There is no better place to be in Mumbai than to sit hours in front of the marine drive and see the gentle waves of the sea turn the rays of the sun into a nostalgic show of colours. On the eve of the World T20 semi-finals, Darren Sammy sat on the 3.5-kilometre-long boulevard in marine drive with the captain of the women’s West Indian team, determined as ever, stating the obvious that both men and women had derived a lot of inspiration from the U-19 team — a bunch of teenagers, defying all odds went on to be crowned as World Champions just about a month back.
Just as Andre Russell hit the final nail in the coffin for the Indians, West Indies once again had achieved a feat, rare by their standards in the past two decades. The team had qualified for the World T20 final (for the second time in four years) along with the women’s team.
A dormant and an extinct legacy of a team that once never lost a series in 15 years between 1980 to 1995, has finally erupted like a volcano. There might not be much left in the likes of Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo or Chris Gayle-all in the wrong end of thirties might be playing their last World Cup, given the fact that the next one is four years away but they have once again laid a platform for young kids growing up in that region, a reason to pick up a cricket bat and play. After all, cricket in the Caribbean islands has more than one enemy and if poor administration is one then football and basketball are the definitely the other two.
The game of cricket acts as a unifying force within the Caribbean islands that assists in cementing regional relations in a place battered with financial instability and lack of leaders that can keep the islands together. The great Sir Frank Worrell was instrumental in making the West Indians a fighting force as players from different territories put their differences behind and worked in unison. That made the West Indians what they were in the 70’s and 80’s as Clive Lyold took the team forward by winning two world titles, making them the best team ever to have graced a cricket pitch.
But the turn of the century saw the most dramatic decline in form and quality of players, with the team hardly winning anything in the past two decades. There were sure some individual brilliances or a moment of glory from players like Brian Lara or Shiv Narine Chanderpaul but nothing substantial to win them a title, 2004 Champions trophy being the only one.
Sammy seems to be of the same breed as Sir Frank Worrell or Clive Lloyd. With the average age of the side, little below 35, West Indies can take a lot of heart of the fact that their next bunch of players are up and ready to fill in the big shoes of Gayle, Bravo or Samuels. The likes of Alzarri Joseph, Chemar Holder are more than good prospects along with Shimron Hetmyer and a few others.
What the former champions need to be wary of is to not let these players fade away like many did after the U-19 World Cup in 2004. Only player to have made it big from that team is Denesh Ramdin while the rest either took up something else or could not deal with the hard and fast ordeal of first class cricket.
Cricket needs West Indies as much as West Indies need cricket to prosper in their nation.
