Revisiting the last couple of years of West Indian cricket

West Indies – Defending T20 Champions

Four months later, another written message from him was revealed after a momentous night in Sri Lanka which read ‘Sweeter from behind No.1’. West Indies had indeed beaten the rest of the world to be No.1; a special run that saw them winning the World T20 in Colombo. By this time, they had a bunch of power-packed short-format players in Chris Gayle, Kieran Pollard, Marlon Samuels and Sammy, who were capable big hitters; couple of quality all-rounders in Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo; and in Sunil Narine, they had found a world-class spinner.

Narine’s eight wickets had earlier helped West Indies win a Test after a span nine months, when New Zealand were defeated in Antigua. He was seen as a replacement for Bishoo, who, after impressing initially, had fallen away. But Narine, too, couldn’t hold on to the Test spot. However, they finally found someone to fill the void in the form of lanky off-spinner Shane Shillingford, who managed to purchase more bounce than the other two.

The series win against New Zealand seemed effortless. Though the team, despite its attitude, had to undergo a string of defeats to make amends for years of rust and earn the change in luck.

That the luck would continue for some time was a foregone conclusion as they faced Bangladesh away and Zimbabwe at home after the successful World Twenty20 campaign.

A few tricky moments awaited them in the two Tests in Dhaka and Khulna, but this time they returned the favour by playing the game others had played on them all the while. Best helped them do this in one instance. His five-wicket burst on the final day, in a display of serious pace, helped them bowl Bangladesh out for 167 to clinch a crucial victory in a tough match by 77 runs.

Against Zimbabwe, they cruised their way to a 2-0 win. Shillingford single-handedly romped West Indies home by taking 19 wickets in what was his debut series. It was to be seen, however, whether the lack of testing opponents would affect them when they toured India again in a few months.

It did take a toll as India pulverised them to provide the outgoing Sachin Tendulkar an apt farewell in November last year. Those stinging losses made Sammy realise how far behind the top teams they really were, something that he admitted too.

To rub this in, they lost comprehensively to New Zealand, too, a month later. Bravo’s rearguard effort to score a double-century and rescue his team in Dunedin notwithstanding, it seemed the gap was larger than just being behind the ‘top teams’.

Their journey seems to have hit a roadblock since their less-than-expected showing in the Champions Trophy in June under their new one-day captain Dwayne Bravo. And there we halt, but not with a sense of cynicism for Sammy and his team.

There seems to be a message in this journey so far, and it is that West Indies’ domination in cricket is widely enjoyed; not just for their colourful style of playing a lazy-looking game but also for their humour on and off the field. Ian Chappell maintains cricket needs a strong West Indies and the past couple of years have given us a glimmer of hope of that happening.