Calypso kings now all cash and bling, and a rabble

Tue, Oct 21, '14

The West Indies' abandonment of their tour of India is the sort of mess that only they could contrive. As players and officials turned acrimoniously on each other and on themselves this week, and the full consequences became apparent – including the possibility of the West Indies' absence at next year's World Cup – it was poignant that it fell to Clive Lloyd to make the apology.

The miracle of the West Indies is that it does not exist, except as a cricket team. It is not a country, but a region, widespread, diverse and economically straitened, united only by a seductive beachy image. To cohere and grow at cricket to a point where it dominated the game for 20 years, it needed strong, charismatic leaders who reconciled factions and cultivated loyalty and respect. Sir Frank Worrell was one, Lloyd another, and in his own taciturn way, so was Viv Richards.

Together, they made the West Indies not just powerful, but attractive to watch and popular.  Worrell's team, though narrowly beaten in Australia in 1961, was given a ticker tape parade in Melbourne as it left. Lloyd chose the SCG for his last Test, and upon departing was accorded an ovation that did not die until he was inside the pavilion. Richards made happy masochists of us all.