At times, it’s the business suit, a sharp one, with a neatly organised tie. One that’s paired with lace ups and a crisply ironed shirt. Forget not the glasses, cool ones, but those that don’t scream for attention. The setting could be a church to attend a friend’s wedding or a business meeting somewhere on a salubrious Caribbean island with the end objective being Cricket. What else? On other occasions, it could be a Hawaiian Bermuda paired with a breezy T shirt in a yacht that’s presumably headed to a weekender. Very casual and yet, with flair like the manner in which Lara used to swat aside fast bowlers like Donald or McGrath through to the covers or how Sir Viv would dismiss the fastest bowler of his day down the ground. Be it Mr. Jeff Thomson or the great Kapil Dev. But in both scenarios, Dario Barthely, irrespective of whether entering a Corporate boardroom or a fan gathering for a post CPL party, knows his thing.
And it’s not to wear cool weather on his shoulders, which he does with a certain nonchalance that is akin to the challenge of one being asked to hold onto a cotton ball. But it’s to give back to the sport he has made a life, a career, out of.
And his is a giving one at that. Make no mistake about that.
Dario Barthley, who has turned a year older but wiser, happier, more determined than he was before and unstoppable like Shai Hope’s intent to serve his team, is not your average Joe. He has made more inroads into the sport as a Team manager, fan, observer of the thing, the idea, the collective called West Indies Cricket than most would manage despite years of following the team or having had connections with it. So what is meant by all this praise.
And remember bland praise be damned like bowlers destroyed by Sir Desmond Haynes back in the day, the easy going Antiguan has become a moniker for passion where it comes to West Indies.
No, he’s not the team’s captain. In any format. Nor has he been a 12th man in any game, irrespective of the format. But he is the man you need on your team if you are rallying behind the West Indies.
Dario Barthley is to the West Indies Cricket and its identity today what the flick of the wrists is to the test captain Roston Chase or what the forward defence has always been to a certain Rahul Dravid. Formerly, the manager of the Men’s National cricket team, Mr. Barthley’s social media profile (on Instagram)- King Dario- does warrant regard. Why? For it is not just an extension of the aura that surrounds him, but is the manifestation of the identity that defines him.
A king. People’s man. People’s person. For his people. With warmth. Always. Sans drama.
Here is a large hearted, good natured, good humoured man, who lives for friends, can give a life for them, and is on his own journey that’s centred around cricket but also at the same time structured by boundless zest for entrepreneurship.
That is why this affable and ever smiling man from the Caribbean got into interesting ventures such as Max 60, whose CEO he became. That is why even today, despite all these years of extensive travelling and adventures around far flung geographies such as the UAE, he’s still the manager of St Kitts & Nevis Patriots. That is why after meeting some turnstiles as is often the case with high achievers who are quietly determined and yet, don’t make a big deal about things, Dario can’t sit at one place. Which is despite earning plaudits and with them, recognisable success. He is your go-to man to understand the players that maketh the West Indies cricket team.
Yes, there are proper coaches, nutritionists, physios and all that paraphernalia. But beyond the tried and tested formulaic roles, which are so essential, you need a friendly figurehead of the team that can be reached out to in order to understand West Indies team- and does function like a bridge unto the players.
A giving, fun-loving man who expects nothing much apart from respect and accord for the identity that is the West Indies team, he was, I vividly remember, the one holding the iPhone still as a monk holds onto silence at Harare in Zimbabwe, in 2022 , a few months before the ICC ODI World Cup began.
The occasion was rather painful.
Logan Van Beek had blunted the West Indies bowling in the decisive, must-win one dayer and with the soul crushing defeat now falling heavy on the vanquished side, Dario Barthley, then team manager, was amid his players. Like a brother to a family of several tired, aching members is during a moment of grave crisis.
Out there, vengeance in words was flowing and why wouldn’t it? The two-time World Cup winners, a team widely labeled and repeatedly judged and let’s face it, belittled by being called the ‘once mighty’ team had failed to qualify for the ODI Men’s CWC, India, 2023 edition. The captain back then was Shai Diego Hope and some of his finest performers who failed to come to the party included massively important names like Jason Holder.
But then, such is life. Things happen. You move on. But you learn. Don’t you?
The same quiet, even though visibly jaded, Dario Barthley that I was sad to see on that occasion, during ICC World Cup qualifiers’ defeat for one’s grown accustomed at seeing his smiling face, was back to his best: cheering on for the side a few months down the line.
Even as he was no longer the team’s manager and one who would stay, practice, run, jog, train, diet and whatnot with the Windies cricketers during his tenure would avidly manage media relations and communicate with the press in order to smoothen everyone’s lives and make things flow in order. A process driven individual, Dario has gone on to don various hats in and around the West Indian islands given his ceaseless love for the West Indies.
For white ball cricket. For Test cricket.
But he has never gone unnoticed given his spirit of enterprise and his talent for bringing people together. Always for cricket. Always for cultivating the greater good that can be achieved by marrying talent with opportunity. And always with one thing in mind. How to represent the best that the Caribbean has to offer to the wider world. That is exactly how the Cool & Smooth T20 explosion, a tournament of repute in Antigua and Barbuda offers an insight into the mind of the tireless propagator of Cricket. So you have Sir Ian Bishop where it comes to lending his well reasoned and captivating voice to all things West Indies Cricket.
You have Chanderpaul where it comes to rescuing an inning going nowhere to salvage pride. You have a Gudakesh Motie or Hetmyer to put a smile back on an island nation that is often under appreciated but one whose Unity Village expresses the ethos that is about West Indies: camaraderie, care, compassion and ultimately, Cricket. And perhaps in that vein of respect, you have a Dario Barthley, where it comes to being a bridge between the sport and its disciples or practitioners who make our lives better and replete with entertainment and substance. He is a mark of dependability in an age where a lack of trust among professionals is common and where countless are desperate to leave a mark in the first place.
Marrying an inquisitive nature with his flawless command over the language, Mr. Barthley is a communicator whose mind loves the game and whose heart beats for it.
Caught At Point wishes the man who operates his life on the well intended and harmless principle of being everyone’s friend and a support system to West Indies cricket a very happy and healthy life, not just the birthday!
