WEST INDIES TRIPLE T20 SUCCESS COULD PROVE TO BE A “NEW ERA, GENESIS” MOMENT!
In every era of sport and sporting achievements, there is always a moment where you can look back on a legacy and find a significant spark. Something that created reverberations, which eventually led to seismic change in fortunes….
The West Indies recent triple T20 success of the men, women and under 19’s could just be the spark that cricket in the Caribbean needed to intrigue, inspire, excite, unearth and develop potential future world beaters. Much like what Gordon Greenidge and Sir Viv Richards did for the multi record-breaking Brian Lara.
The West Indies men become the first team to win two World T20 titles, adding to their 2012 victory in Sri Lanka. Their 161 for 6 against England was also the highest run tally by a team in a T20 final.
I am sure we all know by now. It was the most dramatic of finals where West Indies needed 19 of the last over to claim an unlikely victory. Up stepped Barbados’s Carlos Braithwaite. Not known to be a big batsman and averaging a mere 16 runs per innings. He dramatically smashed four six’s in a row to break English hearts and rip the world T20 crown from their grasps.
To get to that stage, West Indies were carried by the batting of Jamaican Marlon Samuels’ with a mammoth knock of 85 from 66 balls, which included nine fours and two sixes. It was also the highest individual run tally in a T20 final.
The West Indies men must have been inspired by the women who claimed their first T20 title on the same day, on the same pitch just before the men’s final. The women also, albeit by one run, recorded the highest run tally in a T20 final when Australia finished with 148/5 and set them what seemed like a massive total of 149.
The West Indies women reached that total with the help of player of the match and opener, 18-year-old Hayley Matthews from Barbados. She hit a tremendous 66 which included four fours and three sixes. Along with player of the series and fellow opener 24-year-old Jamaican Stefanie Taylor, with her impressive knock of 59 which included four fours.
Before these two monumental success, the West Indies under 19s set the ball rolling on Valentine’s day February 14th by winning their first ever under 19s world title. They finished 2nd behind England in their four team group, then over came Pakistan in the quarter finals. Beat the hosts Bangladesh in the Semi final, then India in the final.
In a highly impressive and confident display. West Indies bowled India all out for 145 with Antiguan Alzarri Joseph and Grenadian Ryan John both taking 3 wickets.
They then set about India with the bat and won the title with the two highest run scorers fittingly finishing the match not out. Guyanese native Keemo Paul with 40, along with St Maartin native and player of the match Keacy Carty with 52.
This triple success for the West Indies has come as a timely confidence boost for cricket lovers in the Caribbean, who have seen their beloved sport lose potential stars to football and athletics. Long gone is golden era when the West Indies were a formidable force. The test side were unbeaten for 15 years and 29 test series between 1980 and 1995.
Then in came the reggae boys success. Jamaica qualified for the world cup for the first time in 1998 and all of sudden, football became even more popular in the West Indies.
The evidence of that shift in sport were seen with the likes of Grenada’s Jason Roberts. Bermuda’s Shaun Goater. Barbados’s Emerson Boyce. Trinidad’s Dwight York, Kenwayne Jones & Stern John. Jamaica’s Ricardo Fuller, Ricardo Gardener, Adrian Mariappa & Wes Morgan to name a few, all making a name for themselves.
The sporting shift in the West Indies made an even bigger move 10 years later. In 2008 the mercurial Usain Bolt won Olympic gold in the 100 & 200 meters as well as the relay.
He then broke the 100 & 200 meter records in the Beijing world championships a year later. Parallel to Bolt’s success, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has gone stride for stride by taking double 100m Olympic golds in 2008 & 2012 and triple 100m world championship golds in 2009, 2013 & 2015.
Bolt was and is undoubtedly one of today’s sports biggest and most likable names.
There was no coincidence that due to his continued success, along with the heroics of Fraser-Pryce. Jamaican male and female athletics have flourished over the past 8 years.
With the ongoing decline in West Indies cricket (despite their 2012 T20 success). It was always going to take a miracle for the sport to compete with the popularity and money of football and sheer excitement, explosiveness and entertainment of athletics.
But divine intervention is not just a saying and the cricket Gods have worked overtime. These victories, in a version of cricket that seems to excite one and all, is huge.
The three wins, that covers all categories, ages and genders has the feel of it not just being a tremendous cricketing achievement, but the start of a movement. It has opened the door to reinvigorate cricket in the Caribbean and could reignite the flame of yesteryear.
These two months may not only go down as a monumental achievement in the history of West Indies cricket.
It could turn out to be the catalyst, the spark that resurrected cricket in the West Indies….A new era genesis if you will….Watch this space!
