Cozier on Sunday
For ages strong and dynamic, universally envied and admired, pride of the people of the small, scattered otherwise insignificant third world territories it represented, West Indies cricket had suddenly gone into sharp decline in the last decade of the 20th century.
The first of the 21st century accelerated its degeneration as it plummeted inextricably towards irrelevance, even towards its eventual demise.
The stories of doom and gloom, and the reasons for them, are well documented. They have generated arguments in bars and living rooms throughout the Caribbean, filled the pages of our newspapers and magazines, taken up hours of radio and television time.
Yet, through it all, shafts of light occasionally broke through to lift the darkness and kindle the hope that somehow all was not lost, that the good days would eventually return. All were fleeting and illusionary but we embraced them just the same.
Here are a few such instances that lifted my own spirits in following the West Indies on their repeatedly futile travels the world over or else turning myself into a zombie watching their fortunes unfold through the night on television.
There were others as well. Prominent among them were Jerome Taylor’s five for 11 spell that despatched England for 51 at Sabina last year and clinched a victory enough to regain the Wisden Trophy after nine years, the emergence of the all-round ebullience of Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards’ pace and swing and, most recently, the promising debuts of of Kemar Roach and Adrian Barath.
But these are the ones that stick most in the memory.
THE LARA FACTOR: Brian Lara had long since confirmed his credentials by the turn of the century but, within two months, he had relinquished the captaincy to take a break “to seek the assistance of appropriate professionals to rebuild all facets of my game.”
He returned with all facets clearly rebuilt to fashion some of the most compelling performances of the era. Three especially typified the willpower and the sense of timing that accentuated his talent.
He arrived in Sri Lanka late in 2002 with the publicly stated intention of scoring the 613 runs needed in the three Tests to lift his Test average, from below 48 where it stood to above 50. It was an unlikely goal but the magical left-hander reached his goal with an aggregate of 688 and an average of 114.66, utterly mastering the otherwise mystifying spin of Muttiah Muralitheran and swing of Chaminda Vaas.
Within a year, his Test record score of 375, compiled against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground in 1994, had been surpassed by the Australian Matthew Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth. It was a jolt to his ego. Those who knew him were in no doubt he would trump Hayden. He required only 185 days to prove them right.
In April 2004, on the same ARG where he eclipsed Sobers’ mark 10 years later and against the same opposition, he amassed 400, still unbeaten when he closed his, and the team’s, innings. The statistic and the circumstances of it were hard to comprehend.
The following year, Lara marked what he surely realised would be his last Test in Australia with another grand, and statistically significant display. His 226 carried him past Allan Border as Test cricket’s leading scorer.
The downside to it all was that such brilliance could not prevent 3-0 whitewashes in Sri Lanka and Australia. Even his ARG marathon simply ensured a draw that prevented a similar outcome.
By April 2007, following the failed World Cup campaign, he was gone, with little fanfare. Whatever his other flaws, his batting left an indelible legacy.
THE CHANDERPAUL FOLLOWUP: Once Lara made his final exit, someone was needed to fill the breach, a seemingly mission impossible.
Throughout his career, Chanderpaul was content to be in Lara’s shadow. Slim and frail, he constantly fidgeted at the crease and gathered his runs mainly from pushes and nudges rather than breathtaking cuts and drives.
With Lara gone, Chanderpaul recognised his additional responsibility. He became the game’s most immovable object, his consistency evident in his 1,933 runs in 22 Tests (seven hundreds, average 71.59) and his 1,476 runs in 31 ODIs (three hundreds, average 73.80).
Usually, he has either won or saved matches. His award of International Cricket Council Cricketer of the Year for 2008 was boost for West Indies cricket and a deserving honour.
THE GAYLE DEVELOPMENT: For all his straight talking, anti-establishment defiance, his quoted indifference to Test cricket and his laid-back approach, Chris Gayle has engendered an obvious loyalty among his players and, without losing the awesome power-hitting on which it is based, brought a new maturity to his batting. Especially in Australia recently, he and his team revived waning respect for West Indies cricket.
The first victory over South Africa (after eight losses and a draw) was achieved in his first match at the helm in 2007. Last season, he was in charge as the Wisden Trophy was regained from England. In 21 Tests since he took over on Ramnaresh Sarwan’s injury in England in 2007, he averages 46.73, with five of his overall 12 hundreds. His 197 against New Zealand in Napier just over a year ago and his unbeaten 165, batting from first ball to last, against Australia in Adelaide last month exemplified the term ‘captain’s innings’.
He now says he is “the right man to lead the West Indies through this challenging period”. At 30, he has ample time to prove it. The recent evidence indicates that he is up to it.
THE ARG RUN CHASE: Emboldened by their team’s victories in the first three Tests in 2004, Australian supporters turned up at the ARG carrying brooms to mark the inevitable clean sweep. When they set the West Indies more than any team had ever scored to win a Test, 418, the dust pans were at the ready.
What followed wiped away the years of tears than had gone before, even if temporarily. Hundreds by Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan carried the West Indies to within sight of the target but 46 were still needed when the seventh wicket fell. It proved no sweat for Omari Banks, a seemingly nerveless 20-year-old in his second Test, and Vasbert Drakes, a seasoned, travelling 33-year-old latecomer.
Captain Lara called it “the zenith” of his career. Along with his unbeaten 400, it is one of the few remaining West Indies records.
THE TWO BOLD BS: The West Indies had not won a global tournament since the World Cup in 1979. They looked unlikely to do so when their eighth wicket went down in the final of the Champions Trophy at the Oval in London on a dank, chilly September day in 2004. They were 71 away from the modest target of 218 set by England when the two Bs from Barbados, No.10, wicket-keeper Courtney Browne, and No.10, left-handed seam bowler Ian Bradshaw came together.
Beaten by England in all four Tests in the preceding series, it was surely the end of the line. But there was a rare tenacity in the ranks, generated by the desire to uplift the spirits of those in the Caribbean just devastated by hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne. Carefully at first and then with increasing confidence, the two advanced towards their objective.
The outcome almost certainly hinged on their decision to decline the umpires’ offer to end play for the day in the increasing darkness. England captain Michael Vaughan’s jaw visibly dropped at the sheer bravado of it. At that moment, victory was assured.
When it came, with Bradshaw’s Lara-like square-driven boundary, it was greeted by an invasion of the field by their hugging, kissing, flag-waving team mates and similar celebrations among West Indians in the stands and in front of television and radio sets throughout the Caribbean.
Within a month, the euphoria was doused by the renewal of the unrelenting feud between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), characterised by language more identifiable as North Korean and Iranian political invective.
That, more than anything else, has been at the heart of the problem throughout the last distressing decade.
Is it too much to hope for harmony and better days in the decade that started on Friday?