What a fall from grace, dear West Indians!

(gautamganguly2012@gmail.com)

The clinical precision, ease, and supremacy with which the current touring Indian cricket team decimated the West Indies team in the first test match of the ongoing series at Dominica comes as no surprise to cricket fans around the world. The steady, continuous decline of the West Indies team is a painful reality. The relentless downhill journey of the once vaunted West Indies cricket team finally reached rock bottom when they lost ignominiously to unfancied Scotland, which resulted in their ouster from the ensuing ICC World Cup in 2023. This is the first time in the history of the ICC tournament that the formidable Caribbean team, the champions of the 1975 and 1979 ICC World Cups, will not be seen in the upcoming quadrangular cricket bonanza in 2023.

Looking back at the history of cricket from the 1960s to the mid-80s showcases the virtual invincibility of the West Indian team, which annihilating the opposition teams with remarkable consistency blended with flamboyance. Whether it was in test matches or the one-day variety, the West Indian dominance was total and complete.

It does not require a lot of cricketing knowledge to understand the strength of a team comprising all-time greats like Sir Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Sir Frank Worrel, Wes Hall, Chalie Griffith, Lance Gibbs, and others. The powerful, celebrated batsmen in the exalted company and the able support from the menacing fast bowlers had made the West Indies team the unofficial champion in the longer variety of the game. In the 1960s and 1970s, the West Indies won all series at home and abroad. ‘The combination of outstanding pace bowling and top-class batting enabled the West Indies to dominate world cricket for more than 15 years until the 1990s,’ said Jack Fingleton, a famed cricket expert.

The most exciting, high-voltage, dramatic test played in the history of test matches ever since its beginning in 1877, arguably, was the ‘tied test ‘ between Australia and the West Indies at Brisbane in 1960, described by ‘Pundits’ as the’’ greatest Test Match ‘ of all’.

With the introduction of ‘limited over cricket, popularly described as ‘instant cricket, by the ICC in its bid to inject more excitement into the game and make the games result-oriented, thereby ensuring passionate involvement of the spectators, the dominance of the West Indian juggernaut became more pronounced and imposing. The absence of Sobers, the greatest all-rounder, was overcome by the advent of ‘super cool cat’ Clive Lioyd and devastating, menacing fast bowlers of the stature of Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, and Andy Roberts, who had made the team into a world-beating unit.

The ‘icing on the cake’ came when, in the first ever World cricket tournament held in England in 1975, the West Indies deservingly became the world champion.

From the historic victory of 1975 onward, the winning spree of the Caribbean team went on unabated. The advent of Vivian Richards added another feather to the glorious West Indian cricket cap, and by the turn of 1979, Richards had become the most prolific batsman in the world.

In the second edition of the ICC World Cup in 1979, the England team, under the astute leadership of Mike Brearley, reached the finals to clash against the formidable West Indies team at Lords. However, their euphoria was bitterly short-lived. Vivian Richards, the best batsman during that period, ransacked the English bowlers, scoring a magnificent 138 runs to win the ICC World Cup trophy for the second successive time. Ironically, the decline of the much-vaunted West Indian dominance in the ICC world cups began with their defeat at the ICC final in 1983 against India. Thereafter, the Caribbean team was routed and annihilated from the scene of the World Cup in the first round itself, successively in 1992, 1999, and 2003. In the 2007 edition of the World Cup held in the West Indies, they could reach the quarterfinals playing before their passionate home crowd. In the rest of the ICC Tournaments up to 2019, the presence of the West Indies team was not felt at all.

Expectations from Brian Lara, arguably one of the best, if not the best, batsmen in the world, to revive lost glory were belied despite his individual scintillating performance. Brian had scored an individual 400 runs against England in 2004 at Antigua, which is his highest-ever score to date. However, as a captain, his track record is abysmal, having won only 32 out of 131 tests. In ODIs, Lara had led in 299 matches and lost in 139! Lara, Chanderpal, and Chris Gayle could not resurrect the Caribbean team, much to the chagrin of cricket lovers across the world.

I wind up sadly quoting the immortal lines from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:

‘Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen!”

While writing this obituary of the West Indies cricket team, let me conclude,

Oh, what a fall from grace, dear West Indians!”