Bravo's band changing rules of international game
Thu, Apr 7, '16
If the premier West Indies cricketers are to be solely known for their T20 skills, will the regional Test side remain relevant anymore?
In Oliver Stone's biopic, a bewildered Richard Nixon wonders at the circumstances that brought about his resignation via Watergate. "Things won't be the same after this," he tells Henry Kissinger. "I played by the rules, but the rules changed, right in the middle of the game."
At the World Twenty20, England, India, Australia and New Zealand played by the rules entering the tournament, but teams mixing Test men and T20 experts all fell short of a West Indian collective with only two modestly performing Test players and a majority long finished with the game, if they ever made it there in the first place. A turning tide had been evident for nearly six months.
On December 12 in Hobart, West Indies lost to Australia in three days. An underprepared team shivered through the Tasmanian winds and took only four Australian wickets before lasting less than 107 overs across two woebegone innings. The next two weeks before Boxing Day were duly filled with tale upon tale of Caribbean ineptitude and struggle, with plenty of brickbats directed at Marlon Samuels in particular.
It was in these gloomy days that a jerky dance number first emerged, launched not in Shane Warne's Club 23 at Crown Casino nor any other swanky Southbank locale, but instead at a near deserted Docklands Stadium, as ground staff mowed the pitch in the background. Dwayne Bravo's "Champion" was unveiled with the help of some Bollywood dancers and the Melbourne Renegades PR team.
