Dehring was in Broward County, Florida on Friday, one of the venues for the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup to be staged later this year, delivering the keynote address at the 50th anniversary banquet in celebration of Rowe’s epic triple century against England in 1974.
Amongst the West Indies legends present were Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Andy Roberts, Dr., the Hon. Courtney Walsh O.J., Collis King and Joel “Big Bird” Garner, all former teammates of Rowe, along with Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
Rowe was one of several West Indian cricketers who were members of a rebel tour that played matches in then-apartheid South Africa in the early 1980s. Poorly paid and unable to break into a powerful West Indies side, Rowe and others like Collis King, Sylvester Clarke, Colin Croft and Ezra Moseley among others opted to earn between USD$100,000 and US$125,000 to play across two tours from 1982-83 and again from 1983-84. The participants received life bans from Caribbean cricket in 1983 and in many instances, were ostracised socially and professionally.
Dehring, in saying that it was time for Rowe to be forgiven, also lamented at where the banquet was being held.
“This banquet celebrating 50 years since the herculean triple century by one of Jamaica’s greatest sporting icons, should have been staged in Jamaica with the full and unequivocal support of the Jamaican government, cricket association and people of Jamaica. That it is being held in Florida and not in Jamaica, ironically mirrors the embarrassing fact that the T20 cricket World Cup is also being staged this year in Florida, and not in Jamaica. “Look at what we have come to!” he remarked.
He added further, his disappointment at the mural at Sabina Park celebrating some of Jamaica’s most famous cricketers with Rowe noticeably absent.
“Black South Africans forgave their oppressors years ago through their Truth and Reconciliation process. To see a mural unveiled at Sabina Park honouring 19 of Jamaica’s greatest cricketers, and no Yagga Rowe is as abhorrent to the ground he helped make famous, as it is to the glorious game itself. It is time to end this farce.”
“To put it in perspective,” he continued, “‘Jamaicans still sing, dance and celebrate to Vybz Kartel and Ninjaman music. There is no protest or public outcry when those songs play on the radio or at parties, the works of art of these convicted murderers that our children sing word for word! Yet forty years later, we are trying to erase from history the body of work of a man whose only real crime, if any, was to continue to earn an honest living in his profession, after his employers had let him go, in the only place willing to pay the value his services were worth.
“Other West Indian “rebels” went on to play again for the West Indies, even at Sabina Park, cheered on by my fellow Jamaicans; if Yagga had chosen to rob a bank, he would long have been out of jail. It’s time to let him go. Free Yagga,” the former Jamaica youth batsman concluded.
In assessing the difference between the fitness levels of some of the current crop of bowlers and those who dominated oppositions in his time, Lloyd admitted that the players of yesteryear had the advantage of much heavier involvement in English County Cricket.
“Joel Garner was a big fellow, but he was terribly fit. Walsh was a big fellow, tall fellow, but he was fit. Those guys were accustomed to playing in County cricket, where you would have to bowl four spells a day and travel the next day and start again. They got accustomed to that, our guys are not accustomed to that,” Lloyd told the Mason and Guest radio program.
He, however, insists there should be no excuses when it comes to athletes being in the very best physical shape for cricket.
“We should have our young men fit, we have the climate and we have the coaches. You should have fitness guys there who are strong, mentally, like Dennis Waite. When he says run four laps, you have to run four laps,” he added.
“We don’t do enough of that. I think that is why our players are not bowling as many overs as they should. You ask Malcolm Marshal at 4:30 in the afternoon ‘Malcolm I’d like four overs from you’. He would say ‘no skip, I will give you six’. That’s the sort of thing you need, Walsh wanting to bowl, Crofty you can’t get the ball out of his hands. We have to get that kind of hunger again.”
For decades, the region was the producer of fearsome fast bowling talent, which often left opposition batsmen with plenty to think about. The likes of Roberts, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Wes Hall, and Michael Holding are only a few of the names who could leave opponents with plenty to dread once they strode to the crease.
Many will point to the pace-bowling lineage being broken with the end of twin towers Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, with no bowler since managing to come close to consistency matching that once fearsome legacy.
“I don’t think that these guys are prepared for the hard work that fast bowling entails,” Roberts told the Mason and Guest program.
“If you look at it, most players now prefer to play T20s, it's only four overs. I must say that fast bowling is hard work, I would say donkey work, but I just believe they are not prepared,” he added.
In recent times, some have blamed poor preparation of the region’s pitches for suffocation of the Caribbean’s fast bowling talent, Roberts, however, does not agree.
“A lot of people blame the pitches, but I always ask, Pakistan is supposed to have some of the slowest pitches in the world, yet still they produce some of the fastest bowlers in the world. How do they do it and we can’t,” Roberts said.
“People believe that during the 60s, 70s, and 80s we used to have really fast pitches, that is far from the truth. We used to have Kensington Oval, the ball used to swing around and move off the seam on the first day, but after that, it became one of the best batting pitches in the region. It has nothing to do with pitches, it has a lot to do with the work ethics of the young cricketers, they don’t want to work hard.”
In his heyday, Roberts was part of a generation of fierce West Indian pace bowlers, a line-up which also included the likes of Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, and Malcolm Marshall, who were all known for terrorizing opposition batsmen with brutally quick deliveries.
While admitting that the up-and-coming pace bowlers can at times reach top speeds, Roberts does not believe the performances have been sustained for long enough periods of time.
“What West Indies has been lacking for a while is a genuine fast bowler. We have fast bowlers, but we don’t have anyone of genuine pace who at night the batsmen can’t see because you are thinking of tomorrow. We haven’t had that for a long time,” Roberts told the Mason and Guest radio program.
The former quick believes a part of the issue has to do with the workload required to sustain top speeds throughout a game.
“Fast bowling is hard work, and a lot of people don’t like to work hard. They believe that the ball comes quicker off the pitch than when you release it. They are not prepared to put in the hard work, the donkey work," he added.
“I find that our fast bowlers can’t bowl fast for more than 2 or 3 overs. It’s because they’re not strong enough, their legs are not strong enough.”
Windies paceman Shannon Gabriel is currently the fastest of the current crop, but Roberts believes, even for him, there is a significant drop-off in pace the longer the bowler plays in a match.
“It’s your legs that carry you through as a fast bowler not just your chest…when Shannon Gabriel was bowling in the 90s, he bowled a number of balls 92, 95 but that was between 10 and 11 o clock between 2 and 3 o clock it's down to high 80s. Why, because his legs aren’t strong enough.”
