Baracara kid rocks Gabba

THE EDITOR: It was Sunday around 3.22 am TT time, my eyes glued to the TV, my heart racing at knots per second, when new Aussie opener Steve Smith took a single off the fourth ball of Shamar Joseph's 11th over.

The number 11 batsman Josh Hazelwood was left to survive the last two balls of the over. Joseph sends down a rocket close to 145k that clattered into Hazelwood's off stump, triggering mass West Indian celebrations all over the Gabba ground, known as the fortress of Australian cricket.

One could have heard screams of joy from the little islands of the Caribbean halfway around the world. Legends Brian Lara and Carl Hooper cried.

Only in his second Test, Joseph became only the fourth West Indian bowler and the first since 1993 to capture seven wickets in an innings in Australia. It was the West Indies first Test match victory on Australian soil since 1997.

Joseph comes from a family of five boys and three girls, brought up in the remote Maroon village of Baracara, located approximately 130 km south-east of the capital Georgetown, population under 500, with a subsistence economy, and a village that was only accorded internet and mobile services in 2018.

The 24-year-old Guyanese has brought tremendous jubilation and happiness to the people of the English-speaking Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora at large.

Having sustained a toe injury courtesy a Starc yorker, he was not expected to bowl in the second innings. With the aid of modern medicine he recovered and ran through the Australian batting like a hot knife through butter.

Showing indefatigable stamina and endurance, Joseph bowled 11.5 consecutive overs, clocking 142-148 kph consistently, the Australians receiving a taste of their own medicine.

At the post-match conference, a beaming captain Kraigg Brathwaite called him a "superstar."

By no stretch of the imagination, as a result of this one victory, can we say that the West Indies has turned the corner in Test match cricket. We have heard that before.

What the cricket world has seen of Shamar Joseph is a never-die attitude, a hungry desire to win for the people of the Caribbean, an X factor DNA in his blood.

At an early age, his cricket idols were West Indian greats Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.

We await with cautious optimism for more Josephs to emerge in the cauldron of West Indian Test cricket.

REZA ABASALI

El Socorro