The redemption song for Calypso Cricket

When was the last time you saw the West Indies lift a trophy? 2004 you might say and you may be perfectly right! But to the world that includes statistical nerdies like me, it was 10 years before I was born, in 1979. Cricket was played in whites, one-dayers were like Tests. 60 overs a side, rarely helmets, no powerplay rules, no 15-over rules, no fielding restrictions, no bouncer rules, boundaries were longer, Packer Series had changed the way cricket was thought of, India was yet to win a World Cup match, an Indian batsman was yet to make a century in the shorter format.

In India, Indira Gandhi and her politically ambitious son were alive, the phenomenon called Big B began, the ugly Ambassadors were the only cars on roads, India was still the genius in hockey! In the world, people still were haunted by Hitler’s nightmare – the Berlin Wall was intact, Russia was called U.S.S.R, the Cold War was at its peak, Yugoslavia was still there, the world was without internet and mobile phones; letters, telegrams and telephones were all that we relied on for communication. Phew! that was like ages ago – you felt dinosaurs were still alive at that time, that was how long it had been since West Indies won anything that went in connection with the juxtaposition of the words World and Cup.

And so, it was perfectly understandable when Marlon Samuels launched those red apples fiercely into the stands as if he was waging a war. It was perfectly understandable when Darren Sammy and his men danced Gangnam style. It was perfectly understandable when Chris Gayle, normally restraint when batting and playing in the IPL to do crazy stuff on winning the cup. It all meant West Indies, more than any other nation wanted to hold the trophy badly. Sourav Ganguly summed it up perfectly, “West Indies are Brazil in Cricket; like football cannot be without Brazil, cricket cannot be without West Indies’. People who may not know (that includes all those cricket enthusiasts born since the latter half of the 90s) would have gathered some knowledge of ‘The Invincibles’ through the movie, Fire in Babylon released in India this year.

The four horseman of the apocalypse

The West Indies from 1960s to 1980s and with little extension to the 90s, produced some of the most legendary cricketers the world has ever known. If any cricket enthusiast were to make an all-time West Indian XI, you will have two very strong reserve teams as well; that was how strong they were. You may have seen the sixes of Gayle, Pollard and Samuels and wondered how could they do that? Have you ever seen Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd, Gary Sobers bat? They not only hit those massive sixes but they stayed long like Chanderpaul and scored fluently like Lara. Forget that, let me tell you what Andy Roberts claimed, “whatever the opposition scored, we would bowl them out for less”. Think for a moment, Andy Roberts, Micheal Holding, Colin Croft, Joel Garner did not just bowl you out, they broke your jaws, your ribs and gave you nightmares of taking your life away. Bouncer rules came into play because batsmen feared for their lives, they were literally peeing in their pants like the innocent, weeny school children. Go and ask Tony Grieg & Brian Close, they will tell you the story behind Micheal Holding’s nickname – ‘Whispering Death’. There was no end to this pace battery; you had Malcolm Marshall, Ian Bishop, Sylvester Clark, Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh.

You were wondering how Gayle could hit a century in 20 overs, and how Marlon Samuels could score 78 out of 108 runs when he was out. Just see how Viv batted; he made the record-breaking 56-ball century in Tests and when ODIs were played like Tests, he had an amazing strike rate of 91. There was an ODI played at Old Trafford, Manchester – May 31, 1984 – West Indies 166/9. Viv batting on 95. He then shared a record 106-run last wicket partnership with Holding to finish at 189*- adding 94 more runs- to surpass the highest ODI score made by Kapil Dev- 175* against Zimbabwe, which was rated by Wisden as the finest ever knocks in ODIs. Ask your fathers and grandfathers as to how Clive Lloyd whacked Bedi in Firozshah Kotla, how Sobers hit Lillee and his co. for 258 runs playing for the rest of the world – rated by Bradman as the greatest innings he had ever seen. Ask how when given a target of 344 with two sessions to go, Greenidge hit Ian Botham, Grahem Dilley, Bob Willis to score the then fastest double century to win the match.

They were unstoppable! Literally unstoppable! It took Kapil Dev and his determined men to down them. West Indies, in the period between 1980 to 1995, they did not lose a single Test series; a kind of domination nearly equalled by the Brazil football team between 1958 and 1970. Not even the Aussies captained by Taylor, Waugh , Ponting could achieve that.

Cricket changed much after the 1983 World Cup. It brought life and more giftedly for India, gave a dream to a 10-year-old curly-haired boy to play cricket and lift the trophy for India. Since then, the world has changed so dramatically, that it appeared that West Indies cricket like the civilization of Atlantis had been buried. The joy of their spectators had faded, Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul reached milestones but West Indies still craved for something special. Added to these wounds, the spat between players and the corrupt, parsimonious and pusillanimous board who just sat there doing nothing to improve the sport. The main reason behind some of them going in search of greener pastures in other sports abroad and some exceptionally talented ones to Olympics like Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. Cricket was not eagerly sought after any more.

It painstakingly hurt, not just them but the world who knew them. We always loved the West Indies. Whenever we lost to any nation in any part of the cricketing world, we relied heavily on the West Indians to sooth our wounds. We were always connected. Probably because we shared Indians as a name for nationals, may be because of our colour; what exactly we did not know, but we just loved them. To us, they were the symbolization of the Pied Piper. We just swayed to their Calypso tunes, lost in an illusionary wonderland. To us, this sudden downgrade transformation of the West Indies was totally unacceptable. We just wondered what went wrong and in my case, secretly wept even as India beat them 2-0 in the last home series.

Came the IPL 2012, you saw them all over, in all corners, the reason behind your team’s success. Chris Gayle for RCB, Sunil Narine for KKR, Dwayne Bravo for CSK, Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard for MI, the West Indians were responsible for the success stories. In a way the spat with the Board helped, for players like Bravo and Gayle played in almost all the T20 leagues all over the world. They honed their cricketing skills. This time, they were better prepared like no other. Not even Pakistan, which plays T20 with more feverish passion than they do in other forms.

Then their affable, loving and endearing Captain Darren Sammy helped the team in travelling the road ahead. Ed Smith, the former English cricketer (who played alongside Dravid for Kent) turned writer wrote in one of his famous thought-provoking essays as to why he felt that captaincy was more suited as per the mood of the team. I firmly believe that in the case of West Indies. Take Darren Sammy for an instance; you won’t even glance at his name from the corner of your eyeball. He is not great with the ball and certainly not legendary with the bat, but he had this uncanny ability to manage men. He transformed the West Indies from a group of individuals with dreams to a team with a dream. It would have never occurred to any West Indian fan considering the legends it produced that a man who could bring back those glory days was not Brian Lara or a Carl Hooper or Shivnarine Chanderpaul or even Chris Gayle but an ordinary man called Darren Sammy.

I admire him for 2 reasons:

1) Considering his limited abilities, he always felt that his place in the team must never be taken for a ride and so he must in effect give his best – day in and day out – on the field and off the field. He was Dravid in temperament and character. You could see that players were happy; they felt nice and warm.

2) He respected the fans, the price they were paying to watch and the time they spent. He felt disheartened when he did not perform, when his team did not perform especially. How I wish every Indian cricketer could have such a feeling!

But still he was probed with questions. One wondered why he was till lurking in the grassy fields and certainly asked these questions when their fate was hanging and he chose Marlon Samuels over Sunil Narine to bowl the Super Over against the fighting gladiator, Ross Taylor. Sammy came to the post-match conference and simply said, “Marlon Samuels is my go to man in pressure situations, he’s suffering from a bad shoulder so that’s why he doesn’t bowl more”. No wonder why, Marlon Samuels played one of the greatest knocks in T20 history. WI was 2/1 in 3 overs. 32/2 in 10. 48/2 in 12. Then bang,bang, bang – the Sri Lankans saw shooting stars. When Samuels holed out, he had made 78 of the 108 runs. Sammy, you could see, did not want to ever see that kind of a knock in vain. He ran hard as if his life was at stake, 26 off 15 balls, the second highest score. The last 2 crucial balls going for fours.

You still thought Sri Lankans could win. Home crowd, good batters of spin, Jayawardane, Sangakkara, Dilshan, Angelo Matthews. In came Ravi Rampaul and bowled what was in my opinion the ball of the tournament; Dilshan’s off stump cart-wheeling. It silenced the crowd. And for arguably the first time in history, Duckworth-Lewis played spoilsport without a drop of rain. Jayawardene saw the D-L scoresheet during a brief drinks break between change of overs and tried the reverse sweep, and Sammy grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Angelo Matthews, a deft batsman, let one on to the stumps. And then on, pandemonium! Sri Lankans played like lunatics. For West Indies, it gave much joy, akin to the Indian showers after a drought. The neutrals were siding with the West Indies and their triumph was much cherished.

It brought back memories of a past that I wished to have lived in. For a fleeting moment, I saw the spirit of Viv Richards in a rejuvenated Marlon Samuels. To me the best ever moment was Marlon Samuels, with the passionate eyes of a warrior hitting a mid-lined yorker with a horizontal bat over the ropes that covered a whopping 108 metres. The ball traveled at the speed slightly faster than his fellow national, the fastest man and the greatest showman of our times – The Lightning Bolt. That shot proved how determined the West Indies were.

Hope this is the redemption song for Calypso cricket.

“This is definitely a step. We believe we can win matches. We are not trying just to compete any more. We believe we can win against good opposition,” Sammy said.

We certainly hope so.