Holder and co need to bring the noise
Sarthak Dev looks at how this current West Indies side face a uphill task to change fan perceptions of the side...
It was the morning of a Test match at the most test-match-morning venue in the Caribbean. Every time there is a cricket match in St. Lucia, the broadcasters run a special video segment just to show off their workplace for the day. The stadium is hedged in by lush, green hills, the ground is perfectly oval, and the beach is just a few hundred metres away. Cricket is, at once, fitting and a distraction. Real estates rarely come better than the Darren Sammy National Stadium.
But that day, the stands were empty. As the two captains walked out for the toss, all you could hear were occasional claps from the dressing rooms and some loud, coordinated chanting from the Barmy Army. Kemar Roach generated some dangerous movement from the first delivery of the match, but there were no oohs and aahs to egg him on. It would take him twenty-eight more attempts to produce another good nut. Eventually, the entire game passed by without any substantial turnout.
The series scoreline of 2-0 - leading up to the match - made the lack of a local audience even more bizarre. For perspective, against teams not called Zimbabwe or Bangladesh, West Indies had achieved a 2-0 margin in a test series just once in the last 20 years. When asked about the paltry numbers, Lance Gibbs, once part of a West Indian team that filled up stadiums everywhere they went, said “They don’t like losers. If you’re not winning, they’re not going to support you.”
Even accounting for Gibbs’ age, it was a weird thing to say about a team when they’re leading 2-0.
—
Gibbs knows a thing or two about winning and losing. His last test series ended with a scoreline as staggering as what followed in West Indies cricket in the two decades after it. In the sweltering Australian summer of ‘76, a batting lineup of Fredericks, Richards, Kallicharan, Rowe, and Lloyd struggled to deal with the heat of Lillee and Thomson. West Indies cricket had seen worse days, but rarely had they looked so out of place as they did during that 1-5 thrashing.
It was not a team that, by any stretch of the imagination, faced with any scoreline, could be called losers. On the contrary, a big chunk of that team would play vital roles in the exhilarating twenty year period which followed, where West Indies won all but three Test series’.
Monikers and labels in cricket are curious in their usage, because they are based on perceived likelihood rather than statistics. When a bowler is called unplayable, it is rarely a case where he/she is generating more wickets than dot balls or boundaries. Among men who have picked more than 100 test wickets, the best strike-rate (average number of balls bowled per wicket) is 34.
Sachin Tendulkar, statistical behemoth and by all accounts a half-decent batsman, crossed fifty just once every five times he went out to bat in international cricket. Even Sir Donald Bradman, oracle of batsmanship, the man who averaged 99.96 in test cricket, crossed fifty once every two innings. How many times have you heard people say they would choose X person to bat for their life?
In sport, the distance between good and bad perception is often decided by the ability to retain mental tenacity during crunch moments, against the strongest opponents. Often too, in the case of team sports, the thickness of the line depends on many different players and factors. Diego Maradona enjoys the reputation of a talisman and a serial winner in Argentine colours, but his only major title with Argentina came down to Jorge Burruchaga keeping his composure with five minutes to go in a World Cup final. Conversely, Maradona could’ve won his second had Andreas Brehme fluffed his lines four years later. Two moments that could’ve coloured his career in very different shades, and he had no control over either.
—
Roseau, Dominica. Another cricket stadium flanked by green hills and turquoise waters. The series hangs at 1-1; seven balls are left to play; Pakistan need a wicket to win. Roston Chase, standing at the non-striker’s end, has scored a tremendously gritty 101 - the second-highest score on the West Indies scorecard is 25. Shannon Gabriel has expertly handled everything Pakistan have thrown at him, including the five balls on the rough outside his leg stump that Yasir Shah has bowled from around the wicket this over. He has one more to negotiate and leave the reigns into the safe hands of Chase. Younis Khan, standing at first slip, playing his last test match, gestures Shah to come over the wicket and pitch it outside the off stump.
Six fielders are standing close to Gabriel’s bat on the off side; three on the leg. Shah ambles in and lets out a looping leg-spinner drifting away from Gabriel. At this point, let’s pause. Sarfaraz Ahmed, Pakistan's wicket-keeper, has moved with the line of the ball and now just has half his left leg behind the stumps. Given the circumstances, given the field setting, and incredibly, given the trajectory and type of the ball, it is easier to leave the ball alone than to hit it. At this point, in all likelihood, West Indies are going away from this test series with a perfectly respectable come-from-behind draw against a very good Pakistan team. Roston Chase is a hero, and under Jason Holder’s captaincy, this team is about to turn a corner.
But when you move your eyes from the ball to Gabriel’s body position, your jaw begins to drop. His leading leg in stretched out, his trailing leg is bent, and the bat has begun a downward arc from the top of his backlift. Don’t play the video from here on; it’s too painful to watch.
Cast your gaze onto something more recent. Old Trafford, Manchester; day five of the third Test. The forecast for the day isn’t quite screaming for cricket. The series, once again, hangs in the balance at 1-1. While walking out for an early lunch, England captain Joe Root has a lengthy conversation with the umpires. Root understands the value of every lost second. At 87-5, West Indies understand the value of every passing second in the safe confines of the dressing room, away from Broad and Woakes and Anderson.
On the first ball of the third over after lunch, Blackwood edges Woakes, but the ball passes by the stumps with a warning. Phil Simmons, the coach, is looking up at the sky after every ball. Next delivery, Blackwood dabs the ball on the off side, stutters, takes a few steps, stutters a little more, and then decides he wants to take the kind of single you take in the last over of a limited-overs match. From the non-striker’s end, Roston Chase follows Blackwood’s indecision before backing his teammate’s call. Direct hit, run out. One ball later, the rains come down again.
Thirty minutes after England wrap up the game and the series, the Manchester skies opened up gloriously. In the second Test, early on the last day, before Ben Stokes set upon doing what Ben Stokes does, John Campbell dropped a simple catch of his. Those are the margins between retaining the Wisden Trophy and leaving England on the wrong side of a 2-1 scoreline.
--
At the post-series press conference, Jason Holder spent a lot of time discussing, in his trademark calm yet passionate manner, the inequalities of the ICC annual revenue system. He spoke of the difficulties that WICB are facing at funding cricket in the isles. It’s a plea that will most likely fall on deaf ears, even though the entire sport owes West Indies a massive amount of gratitude for taking major health risks just to bring things back on track.
Holder and his men can do very little to bend the Big Three's thirst for influence, but they can force the rest of the world to take notice. When they start winning matches, when they start winning series’, people will tune in. When they get looked at as a legitimate force, the best teams in the world would take them seriously and want to play them more. BCCI will not dare to call them over as willing pushovers just because they want to give someone a grand farewell. The next retiring Pakistan player won’t anticipate a rash shot in the final moments of a test series.
The Caribbean can be a tough place to play cricket, especially for the home side. The maroon cap carries with itself a heavy weight of its glorious history and a heavier weight of the recent past. The crowds at Sabina Park and Kensington Oval have seen the best of the world reduced to pulp. They have also seen the graft behind genius - batsmen and bowlers toiling day in and day out to take their team from exotic curiosities to the realms of universal awe and reverence.
Over the last twenty years, they have witnessed a tragic reversal of fortunes. Opportunities and careers have been wasted at an alarming rate. After every Wisden Trophy 2019 corner, there is a stretch of shocking performances, like the one at home against India last summer. The apprehension before reading too much into anything good is only natural.
The West Indian fan, like any other passionate observer of the game, will understand that mistakes can happen. Rash shots at inopportune moments or silly run-outs aren’t completely unusual. But when fans walk up the stairs of a stadium, they project their hopes and dreams onto the players. They trust the players to suspend reality, to make them forget, even if for six hours, the rigours of everyday life. The least they can expect is for their team to make the opposition earn their victories.
At the St. Lucia test against England, there were entire cartons of unsold $15 tickets gathering dust at the counter. The onus to fill up that counter, to be crowd pullers, lands on the feet of the men who wear that maroon cap. This West Indian team has a lot of very skilled cricketers with endearing, inspiring life stories, but they must find a way to bridge the gap in perception as a cricket team. It will be a right travesty if men like Holder, Chase, Roach, and Gabriel are tagged as losers for the rest of their careers.
Sarthak Dev
If you’d like to contribute to Caribbean Cricket News do let us know as we are always open to new ideas and suggestions.
Leave a comment below or reply via email with your response to Sarthak’s article.
Your interaction is what helps grow the community and we appreciate every response.