Rising from Windies rubble

STEPHON NICHOLAS

THE imperious manner in which West Indies dispatched England on Saturday to seal the Test series and reclaim the Wisden Trophy has made the world stop and take notice. A 381-run victory in the 1st Test in Barbados might have been labelled a one-off, but the ten wicket-demolition in Antigua that followed on Saturday removed all doubt about which team was superior. Indeed, one can argue England have not won a single session of cricket on tour so far.

With one match to go in St Lucia, a “blackwash” is on the cards for England who have won just one Test series in the Caribbean since 1951. Do not be mistaken though, this was no throwback to the good ol’ days of West Indies in their heyday. Players and fans have had to endure pain, suffering, humiliation, anger, disappointment, chaos and fleeting success for well over a decade. The reality is this was West Indies’ first Test victory against an ICC-ranked top eight nation since 2012.

Ironically, Antigua has been a happy hunting ground for the West Indies in the past with Brian Lara breaking the batting Test world records twice against England (375 and 400 not out). Another world record was broken against Australia in 2003 when the Windies scored 418/7 in their second innings to beat Australia.

However, the youngest generation of West Indies fans have never experienced real Test success. Two T20 World Cup titles in the last seven years (2012 and 2016), led by Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Samuel Badree, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard and Carlos Brathwaite, have been all Windies fans have been able to enjoy – till now.

The old Antigua Recreation Ground has been discarded and new memories are being created at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. The “Master Blaster’ Sir Vivian was in Antigua to see this new age of cricketers display immeasurable maturity beyond their years.

This Test team is creating its own legacy and what a way to start against the region’s former colonisers. Talk about Fire in Bablyon? England had no answer for the Windies’ four-pronged pace attack. As ex-pacer turn commentator Tino Best said on Twitter, the West Indies now possess a fearsome fast bowling quartet with genuine height in Jason Holder (6”7), Shannon Gabriel (6”2), Alzarri Joseph (6”4) and Oshane Thomas over six feet tall. Only Kemar Roach is below six feet but he seems to be doing just fine with a Man-of-the-Match performance in the 2nd Test (eight wickets) and a five-for in the 1st Test.

Holder, now the ICC No.1 all-rounder in the world, is morphing into a top quality cricketer and excellent captain. Thrust prematurely into leadership to be the Windies’ Graeme Smith, there has been growing pains galore and doubts whether he would be able to fulfil his potential, with the burden of leadership also to bear. As Test defeat after Test defeat built up and the one-day team also performing horrendously under his captaincy, whispers got louder throughout the Caribbean that maybe he was not the man for the job.

But as all good leaders must do, Holder began to lead by example. Named on the 2018 ICC Test Team of the Year with 336 runs from six Tests (average 37.33) and 33 wickets, it is no coincidence that as his form improved, his team’s fortunes have followed suit.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) must be given credit for sticking with the young Bajan, who is rewarding their trust with performances that are now ruffling a few feathers. The birth of this team can be traced to the events that took place in India in October 2014. At a crossroad owing to poor communication and bad man-management, CWI basically blew up all three Windies teams to remove the so-called “rebels” following the ill-fated tour of India. Amid the rubble though, CWI backed a core of youngsters that is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Holder, Shane Dowrich, Roston Chase, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph and Shimron Hetmyer are making a name for themselves and proving valuable pieces in the Windies set-up.

With this crop alongside Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach and Darren Bravo, the Windies have a group not only willing and capable of competing at the Test level – but they also seem to enjoy playing the longest format. This could be the genesis of a revival in red-ball cricket in the region.

And while our T20 – two-time world champions – and ODI teams flounder in disarray, owing to its destruction by the Dave Cameron-led CWI, out of what some regional Prime Ministers have termed “wickedness” has cometh good.

Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev said it perfectly, “If you play good cricket a lot of bad things get hidden.”

And today the entire Caribbean is rejoicing in stuffing it to the haughty English who had dismissed the West Indies as any threat quicker than Cameron did to staunch critic and Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell.

If this upward trend continues, few people will remember CWI sacking coach Phil Simmons after he complained about “outside interference” in the selection of the Windies teams.

Will anyone recall Darren Sammy being promptly dropped as captain after winning the T20 World Cup and criticising Cameron for his lack of respect to the team?

Or maybe the better question is should we care? Is winning all that matters? I beg to differ. Asking for better relations between the board and the players should never be something too hard to ask for. And Cameron has shown himself to be as stubborn as Darren Bravo did in defying the English on his way to the slowest ever half-century by a West Indian (by time) on Saturday – 50 off 215 balls in five hours and 42 minutes.

It is this stubbornness from both parties that resulted in Bravo being suspended from cricket for the last two years.

This cannot happen again. Young Guyanese star Hetmyer is now a T20 star and was bought for US$594,195 by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2019 Indian Premier League. Will the lure of T20 riches harm his and other young cricketers’ relationships with administrators? All parties must learn from the past and what went wrong. Players too must look at what their peers did wrong in terms of using social media and other outlets to vent frustration. There are lessons to be learned all-around. Today we savour sweet victory but we must also think of yesterday to plan for tomorrow.