by Ervin Williams
Can anyone of us truly imagine the Caribbean region without cricket? Already we are losing the very African culture that gives us our identity; well just imagine losing the very sport that we are known by. It is my belief and probably that of many others that in spite of the music and the unique culture shared across the region; there would have been a struggle for international recognition without the glorious game of cricket.
No one is certain as to when and where cricket began but there is a body of evidence, much of it circumstantial, that strongly suggests the game was devised during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex. It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children’s game for many centuries before adults around the beginning of the 17th century increasingly took it up.
There is also a theory that originated from ancient bat-and-ball games played in the Indian subcontinent, which were then transported to Europe via Persia and the near east by merchants, and eventually developed into the game of cricket in England (Wikipedia).
Cricket became the corridor or the platform for many of the Caribbean region’s young males. Many have enjoyed good financial earnings from the sport and there are still opportunities for young males to do the same.
Cricket today, does not enjoy and share the same passion and excitement among the peoples of the Caribbean as before, but we still owe it to the many young men in the region to do all in our powers to offer the chances of playing the game.
Even though some of my people throughout the region do not hold warm feelings for our imperial head, Great Britain, a lot must still be attributed to the colonial ruler, especially along the avenues of sport. The Caribbean’s binding glue is the glorious and uncertain game called cricket, and the British brought this game to the region.

caribbeannetnews.com