Ian Chappell's several trips to the Caribbean as player and commentator have afforded him the opportunity to witness the characters in the stands. Sample this Sunday MiD DAY special...

Oh those crazy West Indian fans!

Ian Chappell's several trips to the Caribbean as player and commentator have afforded him the opportunity to witness the characters in the stands. Sample this Sunday MiD DAY special...

The ICC made a huge mistake when they held the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. The location wasn't the problem. It was the banning of musical instruments and stripping the matches of a Caribbean flavour that stifled the tournament.

Cricket in the Caribbean is about bouncers, swaying palms, drinking rum, bouncers, swashbuckling performances, bouncers, music and rib-tickling humour. Okay, I overdid it a bit with the bouncers but that used to be the domain of the West Indies fast bowlers and the patrons, especially those gathered at Sabina Park in Jamaica and St John's in Antigua, loved every moment of those excesses.

The World T20 being played in Guyana, St Lucia and Barbados won't be chock full of bouncers; the laws don't allow it. However, hopefully, this time there'll be plenty of colourful characters attending, armed with musical instruments and their witty and insightful sense of humour. The likes of the eccentric, cross-dressing Gravy along with Mayfield who used to enter a hastily built boxing ring in Antigua to participate in a staged slugging match that kept the crowds literally rolling in the aisles.

It seems this Antiguan's favourite player has hit the high notes

Drums and fun

Mack Fingle, who would arrive at Kensington Oval with his drums and fellow band members and dispense an equal mix of music, humour and cricket commonsense. The only thing that stopped Mac entertaining the masses was the fashionably late arrival of the elegantly dressed King Dyal. It's as rare as an Ashish Nehra athletic stop to see a tie in the Caribbean, but Dyal would make his grand entrance wearing a white suit, spats, a hat and bow tie, wielding a gold walking cane with which he acknowledged a standing ovation from his adoring Bajan fans.

In Trinidad, there was Big Tony and his card-playing mates ensconced in the Sir Learie Constantine stand at Queen's Park Oval. They never appeared to watch the cricket but didn't miss a trick. Once, when asked by the dealer: "Who blind?"u00a0

Hopefully, this roof was strong enough during the WI vs Aus ODI in Barbados, 1999

Tony responded: "(Jeff)u00a0 Dujon, he just miss stumpin' Mark Waugh."

The population of Trinidad is a veritable melting pot and it appears the females embody the best features of each different race, including a sense of humour.u00a0 Former West Indies fast bowler Merv Dillon once beat the bat with three consecutive outswingers in the first over of a match, causing a lady to rise up out of her seat and yell: "Dillon, enough of the foreplay, let's have some penetration."

DJ Chickie on the job at the Antigua Recreation Ground. PIC/Sanjjeevu00a0K Samyal

Big Tony and the gang

Equality among men and women at the cricket ground in Trinidad also applies to music. I once met Gabriel Belfon who used to hang out with Big Tony in the Sir Learie Constantine stand. Better known as "Blue Food" (local lingo for fast food) Belfon was famous for trumpeting on a conch shell and he had a different sound for everything that occurred on a cricket field.

A fan blows his whistle in Kingston during India's tour of WI in 2006-07. Pic/Sanjjeevu00a0K Samyal

However, he didn't have a mortgage on this skill as in another part of Queen's Park Oval a lady would respond with her version of events, also on a conch shell.u00a0 There's no such thing as a dull day at Queen's Park Oval.u00a0

It seems one of the requirements for entry into the Constantine stand is to be a little "off-beat". That included the peanut vendors, two of whom attracted the colourful nicknames of "Nutslanding" and "Jumbo".u00a0 The former was a nattering nutsman and I'm sure fans used to buy a packet just to be rid of his incessant chatter.

The versatile Gravy. PICS/GETTY IMAGES

Nevertheless, Nutslanding took great pride in his job and when someone had the temerity to suggest his rival Jumbo was a better nutsman he was quick to take umbrage: "I a better nutsman than Jumbo," he chuckled, "dere are Jumbos crashin' all over de world, while I still landin'."

Queen's Park Oval may be a haven for humour but Kensington Oval in Barbados was the site of the wittiest sign ever hung atu00a0 a cricket match. In 1955, former West Indies fast bowler Leslie Hylton was sentenced to death by hanging, for the murder of his wife. During the Test at Kensington Oval, Australian opener Colin McDonald was dropped in the outfield three times by West Indies opening batsman J K Holt, who happened to come from Jamaica, the same island as Hylton.u00a0 Glad to have a torturous day in the field behind him, Holt trotted off to fine leg the next morning to be confronted by a banner proclaiming; "Hang Holt, save Hylton."

u00a0

King Dyal at the WI vs Eng Test in Barbados, 1981

Mr Marshall's house

And at Sabina Park, the shrine of pace bowling worship, in-between acclaiming the searing bouncers there was still room for all forms of humour. Play was interrupted during a 1973 Test with the announcement; "Would Mr Eldine Marshall please return home as his house has been burned down."

That was off-beat humour designed to ease a troubled soul but it was pure classic comedy when Australian opener Keith Stackpole savaged the bouncers of local quickie Uton Dowe. After being banished to deep fine leg for what appeared to be the rest of the day, Dowe was reluctantly recalled by Rohan Kanhai late in the afternoon.

Dowe shall not bowl...

The skipper's decision was greeted by a booming voice; "Hey Kanhai, you not heard de eleventh commandment. Dowe shall not bowl."

At the same time as West Indies cricket was formidable it also laid claim to possessing some of the great characters in the stands. Heaven knows cricket needs the West Indies to rise again and if takes a combination of quick wit and musical instruments to bring the crowds flocking back then the ICC needs to ensure the Caribbean flavour is allowed to roam free during the World T20 tournament.

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