Remembering 4 September 2000: The day England finally took back the Wisden Trophy, 26 years ago today.
England's 3-1 victory, completed on September 4, 2000, was their first home series win over the West Indies since 1969. The empire had been weakening for years. At The Oval, the paperwork was finally completed.
For a generation of English cricketers, West Indies had not been an opponent so much as weather. They arrived every few summers, darkened the sky with fast bowling, and left with the Wisden Trophy.
Between 1973 and 1998, England did not win a Test series against them anywhere. The home encounters included the 1976 3-0 punishment guaranteed by Tony Greig's unfortunate "grovel" remark, consecutive 5-0 defeats in 1984 and 1985-86, and a succession of English batsmen discovering that courage and technical adequacy were separate things.
By 2000, the great West Indies side had already gone. Australia had taken the unofficial championship from them, ending their 15-year run without a series loss with a 2-1 result in the Caribbean in 1995.