By Orin Davidson
Unprecedented jubilation saturated Antigua on the day 11 West Indian cricketers became the newest millionaires coming out of the Region.
From the expressions of genuine joy that engulfed the beings of the Stanford Superstars the thousands of fans that packed the Stanford ground to even television media men, you could be easily fooled into believing the Regional team had won its fourth World Cup or the second installment of the Twenty20 World Cup.
And without a doubt the multitude of West Indies’ team supporters are convinced this team has arrived, that this team is back to its powerful best, that we are now sitting atop of the world of cricket in all forms.
It would be easy to get carried away with the powerful performance Chris Gayle’s men displayed in walloping England to cart off the biggest team prize in cricket history and all of sport on Saturday.
But now is the best of any time for all West Indies to get a reality check.
Nothing is wrong with West Indians celebrating another first.
Every supporter is entitled to feel ecstasy for their team to cash in on US $20M and deny England flying off out of the Region with all that money, to further enrich the bank accounts of much richer players under contract to the England cricket board and the wealthy counties that employ them.
But for all the commentary and chatter it would seem the Stanford Stars had become overnight super stars.
Which is furthest from reality.
The Stanford Stars thrashed one of the weakest teams in world limited overs cricket.
This was an England team that is ranked in the lower reaches of the Twenty20 world rankings and in the 50 overs standings. In the inaugural World Twenty20 championships last year, they finishing down the order, and in the last 50 overs World Cup placed fifth.
We must also remember that this is England – a team with a huge reputation for crumbling under the might of focused West Indian teams under strong leadership.
And with the core of the West Indies Dream Team of the 1970’s and 1980’s that administered some of the worse beatings on England, hovering around everyday of the one week Stanford series, as Board directors, their presence must have had a debilitating mental effect on Kevin Pieterson’s men.
Chris Gayle exhibited exemplary leadership in his team’s crushing victory, but his Superstars had big help from having Sir Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and others like Curtly Ambrose around and in England’s face all the time.
England put up a woeful performance but they were a highly overrated bunch going into this US$ 20M showdown.
And we must not forget the West Indies team which comprised a majority of the Stanford All Stars, beat mighty Australia in a Twenty20 clash earlier this year.
But make no mistake about it, this was a highly improved performance put on by the Stanford Stars. The fielding was a revelation and the fast bowlers took their game to another level and it was a significantly better team display.
It shows what a proper training camp can do for these players.
But let’s not place youngsters like Andre Fletcher on a pedestal too high for him at the moment. The TV commentators branded him an overnight star. Yes, he proved himself a tremendous hitter of the ball with great hand eye coordination. He may be brilliant against England in Twenty20 games, But playing straighter which enables tighter defence are qualities he has to prove to make him a real star in Test and four-day competitions against the likes of Australia and India.
Sorry Sir Allen, the West Indies team is not yet back, we have to beat the best in all forms of the game first.
And on a more somber note, I would like to express sympathy at the death of Stabroek News’ Chairman David de Caires.
The newspaper profession has lost a brilliant pioneer who made it possible for many of us to learn the attributes of objective journalism at a time when that quality was lost in the country.
Guyana has lost an outstanding son of the soil.
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