Underdog tag spurs West Indies to dig deep against England
Words bite. Michael Vaughan knows this. He is a commentator for Test Match Special. You talk about what is in front of you. The future, the undiscovered country, gives you nothing.
After England had walloped the West Indies at Edgbaston, Vaughan went off on the BBC: “Every time they have arrived in England, they seem to have got worse.
“There are a lot of young players in the West Indies side and you need to give them time, but I find it difficult to think they can go on without any senior players. There is no one there to teach them. I really fear that this series could be one of the saddest for Test cricket.”
On Tuesday, after the 23year-old Shai Hope had guided the Windies to a win over England that few thought would be likely, he tweeted: “Anyone fancy some humble pie for tea tonight …”
The saddest series has now become a must-watch. One-all with one Test to come. Will Headingly be the turnaround for the West Indies? Will it be the moment they begin to believe? Will this great cricketing nation rise once again?
I’m not going to guess. Words bite. Pie crumbles. Humility hurts. Predications wilt. Cricket is a funny old game. Test cricket is funnier, but not always ha-ha funny.
Back in 1998, the West Indies arrived in SA for a fiveTest series. They were late. And it wasn’t funny.
Instead of coming directly to Johannesburg, the players decided to go to London after a dispute with their board. They were holed up in a hotel.
Clive Lloyd was the manager of the team and he had already flown to Joburg.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) fired Brian Lara and Carl Hooper as captain and vice-captain and announced they would take action against the seven players who had remained in London.
The main issue was, money, and, according to ESPNcricinfo it was: “having to fly economy class to Bangladesh, inadequate meal allowances to SA and a week camp in Johannesburg”.
Ali Bacher and the United Cricket Board were in a fuss. It was to be the first full tour to SA. History was going to be made. It didn’t help matters by putting the headline: “Bacher’s new rebels” on a Sunday Independent story on the Windies no-show.
Lloyd and Bacher flew to London and stayed in a different hotel to the players’. Bacher had a letter from Nelson Mandela in his pocket, addressed to Lara and his team, telling them the tour was of great importance to SA.
Bacher knew how to use the media well. He found out when the international media would be at the Windies’ hotel and timed a trip there to coincide with their presence. The Rodney Hartman-authored autobiography, Ali, tells the tale: “I bumped into Courtney Walsh, the players’ representative. In front of the television cameras and the international media, I asked him to convey to his teammates that I had a message for them from Nelson Mandela, and handed him the letter. I also made a copy of it available to the international media.”
Having received the plea from Madiba to come to SA, there followed a series of events that included players being reinstated, the WICB said that it was all just a misunderstanding and the tour was back on.
It was historic, but it was awful. SA thrashed the West Indies 5-0 in the Tests and 6-1 in the ODIs. They arrived but they were never here.
Some of us wondered whether the West Indies would ever recover from that. They have ebbed and flowed and produced some moments of wonder and despair.
How we miss them when they are at their best, when they rumble back into form. How we love it when they make us eat humble pie.
“We weren’t given a chance to beat England, since we landed here,” said their head coach Stuart Law on Tuesday.
“We’ve heard it from every part of the media, the written press, Sky Sports, all the former cricketers — we weren’t given a chance, mate, so that actually provided us with a lot of fire, a lot of fuel to produce what we’ve done over the last five days,” he said.
“I know there’s a lot of people eating humble pie, they’re saying nice things about us, but deep down, they don’t believe in us — which is great for us.
“We’re going to Lord’s, we’ll still be the underdog. I love being an underdog as well, because you can sneak up and bite your opponent on the backside.”
Indeed.
WE WEREN'T GIVEN A CHANCE TO BEAT ENGLAND, SINCE WE LANDED HERE. WE’VE HEARD IT FROM EVERY PART OF THE MEDIA — WE WEREN’T GIVEN A CHANCE, MATE