Wednesday, May 31, 2017

It is like having a football World Cup without Brazil or Argentina — a reader’s feedback on a story if the West Indies will be missed in the ICC Champions Trophy caught my eyes. “Boxing without Ali,” said another cricket buff on the same website.

Given the fact that cricket in the island nation now lives more on its glorious past, such romance about them still shows that our obsession with the distinctive style that the Caribbeans bring to the party is still not dead. One of the most enduring images in recent times in the game, for me, was the dual celebrations of their men and women’s team — of course, to the tune of feet-tapping music — at the Eden Gardens on a balmy evening in April last year when both teams were crowned T20 world champions in the same evening.

The acceptance speech of Darren Sammy, the two-time World T20 winning captain, who believes in wearing his heart on his sleeves, was also no less memorable. Tearing into the cricketing establishment of his country, Sammy said how they had to live with the tag of mercenaries and leave the shores without even the official blazers to start the campaign — which saw them finishing with their second World Cup in four years’ time.

The rift between the West Indies Cricket Board and its star cricketers still remains — and it’s a heavy price that the country are paying for by not being able to qualify for this premier 50-over tournament. The management’s inability to bring the senior cricketers on the table and field their best possible team had the inevitable impact on their ICC one-day rankings during the cut-off period to qualify for the Champions Trophy, resulting in Pakistan nosing ahead as the eighth and last team.

Such things do happen in sport — The Netherlands, third-place finishers in the 2014 Fifa World Cup, failed to qualify for the Euro in less than two years’ time; Pakistan — a country of stick wizards like Shahbaz Ahmad or prolific scorer like Sohail Abbas failed to qualify for the last Summer Olympics. Instances like these are rare though in the somewhat insulated world of cricket, where a full member country had to miss out on a major ICC event where they have such an enviable record.

While the Caribbean prowess may have eroded in the longer version of the game from the mid-90s, the maroon caps have established a niche for themselves in the shorter variety of the game. Their record is particularly impressive in the ICC Champions Trophy, where they have made three finals out of seven editions while emerging the champions once in 2004.

There is an even bigger irony when records show the ‘Universe Boss’ occupying the pride of place in the history of the tournament — Gayle being the highest run-getter in its history with an aggregate of 791 runs. The giant opener also holds the record of highest runs in a single tournament (474 runs in 2006) while nippy paceman Jerome Taylor has maximum wickets in one edition with 13 scalps in 2004.

There could be the odd argument of opening up the Champions Trophy to more teams in future to avoid such an embarrassment — but it will be only a disservice to the tournament, which offers a welcome relief with its tight, no-margin-for-error format after the 45-day meandering flow of the ICC World Cup.

West Indies, you will be certainly missed!

Gautam Bhattacharyya Sports Editor

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