Prashad was in Sydney a short time ago to launch his book On Cuba written in collaboration with Chomsky. He offered the Sydney comrades the opportunity to hear him talk as he was available on 5 April. The topic of his address was ‘AUKUS, Trump and the Indo Pacific.’ Over 100 attended.
The occasion of Vijay’s visit was the time to recognise two great communists who had died recently. A short ceremony to honour both comrades one from Sydney and one from India. The Sydney CPA member Maria Hilario (1959-2025) and the Indian member Sitaram Yechury’s (1952-2024) who was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Maria toiled relentlessly on behalf of Cuba over many years and likewise over Palestine. A tribute was paid to her by Comrade Connie Villano and a minute’s silence was observed in her honour. Vijay presented a book of Sitaram’s writings to the party in Sydney.
Vijay’s delivery and communication put him among the best communicators the left has. His presentation was a joy! The consensus was that there was a lot to absorb, but it was a pleasure to do it.
Prashad spent some time explaining the huge steps that China has taken technologically. In 2003, of the 64 crucial technological items necessary for a modern society, the US led in 61 and China in 3. In 2024 the US led in 7 and China was ahead in 57.
He mentioned a study of democracy done worldwide where people were surveyed for their satisfaction with the state of democracy in their country. The USA scored around 50 while the Chinese score was 80. So much for the propaganda about authoritarianism!
China is not interested in invading anyone; not Japan, not Australia, not anyone. It is interested in trading with Australia, so it will not stop ships taking Australian products going to China. Nor will it stop ships taking Chinese goods to Australia.
A progressive and prosperous rising country, China is our major trading partner at 37 per cent of our trade. Only 5 per cent of our trade goes to the US. China doesn’t need to be responded to with suspicious and submarines.
Prashad argued that the Trump foreign policy is realist to the extent that it identifies China as the real enemy not Russia. While China is not aggressive, it is a threat to US dominance of the globe as the only superpower.
Prashad pointed out that Beijing is closer to Berlin than it is to Sydney and that Australia “does not have an enemy on its doorstep.”
There is a chance to listen and watch Vijay’s talk via the party’s YouTube channel.
Vijay’s other skill is his understanding of cricket, and he pursues that interest with the same enthusiasm he does on topics of international relations.
For a Marxist look at cricket, see “Leg Glance – The Yorkers of Shamar Joseph”.
Leg Glance – The Yorkers of Shamar Joseph
https://cpa.org.au/guardian/issue-2141-2/leg-glance-the-yorkers-of-shamar-joseph/?
There are some balls that are unplayable. Ask Travis Head, one of Australia’s most reliable middle order batsmen. He had scored a duck in the first innings against the West Indies, going after a full ball from the fast bowler Kemar Roach that was going down the leg-side. Head could have left it alone, but he reached for it and sent it into the gloves of Joshua Da Silva. When he walked out for Australia’s second innings, Travis Head had to keep his concentration and take his team from 113 for three wickets to victory at 216 runs. It was the fourth day. There was plenty of time and the West Indies had a problem.
One of their fast bowlers – twenty-four-year-old Shamar Joseph had been struck on the toe on the previous day. Mitch Starc, the veteran Australian quick, decided that enough was enough. Joseph, who bats left-handed but bowls with his right, had been there long enough. A very fast in-swinging yorker targeted either Joseph’s toe or his stumps. The young bowler couldn’t move his feet fast enough and so was struck on the toe. Starc appealed, and Joseph was given out. Starc had overstepped the line, and the umpire declared it was a no-ball, but Joseph was in terrible pain. It was Travis Head who walked over to Joseph and asked him if he was ok. He was not. His shoes and socks off, he walked off the field, retired hurt. There was a worry that he would not be able to return to bowl against Australia, which had been given a reasonably small target. Head joined Steve Smith on a lovely day to finish the job for the baggy green caps.
Sharmar Joseph was born in Baracara, Guyana, a small community formed by people of African descent who had fled the slave plantations and built a maroon, a free community. One of six children to Eustace and Carlin Joseph, Shamar lived on the Canje River deep in the interior of Berbice (you need a speedboat to get to his village). The village had one primary school, where Shamar had a senior – Romario Shepard – who now, like Joseph, plays for the West Indies. Like many of the best cricketers from the Global South, Shamar began to play tape-ball cricket, getting into one or the other of the teams in Baracara (Young Strikers and Show Times). A security guard job in New Amsterdam allowed Shamar to move up into the world of Guyanese cricket and eventually be selected to play for the West Indies because of his lightning-fast bowling.
A damaged toe was not going to hurt this young man from Baracara. It was bandaged up and he was on the field to bowl on the fourth day of the second test. After the twenty-fourth over, with Australia at 71 for 2, Joseph came onto the field. He had missed the earlier session, but was there in the warm-up nets before play began. There was speculation: if the young man is back on the field, surely, he is going to bowl. Then, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite gave Joseph the nod. Joseph to Cam Green, who is settled and hungry. That first over Green blasted Joseph for two fours (one a thick edge over the slips and the second a beautifully timed drive through the covers). Joseph had not yet found his momentum.
One of the most misleading things about fast bowling is that it is seen to be about speed and brawn. But the trick of fast bowling is not that unplayable fast ball on the stumps or that short ball that forces the batsman to swerve. It is the game between the bowler and the batsman, the variations of length and line, the faster and slower ball, the unpredictability of the bowler’s tricks. It often takes time for a younger bowler like Shamar Joseph to get the line right, to test the batsman who fidgets in anticipation of the unplayable ball. In his second over from Shamar Joseph, Cameron Green guided the ball with a late cut to the fence. I thought that by now, the score at 114 for four with Steve Smith all settled in at 49 and Green with three fours of Joseph in two overs at 42, that these two Aussies would guide their team home to victory.
Then out of nowhere, two unplayable balls. First, to Green, the red ball dropped and then bounced so high that Green – who is tall – could not follow it, was struck on the elbow, and then bowled, the bailing flying in all directions. I don’t know how fast this ball was, but it certainly came out of nowhere. This was the one that gets wickets. And it did. Joseph was elated. He ran around the field with pure joy on his face. Second, Travis Head – who had comforted Shamar on the previous day – came in, took his guard, and waited. Shamar came in, around the wicket, the ball superfast, a yorker just as Starc had sent to his toe; Head, a very smart batsman, just could not get his bat down to the pitch to defend and the ball slipped under and smashed his stumps. The television sets in Baracara, even though it was late at night, rattled out the news that their hometown boy was on a hat-trick. Head walked off despondent. This was his fourth consecutive duck at the Gabba.
Shamar Joseph didn’t get the hat-trick because he bowled to Steve Smith, who paddled him away for a run. But this did not matter. The flood came soon after. Joseph bowled another fast one with unexpected bounce just outside the off stump and Mitch Marsh tickled it to the keeper; another yorker and Alex Carey was gone; a back of a length fast ball to Starc caught the bat and flew high into the air to offer an easy catch. Australia was suddenly at 171 for seven. They still had a chance with Smith there and Cummins in to score the remaining 45 runs. Smith with 70 runs was in good form. It was possible. But Shamar Joseph, who had almost broken his toe the previous day, had taken five wickets and changed the mood. Joseph got Cummins a few overs later, and after Lyon goes to Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph bowled what Aussies call a ripper to Josh Hazelwood that wobbled at high speed between middle and off stump, taking both off.
Shamar Joseph, relatively unknown, bowled almost twelve overs in a row with a near broken toe and took seven wickets for 68 runs, giving the West Indies its first win in Australia since 1997.
It is not easy to bowl a yorker. They often leave the hand too early and end up as half volleys which can be easily dispatched to the fence. Watching Joseph bowl one almost perfect yorker after the other was a treat. His length was sublime, his confidence beautiful. I tried, but failed to find some clips of John Trim, who was also from Berbice and was the first man from Guyana to play for the West Indies (1948-52). During the West Indies tour of Australia, Trim took five wickets for thirty-five runs in Melbourne in twelve overs. Australia won that test by one wicket. Trim died in 1960 at the age of forty-five. He, like many minor cricketers, is not widely remembered. I read about him in Ian Woodward’s compendium on the matches between Australia and the West Indies. It was the five-wicket haul that caught my eye, as well as the fact that Trim was run out for a duck in both innings (a very unusual feat). Trim, too, I gather was an aficionado of the yorker. It might have something with the tape-ball on an uneven and frequently wet ground: you might want to use your pace to harass the batsman rather than test a surface that might not allow the ball to bounce. Maybe that’s where Trim and Shamar Joseph decided to perfect the yorker, the gift from Guyana’s interior.
