Misplaced Optimism?
With the 2007 Cricket World Cup finally here, there is hardly a West Indian cricket fan anywhere in the Caribbean and even beyond who is not hoping for, with some even predicting, a third time World Cup triumph for the regional team.Ask the die hard West Indian cricket fans what all the talk about "the curse of host teams" in World Cup history is and they will still maintain that their team will take the coveted trophy at the end of the tournament. And who can blame them? For too long, West Indians have been waiting for some semblance of a consistent and long term turnaround in the performance of their team.
For too long, the team has become the beating boys of international cricket.
And it is important that everyone understands that this involves not just cricket on the field of play, but it also extends to the administration of the rules of the game at the international level.
Simply put, the cricketing world and the governing administrators would love to see a West Indies team that continues to self-destruct, perhaps even beyond any hope of a resuscitation.
For them, it would be clear revenge for the defeats and subsequent embarrassment that West Indies teams of the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s inflicted on the rest of the cricketing world.
Make no mistake about it, the rest of the cricketing world, in particular the traditional bigwigs, are in no state of sorrow for what the West Indies have now disintegrated into.
From the glamour of World Cup champions in 1975 and 1979 and of dominating the international cricket arena up until the 1990s to having to play a qualifying round in the 2006 International Cricket Council Champions Trophy -- even while being the defending champions -- are realities that dent what has already become a fragile West Indian pride in many corners.
Such realities sum up the depths to which West Indian cricket has plunged, and this has been happening at a time when most of the cricketing world has been in the ascendancy, perhaps even motivated by what the West Indians themselves accomplished in their heyday.
Ever since losing the World Cup finals to India in 1983 and eventually losing their dominance in world cricket, the West Indies have time and again given glimpses of hope of a turnaround.
But such hope has too often faded, sometimes to the desperation of fans, who by now must have become accustomed to being on the losing side, with no apparent end to the downward spiral in sight.
Yet, in the build up the World Cup tournament, several prominent and great West Indian players have even given the nod to the regional team, including the likes of Sir Viv Richards, Wes Hall and Sir Garfield Sobers.
Never mind all the major teams have included a specialist spinner and the West Indies have chosen not to include one.
Never mind there are a total of seven potential seamers or fast bowlers in the side, who will clearly never play together in any single game, leaving the team optionless as regards a specialist spinner
Never mind Dwayne Smith can find his way back in the side ahead of the more consistent and level headed Darren Sammy.
Never mind Darren Ganga's performances in the Stanford 20-20 tournament and improved batting in the one-day version of the game regionally seems to mean nothing to the selectors.
Never mind Runako Morton's match winning innings are forgotten and has been given so few chances, as well as shoved around the batting order, but Marlon Samuels few heroics suddenly makes him a star despite a string of failures longer than Morton's.
No matter how much disagreement there may be concerning the team's selection, when the West Indies play well and win the resulting unity becomes pervasive, contagious and even festive in true Caribbean style.
Maybe it is that old taste of victory years ago and the yearning for more of it that fuels the kind of optimism that West Indies teams have always created in the mindset of its supporters.
Flashback to previous World Cup tournaments and most other major competitions for that matter, and the pre-excitement and optimism are the same.
There is just something mysterious that makes all West Indian fans at least hopeful that the regional team can and will come out on top, no matter where in the cricketing hierarchy and ranking they stand.
West Indies could be nine wickets down and 200 runs to be scored, and still there will be someone somewhere who believes that the number 11 will hold on for a win.
Maybe such optimism also holds true for cricket fans in other countries as well.
But with not much in West Indies' favour, it is this inherent optimism and die hard hope that should motivate the 15 men who have been selected to represent the West Indian to win the World Cup.
It would be the perfect stage to restore West Indian pride, and an even more perfect reward for the persevering hope and optimism of the thousands of never-say-die fans.