As Australia gets ready to tour the Caribbean to play a tri-ODI series against the West Indies and South Africa next month (June 3 to 26) let us recapture the ups and downs of West Indies cricket.
No cricket team has taken such roller-coaster rides as the West Indies from 1950s to 2016, zooming down from heroes to zeroes in Test cricket since the 1990s.
They have produced legends galore since World War II:
George Headley – the Black Bradman, spin kings Sonny Ramadhin, Alf Valentine and Lance Gibbs, three winsome Ws Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott, and the Immortals Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards.
There were life-threatening fast bowlers Wes Hall, Roy Gilchrist, Charlie Griffith, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.
Prolific opening batsmen Jeff Stollmeyer, Conrad Hunte, Gordon Greenidge, Roy Fredericks and Desmond Haynes. And more recently contrasting batsmen Alvin Kallicharran, Brian Lara, Shinaraine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle.
From the 1960s to the end of 1980s, the West Indies were el-supremos who ruled Test cricket. They also won the inaugural Cricket World Cup in 1975 and regained it in 1979. In 1983, they lost to India in the final.
But they have taken a downward plunge in all levels of cricket since the 1990s, with relations between the players and their cricket board a major contributing factor. This reached its nadir in 2014 when the players pulled out from the tour in India and returned home mid-tour.
However their lifting the World T20 Trophy in Kolkata, India, last month, defeating favoured teams India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England might just trigger off a positive upward trend.
The climax was reached when Carlos Brathwaite hit four successive sixes in the last over to beat England in the final and lift the trophy.
Was their board delighted with this stunning victory? Far from it! They reprimanded the victorious captain Darren Sammy and the players for criticising the board openly and for removing their shirts while celebrating their championship win in Kolkata.
The Steve Smith-led Australian team to tour the Caribbean this June for a tri-series against South Africa and the West Indies should not take the opposition lightly. The Windies have united as seldom before to prove their board wrong and are determined to win the series. They now have the incentive.
Below is the Australian squad under Steve Smith with David Warner as vice-captain.
Openers: Warner and Aaron Finch.
Middle-order batsmen: Usman Khawaja, Smith, George Bailey, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner.
Wicket-keeper batsman: Matthew Wade.
Fast to fast-medium bowlers: Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Scott Boland.
Off-spinners: Nathan Lyon, Travis Head.
Leg-spinner: Adam Zampa.
Faulkner (medium-pace), Maxwell (off-spin), Warner and Smith (leg-spin) are useful change bowlers.
Interestingly, there are five ambidextrous players in the Aussie squad: Faulkner, Finch, Khawaja, Head and Hazlewood. Besides, Maxwell is an ambidextrous batsman, flummoxing fielders with his reverse sweep!
As 2015 World Cup champions, Australia are favourites to win the tri-nation ODI series. But West Indians have the home advantage and will do their best to show their board their winning ways.
South Africa have the strongest team, and quite a few Aussies are carrying injuries, thanks to the IPL.
It will be worth staying up late to watch the tri-series. I shall keep the coffee machine on until early mornings!
craig swanson
Guest
I admire your humbleness Kersi. A noted author and and cricket authority yet you are man enough to admit a mistake. Bit soon to write off the Windies. Their top players have to be seething after taking a lot of flack over the attitude and willingness to play or not to play test cricket.
Rats
Guest
Australia would win the series. ODIs are different to T20s. You can't play so freely in ODIs. The middle overs would be tricky and WI batsmen may have no clue how to pace a ODI innings. I hope I am proved wrong. We all would love to see WI replicate the T20s success at least to ODIs. Tests are far fetched. We want a strong WI team so that all these series would become meaningful.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you, Hugo. I'll try to get Netherland.
Hugo
Guest
KERSI - I'm wondering if you've read Joseph O'Neill's marvelous novel, Netherland. It's the best novel I've come across with a cricketing theme. It features a wonderful West Indian scoundrel, Chuck Ramkissoon, and it's set in New York of all places. A great read. Do get hold of it if you don't know the book.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you, Atawhai Drive for the corrections. So sad the Mighties have fallen down. May they rise again. RIP to Tony Cozier, one of my favourite commentators and a lovely person.
Atawhai Drive
Roar Guru
I would humbly dispute Kersi's claim that "from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, the West Indies were el supremos who ruled Test cricket". I remember seeing an ageing West Indies team lose the 1968-69 series in Australia 3-1. In 1972 the West Indies hosted New Zealand for five Tests (the last five-Test series NZ has played, anywhere). All five Tests were drawn. In 1975-76, Clive Lloyd's emerging team were crushed 5-1 by Greg Chappell's Australians. That was almost as bad as it got for the West Indies, although they lost a three-Test series to New Zealand in NZ in 1980. But that 1980 defeat was their last until 1995, and they won 29 series in a row. Sadly, it's been mostly downhill since 1995. Sad news today about Tony Cozier, who was there for the glory years and the years of decline. In the words of the BBC's Jonathan Agnew, Cozier " . . . had to tread the tense tightrope of Caribbean politics, where even the slightest negative observation of a player's performance can provoke a furious nationalistic backlash". Can the West Indies ever get back to the top table? We'd all like to think so, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you VivGilchrist for pointing out that Head is a better batsman than a bowler. I am shocked that Tony Cozier passed away. I had met him and chatted with him often in the 1970s and 80s. I enjoyed his commentary and his friendly personality. May his soul rest in peace!
VivGilchrist
Guest
Kensi, you'll probably find that Head would mostly be defined as a batsman rather than an off-spin bowler. I would also like to highlight the sad passing of veteran WI commentator Tony Cozier overnight. I remember him first, when he would join Ritchie and the rest of the commentary team when the Windies would tour during the WSC days. Hearing his Bajan tones and then realising he was white blew me away as a kid.