WT20 - my thoughts

At the start of the tournament, they were seen as journeymen cricketers who did well individually, particularly for their franchises worldwide rather than for West Indies. Would they come together to create magic for their national team? They had more than national pride to play for in this World Cup. Other teams had to defeat only their opponents, mind you. The West Indians had their own board to take on. They had to prove individual opinions wrong, dispel misplaced perceptions about their team and silence vile critics. And then the matter of sending out a strong, loud and clear message to their bumbling WICB administrators.

In the hour of reckoning, it came down to a simple equation: 6 balls. 19 runs.

West Indies lifting the cup was a result that no cricket fan – barring the English, of course - could begrudge that team. And 6, 6, 6, 6 was like the icing on the cake, especially when most – including their dugout – were more than nervous when Stokes walked up to the start of his runup for delivering over number 20. Curtly Ambrose was tense. Yes, the Curtly Ambrose. It was such a tense night. And let’s admit this - the team party tonight will be much more fun than if the English had won.

In T20, it is difficult to conclude that the better team won with as much certainty as, say, in a Test or even an ODI. This is a largely tactical game with little room for error and much less for recovery and either team is just as likely to come out on top till the last ball is bowled. But given how their innings started, one must admit that Samuels and Bravo “constructed” the chase, if one can even call it so, and paved the way for Brathwaite to unleash the big shots to go past the finish line. And mind you, they have been effectively a 10-man team for much of this time: Chris Gayle hasn’t done much since his scintillating century versus the English in their first game.

This WI team has had the momentum going for them right through the World Cup. Theirs was a near perfect campaign and the loss against the Afghans was perhaps just the shakeup they needed towards the business end. And the Englishmen, both players and others – not for the first time – riled up the West Indies and paid dearly for doing so. Mark “short of brains” Nicholas now joins the ranks of the late Tony “Grovel” Greig and Stuart “6x6” Broad. The spicy repartee from Samuels or the outburst from Sammy seems to be commensurate with the provocations.

Kudos to West Indies, kudos to the Caribbean flair and to that sense of joy they have been bringing to this sport. That said, I wouldn’t go so far as to label this a resurgence in Caribbean cricket: there have been one false start too many in the past. And let’s face it, these guys play Jekyll and Hyde between Test cricket and the shorter formats. Trade their maroon jerseys (or their franchise colors) for whites and these same men can’t seem to string together one good session against opposition of any quality. Don’t get me wrong: I love me a good game of 20-overs cricket. Call me old school, but Test cricket is the real deal. And Test cricket success requires a different skill set altogether.

But for now they are on top of the world – boys, ladies and gentlemen – and it does look damn pretty. If only they can ride this huge wave and carry the successes in this format to the longer versions, it will make for some interesting times for cricket fans all over.

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What do we do with the ODI?

Ol’ mama Test cricket had two kids born too many years apart. The elder ODI who possesses the looks of mama and the much younger T20 who looks nothing like mama but can provide all the thrills that she is famous for but on a much shorter time scale. Test cricket is that well-crafted e-mail from a friend that you save in your folders and read when you feel like it and T20 is that super funny Whatsapp or Twitter message that you enjoy and pass around. And sadly that seems to leave the ODI trying to find a role to play. The excitement of cricket funneled into a single day rather than over five days was great when it happened and the ODI as a phenomenon has had a great run. But perhaps it is time to wonder if that format has run out of steam and is like that aging fielder every captain tries to hide in the third man region. Does it serve a different purpose other than providing more ad time to brands?

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Emotions

This tournament saw interesting display of emotions. And also impeccable control of the same.

Exhibit 1a: Mushfiqur Rahim. India vs. Bangladesh. 2 runs required off 3 balls and Hardik Pandya about to bowl. With the match almost in the bag, he went for glory. All that premature fist pumping and jumping got him a little too excited for him to actually put his head down and focus on getting his team past the finish line. His error in judgment cost his team dearly.

Exhibit 1b: MS Dhoni. It ain’t over till it is over. The Indian captain kept his cool – like the Steve Waugh of the 90s – and pulled off victory from inside the throat of certain loss. An inexperienced bowler, a high stakes match or the expectations of a nation did not let him take his focus away from the job and he finished it off with his own hands, running out Mustafizur Rahman.

Exhibit 2: Mushfiqur Rahim rejoicing at India’s loss (not the WI victory, mind you) in the semifinal with an ill-timed tweet has seen him become the most trolled cricketer of the moment. Licking one’s wounds is better done in private no?

Exhibit 3: Craig Braithwaite. 19 runs off 6 balls and the world championship on the line. No display of nerves or emotions. After 3 stoic sixes, he lets out a roar only after hitting the 4^th one.

Exhibit 4: Ben Stokes. Perhaps it was the occasion. Or it was his running feud with Samuels. Or simply big match nerves. 6 6 6 6. He let Caig B go one up on the devil himself!

Exhibit 5: Marlon Samuels at the post-match press conference. He was dripping badass! This is how Samuel L Jackson would do a press conference if he played cricket. Take that WICB, take that Mark Nicholas. Sassy!