“I’m trying to understand your question,” Daren Sammy said, with a scratch of his head. The reporter he was addressing had spent the 60 seconds prior laying the foundation for a very poignant query. “Do you think the idea of the West Indies is fading among the next generation of players?” he asked.
It’s a question that has been tossed around quite callously for the last decade. Some may argue that the current state of West Indies cricket justifies it. The West Indies coach, however, isn’t one of them.
“I think the ‘idea’ of the West Indies brings, probably in history, the most successful brand in cricket,” the two-time T20 World Cup-winning captain began his oration. “That is what the ‘idea’ of the West Indies represents.”
Just as Sammy tested out the theory by repeating the word in his response, shall we do the same? In essence, the people of the Caribbean are not being asked if West Indies cricket has served its purpose. A decade and a half of dominance with the red ball and seven white-ball titles (across the men’s, women’s, and age-group teams) will justify that. However, the question we are posed with is whether this purpose has reached its conclusion. Is there a fundamental reason why the institution still exists? Sammy insists there is. “The idea of the West Indies will never be one that is a failure, because I understand the history we bring to this game.”