That’s all that counts for me at this level,” he says. Logie fumes when I tell him what Michael Holding told me about the “minnows”.
“It’s never been a question of whether they should play,” Holding had said. “You are missing the whole point. Of course, they should play. But it’s a question of how many. I believe that the ICC this time has got too many associate members in the fray.”
Logie replies, “Tell me, you give everything up, take time off from your job, your family, to play a game that very few others in your country play. Sometimes these guys are even laughed at. So what’s the incentive? A few matches with Canada or Scotland? C’mon, be real. This is it, the World Cup, the time to rub shoulders with great players like Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar. That’s what’s going to keep cricket going in these countries for the next four years.”
The logic is sound, maybe they do deserve it, I wander away. But still, put your hands on your hearts, and tell me honestly: how many of you watched the Sri Lanka-Bermuda match last night?
