Over the next few weeks Guardian Media Sports Desk will publish a series of features from former players, administrators, writers, historians and comments on and about West Indioes cricket from around the region about what is needed to revive West Indies cricket. Here's our first publication from journalist Tony Fraser.
“Valuing,” in its ordinary meaning, is about setting a price for a physical item or service. As used by former West Indies cricketer of the great teams of the late 1980s into the 1990s, Augustine “Gus” Logie, it’s about the expression of gratitude for and with an understanding of the “value” of the players who constructed and established the greatest cricket team ever.
Logie argues that the lack of it has played a significant role in the dramatic decline of the former world champions over the past two decades. He has written a book with Emmanuel Guadeloupe, “Building Champions, on the subject as it relates to West Indies cricket.
In the continuing quest for a return of West Indies cricket to that position, even something akin to it, I spoke with the former middle-order batsman, who was one of the most dynamic fielders, especially in the “fools” position of short-leg a couple feet from the flashing blade of a batsman.
“Well, you know Tony, one of the funny things is that over the years we hear a lot about West Indies cricket and the legacy of West Indies cricket, and we want West Indies cricket to be what it used to be, a unified and winning force, but we sometimes do not realise who were those who really and truly made the West Indies the champions, and too many times we seem to not consider those individuals,” says Logie.
“We act as if it was an entity from outer space that had Western Indies cricket where it was, and many times we really forget that there’s a human element to that and that the human element had been through so many different emotions, so many different ups and downs in their lives to create what we did,” Logie says, almost feeling the pain of the great effort of all team members who now experience the trauma of an ignored legacy.
WI cricket and civilisation
It’s a feeling that was best reflected by the tears of “Whispering Death,” Michael Holding, in his contemplation of how the legacy has been thrashed by the continuing disgrace of WI cricket and civilisation over the last 25 years.
Here’s an example of the uncaring attitude, the absence of value, as demonstrated by the West Indies Cricket Board. Gus received the tragic news that his mother had died while he was playing a Test match in far-off Australia.
“At the time I was promised that I’d get home in time for the funeral. We put the funeral off, and the test match continued. I played, trusting and hoping that the authorities (WICB) would really and truly come good on their promise. They never did. At the end of the day, I had to be bailed out by an Australian who worked with the TWI; he gave me his jump seat on a cargo flight.”
Fortunately for Gus and the memory of his dear mother “having arrived here as the funeral service started, the then Minister of Sport in the NAR Government, Jennifer Johnson, “was in contact with my family and provided me with a helicopter service from Piarco to my little village (Sobo in La Brea) and the funeral service.”
Can you imagine the trauma this West Indian soldier in the interest of the nation had to go through? “And when I got there, the emotions were so overwhelming. I was in tears. I was in no condition to deliver the eulogy; I really couldn’t do it; my brother had to do it,” says Gus. A low mark reflective of the lack of valuing and caring by the WICB.
Another instance of the lack of value, this time in the sense of failure to understand the dollar value of the great team, the WICB was never able to extract real value from its performances all over the cricketing world. “Here we were the best team in the world, and there was no sponsorship organised by the board. We would be doing an ad for the David Jones store (Australia) all day and, at the end, presented with a $250 voucher to shop,” says Logie.
Does the Board really appreciate the players
This is just an example of the lack of, even the absence of, value, says Gus. The question then is, in the absence of such appreciation from the board, what inspired that team to do so well for nearly 15 years? “For me, my greatest achievement is playing for a team for ten to twelve years that never lost a Test series; the pride of such a record,” multiplied by 16 players, was the driving force of the great West Indians.
“Yes, the passion for the game was there. We wanted to be successful; you know, a loss was almost too difficult for us to take, and our reaction to that would be that guys in the dressing room may cry. Some guys found it difficult to understand: ‘How did we lose because we shouldn’t have lost’, “and they felt for the people out there who supported us all the time. For some today, defeat is neither here nor there. It didn’t matter how big the gap was in terms of the defeat. They seemed to recover pretty quickly.”
On the tour of England in 1983, the players were without contracts. “One day, manager Stephen Comacho, former West Indian opening batsman, let two men into the room where the players were, one of them being Ali Bacher (president of the South African Cricket Board). Without ceremony, he laid out to Clive Lloyd a blank check “for you to write in your own figure to play in South Africa,” says Logie.
“Confusion in the room,” says Logie. “Those who said it was ‘madness’, those who wanted to hear more, and so on. Manager Camacho went on the phone to the WI Board, “and before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’, we received contracts for the tour.”
Clear disrespect and a lack of “valuing” the worth of the great West Indian team, and it was not the last occasion that a team went on to the field without contracts. In modern times in India, WI led by DJ Bravo chose to abort the tour as contracts were not settled beforehand.
In retrospect, it is not strange that a number of WI players, minus the likes of Lloyd, Richards, Holding, Roberts, Logie, and others, made vulnerable by a lack of value, accepted what was then referred to as “blood money.”
“Many of the youngsters today are saying, ‘I do not wish to be in that situation. It is about me now; it’s not about the sacrifices anymore for Western Indies cricket.’ “Many of us sacrificed our careers for being successful in West Indies cricket,” says Logie as a team and for “the pride of scoring 6,000 or 7,000 runs; that’s different today.”
Putting the Team first
Here’s another example of a sacrifice. Captain Richards sought a volunteer to temporarily replace the injured Desmond Haynes in the short-leg position a couple metres away from the swinging bat while making it known such a person had to be crazy. Gus accepted but quipped that he had all his wits about him. He took three catches in his first stint at “silly mid-on,” but thereafter got his nose broken for his bravery in that position and a cut millimetres below his right eye while batting against Australian fast bowler Craig McDermott.
The great Malcom Marshall made it instantly known that “Haynes will never again field in that position,” says Logie. In an ODI against Pakistan in 1986, Logie was the first player to win the “Man of the Match” award for his fielding, three catches, and a run-out.
Another factor which Logie cites for the dominance of the West Indian team of the period was the leadership of Clive Lloyd, who stood for the players, valued their importance, would take them out to dinner on tour, counselled with them, and would ask Logie on the sidelines of a lost game what the problem was and get the answer that the players were not into the effort. “Clive put the proposition to us that we had to decide on what we wanted; we never lost another game in the series.”
Valuing players and their contributions
Talk about the lack of valuing of players and their contribution. Gus Logie was made interim coach of the WI team for the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. He coached the team to winning the trophy. He was then replaced by the Australian Bennett King, contracted along with his support staff; no room for Logie.
“Gus, that sounds to me like the colonial thinking that whatever/whoever is from outside is better than that we can produce here; am I right in my thinking?” “Yes, yes, there’s no two ways about it. I have no doubt about that. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. That’s just the realities of the situation,” responded the “Little, Big Man” from the asphalt town in the deep south.
On the issue of insularity, Gus admits it did exist in the team of his time, “but the fact that we were a successful unit, I think, that sort of quelled it a bit.” I questioned Logie on an issue I find to be a retarding factor amongst West Indian players of the present, that being their incapacity to think and speak publicly when compared not only to our players of the past but in relation to contemporaries from other nations.
Captain and great batsman Vivian Richards once said if he had a choice of who to take into battle with him on the field, it would be Logie: “This is a guy who is way off my league in terms of ability and status,” Logie’s description of the gap between himself and one of the greatest batsmen of all times.
“But I think the mindset was that we want to win for the team, and we will do whatever is necessary for the team to win. So I think Viv appreciated the kind of effort that I put into the team,” says Logie.
Gus also identifies fitness under the direction of Australian-born physio, Dennis Waite, as a contributing factor to the greatness of the team: “There were those who complained, but we had to do it, and we had to face the likes of Croft and the other fast bowlers in the nets: ‘Man, you want me to pitch it up, and when I am in the match I am bowling like that; you have to man-up,’” Croft insisted.
