Their teenaged team has brought a welcome, long overdue whiff of optimism to West Indies cricket.
In advancing to today’s final of the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, the players demonstrated a resilience that, for a multiplicity of reasons, has been repeatedly beyond their seniors. It will be severely tested in the showpiece climax by India, the one remaining unbeaten team in a tournament otherwise marked by its unpredictability.
It doesn’t necessarily follow that success at a global age group competition leads to success at the higher level. Today is only the second time the West Indies have contested the final. They were beaten by Pakistan, also in Bangladesh, in 2004. No one on either side has even half the 79 Tests and 129 ODIs of Denesh Ramdin, then West Indies captain and still going after an international career of a dozen years.
Once they outlive the age limit, some top teens drift away from the game into other pursuits; others won’t develop sufficiently to qualify for Test or limited-overs selection.
The enthusiasm of tv commentators Ian Bishop, Paul Allott and Daryl Cullinan, all former Test players, might have reflected the widespread desire for a West Indies revival. They sounded genuine enough.
West Indian Bishop recommended the immediate inclusion into the senior squad of