The months of May, June, and July will hold much interest for the lovers of West Indian cricket. The start of the two-Test series at the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground on Wednesday will spiral the tenseness which always prevails when our lads take the field.

Even if we take a queue from the recent home Test series success against England, the flow of continued success can hardly be guaranteed, now that we are just a few days away from the first Test. For a start, our three key players, Chris Gayle (captain), Dwayne Bravo (star allrounder) and Fidel Edwards (most penetrative fast bowler), have all opted for the Twenty20 IPL financial extravaganza, with coloured clothing, white balls and dancing girls intermingling with hefty sixes and super catches.

The decision to split the England tour with the IPL was the ideal situation for the players’ pockets, but maybe not so healthy for the touring team in England. Already, we are hearing of the light ankle injury to Skipper Gayle just a few days before the Test match, immediately bringing memories of previous occasions when he had to opt out of matches because of injury.

If one is to follow Bravo’s explanation, it would seem that the selectors (or the board) felt that his injury may not have repaired for the start of the series. So he decided to undertake what I consider a more rigorous form of cricket in order to test his fitness and at the same time, bring satisfaction to his two masters. I was surprised that our main fast bowler Fidel Edwards was allowed to join the “Bollywood” players, knowing his recent history of injury and the type of conditions which were available for the IPL.

But, with their superstar status, they will join the team three days before the Test and throw the squad into forward gear towards a repeat of the success story which they had in the Caribbean. Then came the announcement that India and Bangladesh will tour the Caribbean in June and July respectively. The fact that it is only ODI’s and one 20/20 match, seemed to have been accepted as an opportunity to expose the stars to countries like Dominica, St Lucia, Grenada, and St Kitts Nevis.

Of course, these countries will see these matches as money spinners to their local associations, and support by their fans, all of whom enjoy the game as much as anywhere else in the Caribbean. I suppose that one may view the decision to omit the more recognised venues as playing down the importance of the tours. History will reveal that both India and Bangladesh always enjoyed the opportunity to play in T&T and Guyana for reasons other than cricket. However, this will not be a high priority for making such decisions.
From a T&T perspective, I think that the most important signal lies in the amount of use which will be made of the Queen’s Park Oval, The future Brian Lara Stadium, The Balmain Cricket Centre, Guaracara Park and even the now popular UWI ground.

After the enormous sums of money spent on these venues, it would appear as though the venue’s owners will have to go in search of activity in order to make their investments meaningful. As we cast that issue aside as trivial, Donald Peters the CEO of the WICB has resigned his position, with an immediate acceptance from the Board and a quick replacement to the post in the former WI opener and board Secretary Steve Camacho.

No reason has been forwarded by Dr. Peters, but the show must go on under the direction of Camacho. It will be true to observe that the WICB appeared to be well-organised and efficiently run during the years of the likeable Guyanese and WI opener. I view this step as productive, even before he lifts his thoughts to improving the situation. Who knows, he may even be able to offer some advice to the current openers, whose faulty technique needs the attention of an expert.

And back to the Lord’s Cricket Ground, where life on Wednesday morning will be vital for both the players and the fans. The first three matches have not provided a confident picture of our batsmen, probably because of the dicey English wickets at this time. Lord’s may be a different story and who knows, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Gayle may utilise their experience to change the look of our previous scoresheets.