Boycott the West Indies

[JOHNNYAITCH]

There is an increasing (although still small) call to boycott the West Indies as far as cricket is concerned and some of the nations there generally in sporting terms due to the stance on homosexuality of some caribbean countries.

 

For example in Jamaica for men being gay is illegal punishable by 10 years hard labour; curioulsy it's not illegal for women. Other countries there have similar legislation although enforcement varies.

 

I've rarely heard or read anything on this which I find odd..if this were European countries for example there would be much activity driven by getting this changed and disgust (and rightly so); look at the recent anger over Russia and the winter Olympics.

[cheshirevaliant]

You could boycott Sri Lanka until they come clean about war crimes committed by both sides in the civil war, or Pakistan because their government harbours people we don't like, or South Africa and India until they clean up some of the harrowing social issues there.

 

Sport should be used to highlight issues, not ostracise countries. That, and I'm looking forward to watching England there next April.

[bycars rob]

We should have boycotted them in the 70`s and 80`s when they were too good, not now they are crap. I presume their cricket is heavily reliant on international receipts and we would be punishing a poor area of the world, by denying an escape from poverty for some because of laws they have no control over. The South Africa boycott was punishing a rich elite- a totally different situation.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Sport should be used to highlight issues, not ostracise countries. .

 

It's not about ostrcising countries but about helping to achieve change; sporting boycott of SOuth Africa was a significant contributor to change there. I've never seen nor heard anything when England have toured the WI on this issue so it's clearly failed to highlight this issue in the past

[JOHNNYAITCH]

We should have boycotted them in the 70`s and 80`s when they were too good, not now they are crap. I presume their cricket is heavily reliant on international receipts and we would be punishing a poor area of the world, by denying an escape from poverty for some because of laws they have no control over. The South Africa boycott was punishing a rich elite- a totally different situation.

 

Laws they have no control over? Jamaica is a democratic country.

 

So we don't try to get change where doing so might affect some people's ability to earn a decent wedge? We let the homosexal population continue to be oppressed, criminalised etc cos a few people there won't be able to make a living from cricket if we boycott the game there?

 

I am astonished

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

At first I thought this was a thread about Geoffrey defecting to the once great side ;)

 

It is strange as you say JA that seemingly this is the first thats been mentioned about it, wonder what Chris Birchall's views on this are?

[Jacko51]

Laws they have no control over? Jamaica is a democratic country.

 

So we don't try to get change where doing so might affect some people's ability to earn a decent wedge? We let the homosexal population continue to be oppressed, criminalised etc cos a few people there won't be able to make a living from cricket if we boycott the game there?

 

I am astonished

 

I would be quite happy for the England cricket team to make a public statement in some way about this issue but I'm not sure a boycott is the way forward. The South African issue is not quite the same - the boycott by the England cricket team in 1969 was because the South African government attempted to interfere in the selection of our touring party and refused to accept D'Olivera as part of the squad. I'm not away the Windies have told us we can't pick gay players.

[FolkyVale]

Wonder what other countries think of some of our policies, whether they be current or historical?

Glass houses and all that.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

So we should ignore what goes on elsewhere cos some might not like what we do?

 

I continue to be astonished

[JOHNNYAITCH]

I would be quite happy for the England cricket team to make a public statement in some way about this issue but I'm not sure a boycott is the way forward. The South African issue is not quite the same - the boycott by the England cricket team in 1969 was because the South African government attempted to interfere in the selection of our touring party and refused to accept D'Olivera as part of the squad. I'm not away the Windies have told us we can't pick gay players.

 

There was a far wider sporting boycott of SA than by English cricket and they weren't all driven by not being able to select players cos south africa objected..IOC, IAAF, golf, F1, Rugby Union, tennis..all had some sort of ban/boycott regarding SA participation.

[aspins-revenge]

Homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967. Should there have been a boycott of the World Cup in 1966?

[Jacko51]

There was a far wider sporting boycott of SA than by English cricket and they weren't all driven by not being able to select players cos south africa objected..IOC, IAAF, golf, F1, Rugby Union, tennis..all had some sort of ban/boycott regarding SA participation.

 

I was simply explaining the cricket thing which is what your original post was about JA. There was indeed a huge backlash against South Africa picking their international teams on racial grounds. Do we know if the Windies pick their teams on the grounds of sexual orientation - I don't know? As I say, quite happy for us to voice our opposition to their policy but I'm just not sure that a boycott is the best way of doing it. Are we going to boycott the 2018 World Cup for the same reason? Are we going to ban all the West Indian athletes from the Commonwealth Games?

[geosname]

curioulsy it's not illegal for women.

 

If memory serves it was never illegal for women here, although sodomy was and may still be on the books in some form or other as may buggery which is, I think, different because it fails to include oral sex.

[Tone]

Perhaps we should boycott the World Cup in Qatar for the same reason?

 

Sorry, JA, but this is not a good idea.

[FolkyVale]

So we should ignore what goes on elsewhere cos some might not like what we do?

 

I continue to be astonished

 

Absolutely not and I didn't say we should.

I just think that when we do get involved with things like this, we shouldn't go about it by claiming the moral high ground like we usually do.