Daren Ganga's Trinidad & Tobago show how West Indies can heal their rifts

Trinidad & Tobago's joyful progress to the semi-final of the Champions League could not have carried a clearer message to the dolts and ne'er-do-wells who have been responsible for the decline of West Indies cricket.

Trinidad have played with unity and passion in the Champions League only weeks after West Indies, embroiled in a prolonged power struggle between the board and players' representatives, brought international cricket into disrepute by sending a reserve team to the Champions Trophy in South Africa.
T&T's impressive captain, Daren Ganga, has spoken intelligently about the "great legacy" of West Indies cricket and how proper investment is long overdue to respect and continue that legacy. It cannot be guaranteed that the G&T-sipping crowd are listening to T&T. But the warning could not have been starker, with Ganga visualising a break-up of West Indies cricket into individual nations if the various stakeholders do not get their act together. "I tell you that if that doesn't happen then it is inevitable that countries will go separately," he said. "West Indies cricket cannot afford the turmoil that it has now."
Ganga is not the first Trinidadian to voice such sentiments. In July, T&T's chief executive, Forbes Persaud, admitted that if the West Indies Cricket Board continued to blunder along then he favoured Trinidad requesting permission to play as an individual nation, just as Trinidad's football team do.
It is an outcome that cricket's major nations rightly fear. The International Cricket Council has charged the WICB's new chief executive, Ernest Hilaire, with sorting out the mess – and he already seems to be making progress, with optimism abounding that a full-strength West Indies side will tour Australia next month. Hilaire has a Masters degree in economics and an MPhil in international relations from Cambridge University, both of which should come in handy when dealing with the various islands' perpetual squabbles.
It is a natural response for an English cricket watcher, having seen Sussex and Somerset depart from the Champions League with barely a whimper, to shout for a Trinidad victory in the semi-final against Cape Cobras – and indeed the final to come – in the hope that it will help to shake the Caribbean into a recognition that with proper organisation, modest funding and a determination to put in the hard yards, it can arrest its decline.

Twenty20 cricket can be the salvation of West Indies cricket, satisfying its need for a quick sporting fix, just as it dominated one-day cricket in the early years, winning the first two World Cups in the late 1970s.
The crisis is deemed important enough for Caricom – an economic alliance of 15 Caribbean nations, as near to federalism as they get – to join the debate, calling West Indies cricket "a major integrating factor" in the region. The WICB has been ordered to call a meeting of stakeholders to discuss the future of West Indies cricket.

And while this takes place, with perfect timing, Ganga and his flamboyant T&T side – a team greater than the sum of its parts – hammers home the importance of team spirit and the collective effort. "One thing we have going for us is our patriotism and our national pride and that has been the hallmark of this team,'' he said. "Ask any team that is successful – the right sort of chemistry and team spirit is essential and that is what we have demonstrated."
West Indies cricket has traditionally increased Caribbean cohesion, an antidote to the nationalistic prejudice of the individual islands. But that unity is a fragile thing. Caribbean federalism has never succeeded on a wider scale. The unity of West Indies cricket was a natural outcome during and immediately after British rule. It was nurtured by strong captains with a team instinct, men of vision such as Frank Worrell and Clive Lloyd.
But this unity can easily be dissipated because of the incompetence of administrators or the individualistic attitudes of captains. The 2007 World Cup also failed to regenerate West Indies cricket because ticket prices, disgracefully, were put out of reach of the local public, the competition dragged on for months, and overseas spectators were put off by exorbitant prices.

The Twenty20 World Cup is heading for the Caribbean next spring, which gives the West Indies a chance to atone. This time the competition is short and sharp, and ticket prices attractive. All it needs is for West Indies to play like Trinidad to kick-start the recovery.

Ganga is unlikely ever to be a good enough player to be a convincing candidate as West Indies captain — although batting limitations never stopped Mike Brearley where England were concerned. Ganga led the West Indies in two Tests against England in 2007, losing both, and has not played for West Indies since a dismal tour of South Africa later that year.

But Ganga's leadership of Trinidad has already shown West Indies the way. Who knows, as a saviour of West Indies cricket, he might one day deserve a mention alongside the likes of Lloyd and Worrell.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/oct/21/trinidad-and-tobago-west-indies