More to cricket than Chris Gayle

Gordon Robinson, Contributor

The molehill of the Chris Gayle-West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) brouhaha has somehow managed to achieve mountainous proportions.

As usual in regional matters, Jamaicans are behaving like paranoid schizophrenics. How dare the WICB diss Chris Gayle? Gayle must play!

Really? For whom? Why? All Jamaicans want to see Gayle playing Test matches and one-day internationals (ODIs) again. He's an exciting player with obvious leadership skills. He's aggressive, ambitious - something numerologists could've predicted from his birth date of September 21 - and charismatic.

But there are some inconvenient facts of life we need to face squarely. It's not that everybody's out to get Chris Gayle. Gayle has failed to properly or accurately assess the framework within which West Indies cricket operates and has overestimated his own importance in the scheme of things.

Jamaica has no control over the WICB or its selection methods. The WICB, an unincorporated body, like the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), is answerable to nobody, save its members in majority vote. The Jamaica Cricket Association is one of several members unable to ensure a majority vote. Jamaica, as a nation, isn't a member.

not a WICB member

Christopher Henry Gayle, a sportsman who mustn't be led to believe he's bigger than the sport he plays, is also not a WICB member and unable to personally influence that body's decisions.

Furthermore, he spurned a contract with the WICB in order to pursue free-agency playing cricket worldwide. Accordingly, he no longer has any contractual rights to enforce against the WICB, nor does he have anything approaching a legitimate expectation, in law or anywhere else, to a right to a place in the side.

"My friend got two women

he wife and he girlfrien'.

Johnny got two women you know that is problems.

But, what really, really cause de strife,

he love he girlfrien' better than he wife.

And, every time de two a dem meet,

it is bacchanal in de street."

Most of us, in similar circumstances, would treat the wife/WICB with at least a modicum of the courtesy she may not deserve and resist the temptation, however urgent, to publicly call her names.

De gal singing

'Yu can't have pins with me;

no needles and pins with me.

I don't care what yu do, Betty,

'cause you ain't in my category.

Oh, yu can't have pins with me;

no needles and pins with me.

And yu could pray or work voodoo,

he have to give me some loving too!'

Not that Gayle should or can be muzzled. But neither can the WICB, and Gayle must understand that there are real-life consequences to bad-mouthing somebody from whom you may seek future employment (Did I write 'enjoyment'?), one of which could well turn out to be a denial of that enjoyment (oops, sorry 'employment').

And please don't tell me about natural justice; disciplinary proceedings and so on and so fifth. The WICB isn't a public or statutory body. It isn't set up by any government. It's basically a private club to which the rules of natural justice don't apply. The right to a structured disciplinary process in these circumstances can only be a contractual right, and, Gayle having declined the offer of a contract, will find no court of law insisting that the WICB treat him as if he had signed on the dotted line.

That's the thing about baked goods. You must decide if you'll eat or have them. Both aren't an option. Gayle has signalled that he prefers the freedom to play worldwide 20/20 to a West Indies cricket contract. The WICB, doubtless miffed at being asked to play second fiddle to the 'other woman', has decided, as it's entitled to do, that it'll back its retained coach who apparently doesn't foresee a place for Gayle in the West Indies team. Unless the WICB changes its mind (and bullyism is unlikely to accomplish this), that'll be the end of the story.

"Melda, oh, you making wedding plans

carrying me name to obeah man.

All you do can't get through

I still ain't goin' marry to you."

The schizophrenia arises from the confusion as to what or who the WICB represents. There's no nation named 'The West Indies'. It's almost a joke that these countries continue to field separate teams in every single other sport but yet, will pick silly squabble after silly squabble with the WICB rather than do the same in cricket. Our prime minister, who has no political or other authority in the matter, leaps into the fray in a very public way and cries foul when the WICB responds abruptly and disrespectfully. Not to mention with atrocious sentence structure and little or no common sense. But what's her locus standi in the matter?

Jamaica needs to take a conscious decision, especially in this our 50th year of Independence when we're to substitute our Jamaican Queen for the British Queen and, hopefully, our own final court of appeal for the Privy Council with the CCJ as an interim stepping stone to that preferred jurisprudential destination. If we insist that Chris must play, why not simply withdraw from West Indies Cricket and go our own way? Then we can pick whoever we want. We can pick Chris Gayle, regardless of whether or not he follows the rules; disrupts the team; or behaves as if he's bigger than the sport. And chop and change our national plans depending on in which worldwide 20/20 competition Chris decides to participate.

"Where did the naughty little flea go?

Nobody know, nobody know.

Where did the naughty little flea go?

Nobody know, nobody know."

The first set of lyrics quoted comes from Needles and Pins, recorded in 1976 by Barbadian Mighty Gabby. The music is an example of 'Spooge' (or 'Spouge') - a Barbadian fusion of rhythms from the British Isles with ska and calypso. Barbadian Dalton Bishop (known to Jamaican music aficionados as Jackie 'Manface' Opel) is generally credited with inventing Spooge in the late 1950s. It's what comforts Bajans who just can't accept that Jamaica (reggae) and Trinidad (calypso) gave the world a new music form and instrument (the steel pan) while they only contributed cuckoo and miserable customs officers.

Obeah Wedding is an ode to unwanted gold-diggers penned by Caribbean legend Slinger Francisco (o/c 'The Mighty Sparrow').

US$3 per week salary

Little Flea, covered by many greats including Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte, was written and first recorded by a Jamaican named Norman Thomas (stage name 'Lord Flea') who was discovered in 1954 working with his band at the Glass Bucket Club ('VIP', for those born after Independence) for the princely salary of US$3 per week. He migrated to the USA where he became very popular before tragically dying of Hodgkin's disease in 1959 at the tender age of 27. His seminal album Swingin' Calypsos (including Little Flea) was recorded on the Capitol Label in 1957. At that time, Capitol had the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr (who spoke highly of Lord Flea) in its musical stable.

I know one thing. Michael Manley would've recognised that the concept of a West Indies cricket team was and is a very fragile one. He would've catalysed a resolution of the Chris Gayle-WICB impasse within a month without any single member of the public knowing he was involved. This prime minister, in her public utterances before and after the WICB's pathetic response; by her decision to begin with a public statement; and her body language if not her words; has created the impression she believes the impasse is entirely the WICB's fault and Chris is completely innocent. Even should this prove to be accurate, it's no way to resolve any dispute. It's the application of a tribal mentality to a scenario requiring solution-oriented approaches.

But, then, why am I surprised? Our present prime minister is a lovely lady and a caring and spiritual soul. But she's no Michael Manley.

Peace and love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.