The first Test I watched from the first ball to the final was India v West Indies in Bengaluru in November 1974. The guests have been going by means of a dip then. Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai had performed the earlier Test in opposition to England, in Trinidad, however have been not a part of the workforce. It was a West Indies trying to rebuild with a youthful facet led by Clive Lloyd.
They had two promising batsmen making their debut — Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards, and a younger Andy Roberts who carried the legacy of quick bowling on his shoulders. For a workforce identified for thrilling batsmanship, the West Indies got here to India having gained solely three of their earlier 23 Tests in the new decade, and having drawn 16. The rebuilding started in Bengaluru the place they gained. For some 20 years they have been the greatest Test cricket needed to supply.
Fast and livid
My teenage years have been consumed by the pleasure of West Indies cricket. They bowled quicker than anyone else, batted extra destructively than others, and their fielding was gorgeous. They unleashed bowlers of such tempo and hearth that they rattled the greatest batsmen round the world, breaking a nostril right here, an elbow there and devastating fingers and toes in every single place.
Today, after the matches in the World Test Championship cycle have been accomplished with solely the ultimate to be performed, the West Indies are eighth. Only Bangladesh are beneath them.
For lengthy I believed that it was necessary for the West Indies to stay at the high (or roughly there), simply because it was necessary for Brazil to take action in soccer. There was about their method an abandon, a pleasure, a creativity that saved their respective sports activities alive.
Now that they’ve misplaced one more collection, this to South Africa 2-0, the figures are discouraging. Of the 217 Tests they’ve performed this century, they’ve gained simply 48, or about 22 p.c whereas dropping 115, or 53 p.c.
The motive for the decline has been enumerated typically sufficient. It ranges from the rise of franchise cricket and the higher monetary returns there, to the indiscipline of particular person gamers, the politics of the cricket board and the unsustainability of the thought of the West Indies itself — a cricket workforce with gamers from half a dozen unbiased islands in the Caribbean.
The extensively predicted demise of Test cricket is prone to first occur in the West Indies, the workforce of George Headley and Learie Constantine, of the three Ws, of Sobers and Kanhai, of Richards and Lara, of Gayle and Chanderpaul, of Ambrose and Walsh and Gibbs and so many different giants. There was a time when Barbados alone fielded a workforce stronger than most Test-playing international locations.
It is troublesome to think about for many who know the West Indies didn’t lose a single collection from 1980 to 1995 that they haven’t gained an away collection in opposition to a workforce in the high eight since 1995.
Perhaps, like nice civilisations, nice cricket groups too rise and fall by responding (or not) to challenges. Perhaps that is cyclical too. This was a comforting thought in the days earlier than franchise cricket when decisions have been restricted by alternative and cash. That is not the case now, and if younger sportsmen from the West Indies islands concentrate on T20 franchises or basketball or another sport, the pickings are definitely extra engaging.
Test cricket will survive in the West Indies as long as the gamers and directors assume it will be significant, and the whole lot now factors to it disappearing from the islands, to get replaced by extra sensible and paying choices.
‘Caste-system’
Despite glowing speeches about preserving Test cricket, the reality is {that a} caste-system has invaded the sport. At the high, the Brahmins of Test cricket are India, Australia and England. All different groups are seen as also-rans in spite of the Future Tours Programme and the World Test Championship. This is true of the followers, of directors and tv. The solely exception could be an India-Pakistan collection, however that’s not prone to occur any time quickly.
Despite their storied historical past and highly effective legacy, Test cricket in the West Indies appears to be approaching the finish of the highway. For my technology that’s miserable information.
A decade in the past, Lloyd, commenting on the state of West Indies cricket mentioned, “I can tell you I have no more tears.”
That is probably the case with all who worshipped that when nice workforce.
