Analysis Of Tanti At The Oval

The short story entitled ‘Tanti at the Oval” was written in 1976 by Paul-Keens Douglas, a Trinidadian writer. Written from a first person perspective, it gives a humorous account of the narrator and his aunt, Tanti Merle’s visit to the oval to spectate an important test match between Trinidad and Tobago and the Combined Islands (presently broken into the Windward and Leeward Islands) during the 1974-1975 Shell Shield tournament. In the story, Tanti Merle’s antics before, during and after the match embarrasses and annoys the narrator. In addition to giving an indication of the popularity of cricket at this time, it also gives an illustration of the relationship between the Combined Islands and other Caribbean countries, the disparity in perspective

This paper shall focus on these themes and give an analysis of how they can be applied to modern Caribbean society and culture. From the short story, it can be implied that cricket served a purpose beyond that of just a port to Caribbean people. Historically, cricket in the Caribbean was used as a form of resistance to the colonial powers. The British deemed cricket to the “benchmark for English culture and civilisation” with emphasis on fair play and observing “social etiquette and rules of behaviour” . In addition to this, cricket in Britain, as well as in the Caribbean, was socially stratified with “the creation of clubs organised on the basis of social ranking rather than playing ability with colour, education and wealth being the intertwined determinants of membership” . Caribbean cricket was a struggle against this system of stratification as well as a struggle to

The tournament that takes place within the events of the story was called the Shell Shield tournament, a league style four day test competition between the Caribbean islands. In this edition of the tournament, the Combined Islands only needed a win against Trinidad and Tobago to be crowned champions. This was especially important at the time because out of all the teams that competed, the Combined Islands was the least successful team, unable to win a single tournament. In addition, cricketers from the Combined Islands were the least represented within the West Indies team, with the majority of cricketers coming from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. This gap between the Combined Islands and the aforementioned countries extended beyond cricket, as the islands that formed the team were looked down upon called ‘small islands’ by the rest of the Caribbean. This made these intra-regional matches very important to inhabitants of the Combined Islands because, similar to how the West Indies regarded matches against England as a struggle to develop their identity as a Test-playing team internationally, the Combined Islands regarded matches against these larger islands to affirm their Test status in the Caribbean. This is why, despite living in Trinidad for the last fifteen years, Tanti Merle remained an ardent supporter of