Return to 'dark' Dunedin

Why they have to send us quite down there?

It's probably just as well that the current crop of West Indies cricketers isn't that big on history. They already have enough of a challenge trying to be competitive at Test level without the additional burden of an exceptionally painful Caribbean memory from almost 29 years ago.

Granted the opening fixture of the two-match series against New Zealand begins this evening (West Indies time) at the University Oval in Dunedin and not at Carisbrook, where the team led by Clive Lloyd, fresh from a first-ever Test series victory in Australia, were robbed blind - it's really insulting the intelligence to just say they were victims of dubious officiating - on the way to a controversial one-wicket loss in the first match of a three-Test series.

It was the only outright result of a series that could have come to an abrupt end in the midst of the second Test at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. The tourists felt they had had enough of the umpires, especially Fred Goodall, who Colin Croft barged into ('accidentally' is the official line) during his run-up to the crease in that match, and were prepared to abandon the tour, refusing to resume play after tea on the second day before being eventually persuaded to continue, to a chorus of boos from the home fans.

Poor losers, said the hosts. Protesting against injustice, said the visitors, and the whole acrimonious episode came to an end with a 1-0 series triumph for New Zealand. It would be the last time West Indies lost a Test series for 15 years, until Mark Taylor brought his Australians to the Caribbean in 1995 and reclaimed the Frank Worrell Trophy by a 2-1 margin, at the same time formally landmarking the decline of the former undisputed kings that continues to this day.

Should it be any surprise then that when Chris Gayle's squad arrived on Monday at the southernmost Test venue on the planet (45 degrees south, four degrees lower than Hobart in Tasmania), it was miserably cold and wet, with temperatures dipping to ten degrees Celsius? I'm sure Dunedin is full of history and charm and is a delight to behold when bathed in the sunshine of a Southern Hemisphere summer. But for West Indians still haunted by that experience of January, 1980, it seems appropriate to associate that city with overwhelming gloom and a palpable sense of foreboding.

Indeed, the last day of that Dunedin Test, where New Zealand scrambled and scraped their way to a modest victory target of 104, has left us with one of the enduring images of the game, that of Michael Holding kicking two stumps out of the ground in frustration after John Parker, who is seen in the famous photo putting his batting gloves back on, was ruled not out to a concerted appeal for a catch to wicketkeeper Deryck Murray.

Looking at that image again, you wonder why none of the teams in America's National Football League didn't think of signing Holding as a place-kicker. I mean, it was a thing of beauty: feline grace, athleticism, power, fully-extended kicking leg, solidly-planted support leg and two stumps in mid-air heading in different directions. When old "Whispering Death" knocked over Geoffrey Boycott at Kensington Oval so memorably in 1981, he only knocked over one piece of timber, albeit spectacularly as well.

We can joke about the experience now, but way back then, you were enraged and powerless at the same time listening to what was transpiring more than half-a-world away via the crackling "live" radio commentary in the dead of night over here.

In the midst of all of that robbery in the broad Dunedin daylight, Desmond Haynes stood tall among West Indies batsmen, being last out in both innings for 55 and 105 respectively as the Caribbean side, minus Vivian Richards (who had returned home after the Australian leg of the tour to recuperate from injury) otherwise capitulated to the combined threat of Richard Hadlee - 11 wickets in the match, 7 by the lbw route - and umpires Goodall and John Hastie.

When West Indies last toured New Zealand in February-March of 2006, I recall former Kiwi batsman John Morrison, who didn't play in that contentious series, stating unequivocally, on air, that Lloyd's side were clearly the victims of poor umpiring, this at the same time that many other former New Zealand players and even seasoned journalists preferred to sidestep the issue, suggesting that even if it was unfair, the West Indian response was entirely unwarranted and inappropriate.

It's sort of like our own reaction to criticism over the years of West Indian umpires, or critical decisions that made all the difference to our champions prevailing over their opponents. Almost everyone likes to claim to be unbiased, even as they continue to observe through one myopic eye.

Maybe the relative proximity to the South Pole has something to do with it, but even for this tour there has been controversy in Dunedin with officials having to withdraw their 'It's All White Here' slogan to market the Test series amid strong condemnation by West Indians at official and unofficial levels who wondered how their New Zealand counterparts could not have recognised the racist interpretation that may be attached to such a phrase.

Somehow or the other, whether by means fair, foul or extraordinary, you expect something unusual to transpire over the next few days at the University Oval in Dunedin.