Turning a blind eye

If this is a thinking person's game, who's doing the thinking for Trinidad and Tobago?

No, not in the sense of the tactics in the dressing room or on the field or in supervising practice, but in the more fundamental sense of instilling a culture of discipline that rewards commitment and penalises, yes penalises, the complacency and skylarking associated with indiscipline.

Maybe this comes across as exceptionally harsh and unforgiving towards a senior national side that has enjoyed considerable success over the past five years, including a huge financial windfall at both team and individual levels courtesy of the generosity of a billionaire Texan benefactor who now has just about had enough of West Indies cricket, or more specifically, the West Indies Cricket Board.

Still, the point must be made that as much as the successes in the shorter forms of the game are deserving of celebration and praise, until it is decided that first-class honours are no longer at the top of the list of trophy priorities there will be a hollow sound to all of that trumpeting until the current squad can add to the historic triumph in 2006 that ended a 21-year drought for T&T in the benchmark competition.

Nor is this an attempt to make capital of an ordinary batting effort in between the showers in the current match against Jamaica at the Queen's Park Oval, although it again exposes more than a few shortcomings in that the home side could only muster 202 on a comparatively benign track against a bowling attack without Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Nikita Miller.

At lunch yesterday, the Jamaicans were already well poised at 74 for 1 before the rains came again, and if they were to go on to claim first-innings points without Chris Gayle, Brendan Nash (both century-makers in the corresponding fixture last year) and even Carlton Baugh to bolster their batting line-up, it would represent an immediate reminder that potential and a consistent track record do not themselves bring about success without the continuous hard work that generated those expectations in the first place.

Of course, there's a long, long way to go in this 2009 campaign and, by the way, taking first-innings points in Barbados last week is no mean feat given the Bajans' impressive overall record in the competition and their ability to put together a greater team effort than would appear likely with the comparatively modest records of many of their players.

But whether or not the bowlers rally under Daren Ganga's leadership to skittle the Jamaicans under that 202 target, the question still has to be asked in the relatively early stages of a lengthy campaign: are there players in the current set-up whose competitive edge has been dulled by recent successes and considerable financial rewards, who can get away with resting on their laurels and their backsides because of a culture that lacks the backbone to hold them to account?

I ask that question on the basis of discussions with people whose fingers are very much on the pulse of local cricket and local cricketers - great and small - over the last few days at the Oval. Not that it is any great surprise to hear that one hardly practices anymore or that one already feels he is bigger than the game.

However, if it seems to be such common knowledge, how come nothing really is being done about it? How come those who like to gripe and grumble and complain in hushed tones behind people's backs prefer to stay quiet when faced with an opportunity to right the obvious wrongs? No-one is saying those in the know should engage in the sort of scandalous public tell-alls that we in the media and the general public just love. But if people know that something is wrong and choose to turn a blind eye, and if officials see nonsense going on and fail to take decisive action, then they are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

This goes across the board. Not just in cricket but sport in general. Not just in sport but so many other aspects of life. We have an insatiable appetite for mauvaise langue yet at the same time suffer from an almost chronic indifference when it comes to taking real action.

It seems much easier to whisper all the salacious behind-the-scenes stuff and then puff out our chests and say "I told you so!" than to bring the issue to the attention of those who can make a difference, assuming that we can't do so ourselves, before it develops into a full-blown crisis. If there are people who see winning titles or winning the popular vote as compelling reasons not to pursue acts of indiscretion, indiscipline or impropriety, then it explains why we really have nowhere to go as a people, win, lose or draw or whether or not so-and-so party prevails at an election.

Should the national team rally to get the better of Jamaica in this match on the last day today, great. Should the PNM hold on to power or the TOP prevail in Tobago, all power to them. But if a consequence of that is to look the other way instead of tackling problem players and problem areas, then really, whatever success may come today or in the near future will make no difference whatsoever to solving the deep-rooted problems in this country that threaten to overwhelm us.