Old demagogues and young people
published: Monday | December 2, 2002
THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE RELUCTANCE of the respective island cricket boards to select younger players to lead is the prevailing attitude of the leaders of the Caribbean. The Caribbean is hardly a place where bright, young people with fresh ideas are given ample opportunity to serve. All we have is a bunch of old demagogues who do not represent the future yet will not expose young people to avenues of leadership.
Caribbean backwardness is demonstrated in the failure of the West Indies cricket team because it manifests the fundamental weaknesses of regional governments. These old heads should learn to recognise when their time is up and step aside. The fact that we cannot see a group of likely successors to Hooper indicates to me that young players are being marginalised by national boards. Short-sightedness, bias and incompetence dominate our society and that's why we are going nowhere.
Nations and organisations that succeed do so because they have a succession plan. Our philosophy in the Caribbean is that "I will rule till I die." My views from where I stand in a developed society, this is the primary cause for the failure of black leadership in the region. There of course have been many successful black leaders, but I say this because historically, we have done a terrible job of governing ourselves. We are power-intoxicated and corrupt and constitute our own worst enemy.
