Tuesday 9 October 2012

West Indies - Not only calypso...!

Once upon a time in West Indies, black diamonds ruled - the Richards, Clive Loyd, Kalicharan, Haynes- Greenidge  Holding, Marshal….! Just before the T-20 World Cup, I read and watched few videos of the documentary “Fire in Babylon”, which described how and what West Indies faced in the 70’s era, how they were grovelled by their skin colour, how they were always looked upon as Calypso cricketers of different islands, and how Clive Loyd turned these calypso cricketers into world champions. But after calling it a day by all the champion players of WI, the tag of calypso again haunted them. West Indies remained the scattered team with individual talent. The difference of Island players would be seen in their overall attitude. Lack of strong leader put the detrimental effect on their performance.

What does a team demand?? Good opening players, solid no.3 batsman, good stabilizers in the middle order, a descent wicket keeper, one all-rounder, one spinner, and three pace bowlers to be a balanced team. So Gayle, Charles, Samuels, Pollard, Bravo, Ramadin, Sami, Russel. Two good spinners Badree and Narine, genuinely fast bowlers Ravi Rampaul, Roach, Edwards. Then what was the reason behind this team not performing to their available skill? Answer is casual approach and lack of collective efforts. No one had expected West Indies to lift the cup, but this time they were in a different mood, they did it, they did it in style and showed the world they are not only calypso but also the champions..!

Highlight of this T-20 World Cup was Chris Gayle and his dancing celebration. This is not the first time West Indies celebrated their victory or had such on-field celebration. Seen different varieties from Bravo, Sami,  Roach before. The main inventor Gayle had shown many glimpses of his character. In one of the close match against Australia, his funny and friendly sledging with M. Clarke was hilarious. West Indies are known for enjoying the game and introduction of this new dimension of celebration will definitely bring T-20 cricket closer to the soccer culture.

Not only me, but every cricket lover must have been pleased to see West Indies winning the cup. We would definitely like to see West Indies resurgence in the world cricket. We want to experience the thrill of that glorious past again, we want to see that similar fearless approach shown by Viv Richards again, we are keen to see West Indies terrorizing the world with the fearsome bowling again, the awesome performance which their predecessor had shown the world by remaining invincible for 15 years, we want to see the collision against Australia, against England. We want that calypso dance again. Then and only then there will be “FIRE IN THE BABYLON” again….!


Ritesh R Kadam
rityakadam@rediffmail.com
090110020015.