Hope Springs For West Indies

Shai Hope

 

In the gloom of a cloudy evening at Headingley with floodlights casting an unreal haze, Shai Hope flicked the ball to the leg side and ran two, arms upraised.

The crowd watched in disbelief. The West Indies had pulled off a resounding victory against England in the Second Test, chasing a huge target of 322 against all odds.

This was Hope’s second century of the match, a feat never achieved on the historic ground which has seen some of the best names play. His partner in this great win was Kraigg Brathwaite, who narrowly missed a second century in the match by a whisker. They both showed immense concentration and control to pull off a miracle.

The win also took the Englishmen by surprise as they were expecting the West Indies to crumble as they did in the First Test, a day/night affair at Edgbaston. It would come as a great relief for West Indian fans that their team showed a lot of guts after failing day in and day out over the last few years.

The dismal record of the West Indies in Test and one-day internationals had become an epidemic with no cure in sight.

They were the perennial lambs to the slaughter and were placed low on the ICC rankings, sometimes even below new entrants. The fact that they failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy this year after being a previous winner was the ultimate insult.

There was a time, particularly in the era of Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards when the West Indies were the all-conquering crusaders. Hard-hitting batting and fearsome fast bowling were the trademark of their success.

Some of the best players in the world came from the Caribbean. Sir Garfield Sobers was an icon in the sport and well-respected all over. Though things were beginning to deteriorate in the late 1990s and in the new millennium, there were great players like Brian Lara and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul who kept the flag flying.

But once they went, things got really bad. The blame for this fully lies with the West Indies Cricket Board.

The failed to realise that cricket had progressed and money was the magic draw. The board, with their antiquated ideas, failed to look ahead. The domestic structure was horrible and the qualification rules did not make sense.

The Caribbean youth were disillusioned with the sport and many opted to go to the US to try their luck with basketball or baseball there. The better cricketers became mercenaries after the Twenty20 tournaments came into being, preferring the big money offered by the leagues to the pittance from playing to the country.

The adamant and sometimes bull-headed board got into confrontation mode, and many talented players were left to peddle their wares in the T20s. The slide continued and lucrative deals fell by the wayside as no-one wanted to sponsor a weak side.

Unfortunately no solution seemed to be in sight until the West Indies tapped former cricketer Jimmy Adams as a cricket director. Adams first move to reconcile with the rebels and try to get them back into the fold. Picking Stuart Law as head coach was also wise as he brought the Australian determination into the team.

So will Hope literally spur a West Indian revival? For the good of cricket in general West Indies must get to be a strong side again.

The world needs West Indies to add flair to cricket. With the game getting stagnant in recent times, a strong West Indies will bring the zing back in cricket.

Babu Kalyanpur
Latest posts by Babu Kalyanpur (see all)