Rising from Windies rubble, will such last in lure of riches
THE imperious manner in which West Indies dispatched England on Saturday to seal the Test series and reclaim the Wisden Trophy has made the world stop and take notice. A 381-run victory in the 1st Test in Barbados might have been labelled a one-off, but the ten wicket-demolition in Antigua that followed on Saturday removed all doubt about which team was superior. Indeed, one can argue England have not won a single session of cricket on tour so far.
However, the youngest generation of West Indies fans have never experienced real Test success. Two T20 World Cup titles in the last seven years (2012 and 2016), led by Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Samuel Badree, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard and Carlos Brathwaite, have been all Windies fans have been able to enjoy – till now.
The West Indies now possess a fearsome fast bowling quartet with genuine height in Jason Holder (6”7), Shannon Gabriel (6”2), Alzarri Joseph (6”4) and Oshane Thomas over six feet tall. Only Kemar Roach is below six feet but he seems to be doing just fine with a Man-of-the-Match performance in the 2nd Test (eight wickets) and a five-for in the 1st Test.
With this crop alongside Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach and Darren Bravo, the Windies have a group not only willing and capable of competing at the Test level – but they also seem to enjoy playing the longest format. This could be the genesis of a revival in red-ball cricket in the region.
And Cameron has shown himself to be as stubborn as Darren Bravo did in defying the English on his way to the slowest ever half-century by a West Indian (by time) on Saturday – 50 off 215 balls in five hours and 42 minutes.
This cannot happen again. Young Guyanese star Hetmyer is now a T20 star and was bought for US$594,195 by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2019 Indian Premier League. Will the lure of T20 riches harm his and other young cricketers’ relationships with administrators All parties must learn from the past and what went wrong. Players too must look at what their peers did wrong in terms of using social media and other outlets to vent frustration. There are lessons to be learned all-around. Today we savour sweet victory but we must also think of yesterday to plan for tomorrow.
However, the youngest generation of West Indies fans have never experienced real Test success. Two T20 World Cup titles in the last seven years (2012 and 2016), led by Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Samuel Badree, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard and Carlos Brathwaite, have been all Windies fans have been able to enjoy – till now.
The West Indies now possess a fearsome fast bowling quartet with genuine height in Jason Holder (6”7), Shannon Gabriel (6”2), Alzarri Joseph (6”4) and Oshane Thomas over six feet tall. Only Kemar Roach is below six feet but he seems to be doing just fine with a Man-of-the-Match performance in the 2nd Test (eight wickets) and a five-for in the 1st Test.
With this crop alongside Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach and Darren Bravo, the Windies have a group not only willing and capable of competing at the Test level – but they also seem to enjoy playing the longest format. This could be the genesis of a revival in red-ball cricket in the region.
And Cameron has shown himself to be as stubborn as Darren Bravo did in defying the English on his way to the slowest ever half-century by a West Indian (by time) on Saturday – 50 off 215 balls in five hours and 42 minutes.
This cannot happen again. Young Guyanese star Hetmyer is now a T20 star and was bought for US$594,195 by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2019 Indian Premier League. Will the lure of T20 riches harm his and other young cricketers’ relationships with administrators All parties must learn from the past and what went wrong. Players too must look at what their peers did wrong in terms of using social media and other outlets to vent frustration. There are lessons to be learned all-around. Today we savour sweet victory but we must also think of yesterday to plan for tomorrow.
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