Philosopher Sammy
Darren Sammy [Image:Web]
As I write this article my heart is warm, (my eyes a bit teary only due to the glare of the morning sun), as the West Indian Women cricket team has just beaten Australia in the 2016 T20 final India. Following on from the victory of the West Indies under-19 team earlier this year, and the possibility of victory by the senior men’s team in the T20 2016 final, it is clear, as Red Plastic Bag would assert, that “something is happening”.
But what is that something? It certainly is not a shift in the philosophy and practice of the management of West Indies cricket, since on the very eve of the tournament, as on uncountable previous occasions, there remained unresolved player-board tensions, CARICOM-board tensions and society-board tensions.
Whatever is happening therefore, originates elsewhere. Often, when a society emerges from a crisis, the answer is hardly in the narrow technical responses, but in the realm of philosophy.
Over the past few decades, in the depths of the West Indian crisis within and beyond the boundary, the constant complaint has been that the cricketers have shown little appreciation of the historical realities which animate the progressive Caribbean consciousness, and their relevance to their performances on the field of play.
A recent public intervention by West Indies team caption, Darren Sammy suggests clearly that our cricket leadership is now arriving at an understanding that the “power of philosophy” (light as a feather heavy as lead), is an indispensable tool in galvanising a collective to its full potential.
The promising evidence of this was seen in Sammy’s response to a comment by respected cricket media personality Mark Nicholas. In a pre-tournament article reflecting on the teams likely to win the tournament, Nicholas dismissed the West Indies using the colonially stereotyped notion that, despite having IPL history in their ranks, the West Indies were “short of brains”.
Whilst such cerebral-deficit claims are often levelled at athletes of African origin like Serena Williams, who are often credited with “brawn” or “raw power” while being denied intelligence, Sammy’s response on this occasion was deep and intelligent, and there were strong hints that he was tapping into strong Caribbean anti-colonial sentiments to galvanize his team into action.
Expressing outrage that former T20 winners, and a top-tier ranked team could be dismissed as “brainless”, Sammy asked: “How could you describe people with no brains? Even animals have brains… We're not an object… God don't love the ugly, and we are very wonderful and beautifully made”.
Whatever the outcome of the final, a major victory had already been won. It is interesting that one writer has described Sammy as a “leader, rather than a tactician”. Our political leaders busying themselves with failed, imported technical responses to the current crisis, must unearth the relevant philosophy. We need philosopher-leaders, not technicians.
CNIDOH/AO
