Savouring Windies victory

OVER THE last 30 years, supporters of the West Indies cricket have observed many false dawns of the team’s recovery, and even more declarations of its imminent turning of the corner.

After each new Test match or series loss, they endured vacuous statements about learning from mistakes and ‘going back to the drawing board’. But while their souls grew increasingly callused with disappointments, and they outwardly declared disdain for the team, the region’s cricket lovers continued to quietly “rally ’ round the West Indies”. Public opprobrium was like an exoskeleton to protect against the hurts.

There should be no surprise, therefore, at the outpouring of joy that has erupted across the Caribbean of the West Indies’ epic eight-run victory against Australia on Sunday to draw their two-Test series. For this was more than a sporting outcome or an opportunity to bask in the team’s glory. It was, perhaps fleetingly, a vindication of ourselves, of their Caribbean as a civilisation and the region’s sense of its worth.

Put another way, in a fraught period of global relations, the outcome was something of a, perhaps, wishful metaphor of the Caribbean’s place in these arrangements. I n cricketing terms, a mythical David of the Global South took down one of the powerhouses of the North. The embodiment of that David was Shamar Joseph, a 24-year-old Guyanese, who up to the time of his Test debut in the first match, had played in only seven first-class matches.

MONUMENTAL NATURE

The fact is, it i s not easy to overstate the monumental nature of what happened at the Gabba in Brisbane. With several of their established players choosing to play in lucrative T20 franchises rather than participate in the Test tour of Australia, the West Indies selectors named uncapped players for the trip Down Under.

In the first Test at Adelaide, which the West Indies lost by 10 wickets within four days, three of the uncapped players made their debut. Another had played in only a single Test while another had a mere five caps. I ndeed, as was highlighted by an Australian cricket correspondent, of the 231 combined Test played by the West Indian tourists before the start of the series, 216, or 94 per cent of them, involved only four players – the captain Kraigg Braithwaite (87), fast bowler Kemar Roach (77), fast bowler and vice- captain Alzarri Joseph (30), and wicketkeeper-batsman Joshua Da Silva (22).

What, however, has been different in this team was its seeming sense of mission, its capacity for shame and willingness to fight. The loss of a Test match was not merely sporting defeat that could be shrugged off with a dance session in the party stand.

In the first Test, the West Indies scored 188 and 120, with Kirk McKenzie hitting an even 50. But in both innings, the tail wagged. And Shamar Joseph was a revelation, taking five for 94 in Australia’s first innings of 288. With little to bowl at in the second innings, he secured a psychological advantage when he forced Usman Khawaja to retire hurt with a blow to the face.

Notably, the mighty Australia won but did not pile up a big score, and the West Indies seemed capable of bowling them out twice.

RESPONSE TO HOGG

Importantly, too, was the team’s response to former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg’s branding of the team as “hopeless” and “pathetic” and should not in the future be allowed to tour Australia for a Test series. He did not expect the second Test to “go any further than three days”.

Hogg’s remarks had echoes of England captain Tony Gregg’s promise to make the West Indians, then emerging as the world’s top team, “grovel” during their 1976 tour of England.

At the Gabba, with the top order having gone cheaply, the lower-order partnerships pushed the West Indies’ first-innings score to 311. Australia’s batting was again held in check, they scored 289 for nine declared. The West Indies managed 193 in their second innings, giving Australia 216 to win.

Hit on the toe while batting in the second innings, Shamar Joseph did not enter the field of play until after the break. Australia were relatively comfortably placed at 113 for two. Then, bowling with his injured toe, Joseph produced his epic spell, taking seven wickets for 68 in 11 overs.

Kraigg Braithwaite said his team was inspired by Hogg’s slur as it should have been if it possessed any sense of pride.

“My message to the group is this is the beginning,” Braithwaite said. “... We can enjoy this, but it has to continue.”

There is no guarantee that it will. There is much to fix in the West Indies, not least the need for an overhaul of its governance structure, which those who run the show at Cricket West Indies have too long resisted.

That new structure must appreciate cricket’s role in the social and political history of the anglophone Caribbean and how the game has moved with the region’s political phase.

Kraigg Braithwaite might finally be getting it in the context of C.L.R. James’ phrase: “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?”

It is a question that West Indian cricketers, administrators, and cricket fans should be asking themselves if they are to get the next phase right.