Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
There has been an intrinsic connection between cricket T-Twenty and team West Indies. Once West Indies was tiger in all formats of modern cricket. Its consecutive 28 test victories stood out to be unbroken records. Twice it won one day cricket finals in 1974 and 1978. It also won championship trophy. West Indies is now an wounded tiger. Even then its phenomenal command over T-twenty is indicated only by its winning World cup T-twenty twice but by the demand of its players in BPL and IPL. In fact its area of concentration is of course T-Twenty
Once West Indies held sway over world cricket especially in test and one day. It dominated the cricket trivia right from sixties continuing down to eighties. Then its supremacy came to an end for the most players in sport circle opted for basket ball shifting to USA with this option for drawing huge money. The wrong policy of the Caribbean cricket control board demotivated the cricketers. Since 1990 the might of the tem has shown downward rend. They registered a number of ignominious defeats for their flamboyance.
Even some batsmen maintained team’s tradition in tests and one -days with swashbuckling fifty or century. A time came when West Indies became underdog as most players in sports circle became demotivated playing basket ball popular in America to earn a lot.
Admittedly team West Indies used to hold out the impression that it was pretty tough to win against it and that it had the ability to fight back after initial setbacks. The opponents had to wait for last batsman to get out or last ball to reach victory target on many occasions. In 1974 World cup semi-final against Pakistan it lost nine wickets indicating that it required 60 more run to win. The last pair gave tough resistance scoring a spectacular win to move into the final.
The talented Caribbean. Cricketers were great challengers even to the formidable opponents like Australia and England. They proved equal to the task with a full professional spirit. in a just finished T-Twenty world cup West Indies wrote the final script beating England in the last over at the most exciting moment.
The team during heydays recorded a plenty of victories to its credit in classical test cricket and one -day. Even with flamboyance they performed well in foreign soil. For this reason perhaps it had so many fans in cricket world. The real cricket lovers could not but supported Indies for its contribution to lively cricket This was same as supporting favorite football teams like Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland, etc.
When I was teenaged I had high opinion about West Indies as I came to learn from my elder brothers and friends that it had a splendid record of test victories.
History beckons West Indies that won manytests even one day against mighty Australia. England and Pakistan from 1960 to 1980. Its consecutive 28 test victories showed the sign of its ruling the roost.In 1960 West Indies were on their way up when Australia was on top. When they met they were of almost equal strength.
The first test at Brisbane was the first Test ever to end in tie. This eventful test was recorded in film that I enjoyed. West Indies played fast cricket from the very beginning. In 1960’s and 1970’s sstroke players like Sir Gary Sobers(a great all round and icon of west Indies), Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Frank Warell, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Clyde Walcott, Gordon Greenidge, Viv. Richards, Fredricks, Alvin Kalicharan, Lawrence Rowe, to mention a few, proved equal to the task with their superb batting performance. Besides, contemporaries like Christ Gayle, Chandra pal (Scoring ten thousand test run) Edward, Shamy, Rouge are gifted with talents. The real cricket lovers respect these legends. In fact the Caribbean nation West Indies were the undisputed kings of the cricket world. cricket. This spell continued upto 1980.Sir Garfield Sobers is still the best all-rounder is the greatest legend of cricket after Sir Donald Bradman.
West Indies produced a plenty of speed stars. Special mention may be made of Hall, Griffith, Gilchrist, Walls, Ambrose, Holding, Roberts, Marshall, and Bisop. Lance Gibbs and Sony Ramdin were among all-time great spinners. How fast Hall and Griffith were was unknown. I guess the speed may be nearly 170 km per hour. At that thee was speed gun gun.
After lifting the 1975 trophy, West Indies re-wrote history in 1979 and it was Sir Vivian Richards’ super-human effort which helped West Indies clinch the crown for the second time. After 1979 there was a world cup lull in the Caribbean nation. West Indies produced batting and bowling greats like Brian Lara, Carl Hooper, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose but their efforts were not good enough to win the World Cup.
The young generation perhaps does not know much about preponderance of team West Indies and all about the majestic performance of its batting and bowling legends. Despite in 2004, West Indies did manage to win ICC Champions trophy under Brian Lara (highest individual test score–400) but other than that there is not a single major achievement by West Indies. In 2007 Bangladesh won test and one day white wash against a second string West Indies.
A great triumph at Eden, Kolkata on ..march 2016 with an astounding lone hand by—- the supremacy of West Indies staged a come back. The quickest cricket like 20-20 motivated the hard hitting carribean batsmen with Crist Gayle, Samuels and Pollard dominating the T-twenty scenario in IPl, BPL, SPL etc. dawing the interes of the sponsors and organisers. Hurrah! West Indies wrote the final script once again.
(To be continued)
