Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2012

20 It seems like an age since I spoke to the Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society about my work at TCCB – probably some 17 years ago. I hope no-one fell asleep! I always felt that cricket was a more interesting subject for the Society than cricket marketing, but it certainly provided me with an opportunity to combine a working life with a passion. I left ECB in 2003 (when cricket was still on Channel 4 – that long ago!) and have been a sports marketing consultant ever since. Three years ago, my good friend David Morgan called me to say that the West Indies Cricket Board was looking for help on their marketing – and I have been working with the Windies for the past 2 years. I first visited the Caribbean in March 1981 when England was touring the West Indies and up against a fearsome attack of Roberts, Holding, Garner & Croft. The batting wasn’t bad either – Greenidge, Haynes, Richards & Lloyd to the fore! Botham’s England drew a rain affected 4th Test in Antigua that year but lost the series, and although I had been hooked on Caribbean cricket since 1963 (when I saw my first Test Match at Lord’s when Dexter, Close Trueman & Shackleton took on Worrell, Butcher, Hall, Griffith & Sobers in the most famous drawn match) I had now experienced cricket in the West Indies first hand – nothing short of joyous. Until the late 1980s, there was little to distract a young boy from one of the main island pastimes. There was little American influence in the region. No cable television. Usually just one free to air station per island. Few affordable flights to whisk many young West Indians away to North America. Little sport to watch on TV, no computers or mobile phones….so plenty of time to play and easy to be spotted and rise up the ranks to the island team. Remember that in those days, Barbados alone could probably challenge the world. Since the 1990s all that changed. By now Australia had inaugurated the first national cricket academy and they were becoming a force to be reckoned with. Whilst Lara, Walsh & Ambrose kept West Indies competitive, others were catching up. Meanwhile a cultural change was taking place in the region. People often refer to West Indians latching onto basketball but that was only a very small part of the whole picture. American influence grew in the islands through property, banking and tourism but cable television did not just bring basketball. It also brought MTV, fashion, the rise of the ‘bling culture’. Young West Indians could now travel more easily to the US and Canada, helped by the tying of local Caribbean dollars to the US dollar. US College sports scholarships, especially for basketball and track & field, offered a funded degree and early recognition of athletic prowess - but not at cricket, these talents were in effect lost to the game. They could also sit at home and log onto their computers. They could watch basketball, yes – but English Premier League too. They simply got used to the couch as well as the playground. In recent years, an obesity problem has emerged in the Caribbean. Not just a cricketing but a social challenge. The grass roots were therefore weakened as other interests and aspirations took centre stage. Athletics had always been a source of national pride (and remains so nowhere more than Jamaica!) but soccer also became a gateway to the world’s second biggest global stage as Jamaica (1998), then Trinidad (2006) qualified for Soccer World Cup Finals. West Indies cricket administration was slow to Where have all the Windies gone? Terry Blake, October 2011 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society