West Indies finally look ready to lay ghosts of legendary past to rest
Wed, Jul 15, '20
hosts follow this West Indies team. Like every other squad who’ve travelled from the Caribbean to England in the last couple of decades they’re haunted by the men who came before them, men you still see on the TV, hear on the radio, and read about in books, magazines, and newspapers such as this one.
Say West Indies haven’t won an opening Test here in 20 years, and see Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose in their last, late, unplayable pomp, bowling endless, parsimonious overs in 2000. Say West Indies haven’t won’t a series here in 32 years, and think of Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards in all their glory, smacking fours to all quarters back in 1988.
All that and more. West Indies’ history in Test cricket still feels so close because they’ve written so little more of it worth talking about in the years since. The team have not won an away series against one of the seven sides currently ranked above them since the winter of 1994-95, when they beat New Zealand. In 25 years since, the only teams they’ve beaten outside the Caribbean are Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Here in England, this latest Test was only their second victory in 20 years, after that famous run chase at Headingley in 2017. And even that one feels a little bittersweet now, because the man who won it for them, Shai Hope, hasn’t made a Test century since.
Read more at The Guardian
