FORMER outstanding Trinidad and Tobago footballer and coach Everald “Gally” Cummings has entered the controversy surrounding the rights to the name Soca Warriors used by the national football team.
Cummings, who was at the helm of the “Strike Squad” which missed out on a place in the 1990 World Cup in Italy said it was always his philosophy that the way a nation plays its football is determined by its culture. He added that TT’s style of play is naturally influenced by the rhythm of its people which is reflected in its music, the calypso, soca, chutney, tassa and steelpan. “I implemented this philosophy immediately after taking up the appointment as national coach in 1987, which I still hold today. This philosophy of associating culture and football made me the subject of very harsh criticism and ridicule by sports commentators and football coaches, including Mr. Melville,” Gally said.
According to Cummings, the influence of the culture and the effect and dynamism of soca was so powerful that even when Jack Warner mentioned in a press conference that the soca was to be dropped from the Soca Warriors, it was ignored. Cummings who was in the 1973 team which was robbed of a place in the 1974 World Cup tournament in Germany, said he was personally offended by Melville’s comment that he wanted a clean break from the Cummings-led ‘Strike Squad.’ This was after the disappointing 1-0 defeat by the USA in front of 25,000 fans at the then national Stadium in Mucurapo, now the Hasely Crawford Stadium. Melville stated that because of that failure he came up with the name “Soca Warriors.”
However Cummings said there were few persons in the society including Leroy Clarke, Earl Lovelace and Lancelot Layne who shared his philosophy and who encouraged him. He noted that it was the deceased cultural icon, Layne, who himself had a passion for promoting local and indigenous styles, whom he collaborated with in the making of a musical video called “Kai-Soca Soccer.” Cummings said that Layne felt hurt by the unfair criticisms that were levelled against him. “Because he knew I was on the right track and this was his way of helping the cause. The purpose of the video was to cause citizens to focus on who we are and what we are about as a people and to make them believe in my philosophy, the influence of culture and soca in particular on football,” Gally said.
“In fact I do not understand what he means by a clean break since it was the same strike squad members who made a difference when they joined the team and played leading roles in the final round in the qualification for Germany 2006,” he said.. Cummings added that the name “Strike Squad” reflected the striking force of all members of the 1989 team using their flair, rhythm and speed to do so, and this was coined from the song. “The association of soca with soccer is therefore no recent construct of Mr Melville as he purports in his article,” said Cummings. “There is no doubt that the association of culture and soccer was already imbedded in the psyche of our people which commenced 16 years before in the 1990 Road to Italy campaign and no one was going to take that away from the people,” Gally said. He concluded that any rights to “Soca” belong to the people of TT but Melville can stake his claim on “Warriors” if he so wished.