windies must focus on playing not bickering
Tim Wigmore identifies an uplift in West Indies cricket with Chris Gayle’s return but cautions that hurdles still remain
In the end, all Chris Gayle’s long-awaited one-day international return consisted of was a few autographs. In Belfast, a delayed start gave way to a 10:30 inspection, then an 11:30 inspection, then a 12:30 inspection, and then a planned 1:30 inspection, before rain intervened, and so there was no cricket at all.
So it was an exasperating day – but, for the West Indies at least, also a clarifying one. They now need to beat England 4-1 in the looming ODI series to advance into eighth place in the ODI rankings, and so secure an automatic berth for the 2019 World Cup in England.
Should they indeed fail to do so, then the World Cup qualifiers – most probably in Zimbabwe next March – awaits. That will be a brutal, cut-throat tournament, with only two of the ten competing nations advancing. The eventual qualifiers for the tournament are likely to face 11 matches in under 40 days, each one of them a high-octane match with huge stakes.
For the West Indies, victors of the first two World Cups, the mere chance of being absent for a World Cup still seems unfathomable.
Yet even if the qualifiers do indeed await, at least the West Indies have been strengthened by the return of Gayle and Marlon Samuels; the product of the recent rapprochement between the players and the board. When Gayle does make his return next week, it will be his first ODI since the last World Cup, way back in March 2015.
“It brings a lot to the squad,” said ODI captain Jason Holder in Ireland. “We’ve not had the luxury of guys like Chris and Marlon in the recent past, but we all know what they can bring to any side. Hopefully they can come in and make their presence felt and produce some really strong performances.”
Holder’s real hope is that Gayle and Samuels do not just bring victories, but galvanise and inspire the younger players in the squad, too.
“Hopefully it will create a good atmosphere, a competitive atmosphere in terms of playing if the youngsters know they’ve got to perform a bit more. It’s a good place to be and hopefully everyone can buy into it and put up a really strong fight into contending to get into the final XI. That’s the environment any cricket team would like to create where there’s a lot of competition for places.”
Whether this is the end or the beginning of the exiles returning in ODI cricket remains unclear. The West Indies expect Sunil Narine to make an ODI return, probably in time for the qualifiers. But there is every likelihood than neither Dwayne Bravo nor Kieron Pollard will ever play an ODI again.
Should they even? On one level the answer is obvious, particularly in Pollard’s case. But there is also a need to develop a new ODI side, just as there are glimpses of in Tests. Perhaps too many returnees would endanger that process of renewal.
“We’re pretty much at the point now where we’re just trying now to rebuild, and rebuilding with a lot of youth,” said Holder. “Hopefully the guys like Chris and Marlon coming back can really guide the youngsters and nurture them in the right direction.”
So toppling England 4-1 away would be an extraordinary achievement. It is almost certainly beyond them, Gayle or no Gayle. The real aim, rather, should be to build on the promise of the last two Tests, and continue the shift in the West Indies’ focus from ceaseless internal politicking to their actual opponents on the cricket field. This work is far from done, even if the new Johnny Grave regime as WICB chief executive, the amnesty and the Headingley victory amount to the contours of an exciting new West Indies era.
“I think we’ve got to put systems in place to make sure that we can sustain all of it,” Holder reflected.
“The addition of Johnny Grave is excellent, he’s brought some really nice things. And we’ve got a young group in the Test side who seem to be gelling. T20 cricket we’ve always been really strong in. It’s just a matter of putting together a really strong one-day team. We’re at the stage where we’re practically rebuilding our one-day side. Hopefully in the next few series guys can get a little bit more comfortable on the international circuit and make their presence felt.”
And do not believe that the deleterious relationship between players and board is fully repaired, either. “It’s still a work in progress and hopefully over the next few months it will become tighter,” Holder said.
How all those who long for a substantive revival in Caribbean cricket will hope that he is right.