The Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad, during the WI v South Africa test match in April 2005

Here listening to the commentary on the 2nd One-Day International between West Indies and Zimbabwe going on in Antigua, which is interrupted mid-sentence by one of those strident commercials. Said message from our sponsor concludes with the tag line:

"Wave your flag high in the sky and show that cricket is a West Indian thing!"

I find this curious. As dismal a spectacle as West Indies cricket has been over the past 11 years, are there really people out there who need to be convinced that cricket (78 years after the West Indies were granted Test status) is a West Indian thing? The image below should dispel any doubts: who else but a West Indian would haul a 19″ television set to a cricket match?

We lost that match by 8 wickets, however, so drowning one’s sorrows in “Baywatch” reruns (or whatever else it is they’re rerunning on cable these days — shows you how much TV I watch) may not have been such a bad idea.