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The really tough got going

``When the going got really tough, the really tough got going,'' Prime Minister Basdeo Panday said yesterday in a congratulatory message to West Indies captain Brian Lara following the team's victory over Australia in the second Test in Jamaica.

Panday added: ``The people of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies could not have asked more of you as batsman and as captain,'' and could not have asked more of the team. Noting that the triumph of the West Indies team was a victory for the game of cricket, Panday said it was cause of exultation throughout the Caribbean diaspora.

Government Senator Wade Mark also congratulated Lara and the West Indies team on their success against the Australian team.

He said he hoped the team could continue to apply itself in a disciplined, organised and competent manner. He noted that a number of West Indians felt dejected as they saw the team ``going down and down''. He said everyone was happy now.

Mark said the time had come for the Caribbean to focus very seriously on a cricket academy where youths can be taught from a very tender age. ``We have taken cricket for granted in the Caribbean and as Errol McLeod said, cricket has become a scientific game,'' Mark said.

He noted that the application of technology by several cricketing countries was giving them that edge.

Asked in the Senate yesterday whether he agreed with Senator Martin Daly that the team had turned the corner because of the non-involvement of politicians, Mark said he did not believe in obeah or voodoo or any other superstitious interpretation of reality.

He said everyone recognised the West Indies team was going through a ``bad patch'' and was now getting back on its feet.

``I hope we can continue to move from strength to strength and apply ourselves in a disciplined and organised fashion so that the West Indian people would not have to go through these traumas of heartaches in terms of the kinds of difficulties we have experienced in the last period.''

Sports Minister Manohar Ramsaran sent congratulations to Lara, saying that he had proven once again ``permanence of class as opposed to the temporary nature of form which serves to provide challenges for us mortals''. Commending Lara on his ``display of outstanding leadership skills'', Ramsaran said that this was an important step towards the team's revival. ``I implore you to keep the focus and continue to nurture the emerging team cohesion and discipline as we rebuild a strong West Indian cricket unit.''

Opposition Leader Patrick Manning also sent a congratulatory message to Lara on his performance. ``It confirms your status as a superb batsman and demonstrates your ability to overcome in the face of adversity. Your leadership is refreshing and inspiring,'' he said, adding that this must be the turning point to which the entire team had aspired.

Independent Senator Daly, during his contribution in the Senate, noted that the people of this country were not stupid.

``Indeed, once the politicians leave us alone we have a resilience. May I say in passing that I attributed the revival of certain sportsmen to the fact that certain politicians have left them alone. The obeah of the motorcade has been lifted. It took a long time,'' he said, adding, in response to a remark by one of his colleagues, ``No, I prefer obeah. Voodoo suggests things that we really don't like and I am certainly not going to comment on that foreign investor (Benny Hinn), which is what he was.''