West Indies Cricket – Nonchalantly delightful!

There’s something about people from the West Indies that makes you fall in love with them. From a virtuoso like Bob Marley who revolutionized the world with his music to a certain Arthur Lewis, a Nobel Laureate in Economics to even Sidney Poitier, the first black person to win an Academy Award – the Caribbean islands have managed to produce their share of world icons who, with their almost placid and unassuming ways, have made the world stand up and take notice of their abilities.

When it comes to cricket and West Indies, it has been a long-lasting romantic saga between the two. They fell in love with one another, scripted the greatest love-story for over two decades, decimated their foes with startling authority and ruled the world like no other emperor.

But slowly as time went by and other men rose to power, the love faded away, the passion vailed, the shoulders drooped, and albeit it produced champion cricketers every now and then, things were never the same. Add to that some petty internal politics and contract disputes; the game of cricket in Caribbean went in a state of jeopardy. They still flirted, and flirted and tried to entice the glory days back, but by then it was too late. West Indies cricket had reached its nadir; a place where defeat was becoming a routine and victory seemed unattainable.

But sometimes, a dead-end is the best place to make a turn-around. Today, as a young captain leads a fearless bunch of cricketing mercenaries to a final of the world cup after a long hiatus of 29 years, it makes an average cricket lover wonder, “Have the merry days returned?” As a cricket lover, you want a team, who once frightened the opposition teams by merely turning up on the field, do well and return to the days of glory.

It won’t be totally jumping the gun in saying that the current West Indies side has what it takes to not only win today’s final, but also reignite the flame of its golden past in future as well. And to be honest, they do possess the required firepower to rule the world of cricket once again.

At the top, they have a maverick batsman who can murder bowling attacks with such languid ease that you’ll be made to think if you are watching a cricket match or playing on your video game. In the middle order, they possess three or four quality all-rounders who can turn the match on its head whenever required. They have a guileful spinner who still has enough tricks in his bag to out-wit the batsman on any given day, as well as a more than useful pace-attack which can hold its own under pressure situations.

The fashion in which West Indies have played their cricket in the last two-weeks has been nothing short than sheer delight for the cricket romantics. They have played in a manner which has been so charming to watch yet seemed so easy to execute. There’s been such nonchalant elegance to their cricket that it has made one wonder if this team played their cricket thinking that their opposition was non-existent. They tormented Australia in the semi-final and then celebrated by performing a Gangnam style jig in the middle; they lost to Sri Lanka in the Super-8 and took the defeat in their stride. That is West Indies cricket for you – as for them, cricket is a celebration, no matter they win or they lose.

All said, West Indies may still lose today’s final to Sri Lanka. There’s always a lot of Pakistan-isque unpredictably attached to West Indies cricket. The team that mauled Australia two days back might not even turn up in today’s final. But again, they might come out and play with utmost audacity and give Sri Lanka a beating of their lives.

Whatever maybe the case, today, when the West Indies team take the field to sing their cricket anthem Rally Around the West Indies, a lot of cricket romantics not only in the Caribbean, but all around the world sitting on their sofas would feel a sigh of relief and think, “Ah! This is the West Indies we loved watching play!”