West Indies has won the Men’s Cricket World Cup twice, but they did not win it this time, much to my disappointment and weariness of spirit. Like Daren Sammy, I had fully expected us to win, given our experience and talent acquired in franchise cricket over the years across the globe. But, as it turned out, other international players, save for the men of India, had also acquired experience and talent. So it was not surprising that they did not make the grade, though I risk disrespecting the Indians, given the clear evidence of the quantity and quality of their preparation by themselves.
I thought our batting, wicket-keeping, and fielding were in the top drawer in the group stage, and that batters like Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, and Romario Sheppard more than held their own. But we wobbled in the Super Eights when we came up against opposition like South Africa and India, especially the former. South Africa simply wiped us off the map. They lost only one wicket and did not need the last 23 of the 120 balls (almost four overs) allotted for the contest. I was in pain.
The match against India was a knockout. I thought we would win; after all, we had the firepower. We had given India a target of 196 to reach, which I felt was a decent competitive total. Surely, the bowlers would now save the day for us? But our bowlers, for example, Jason (Holder) and Akeal (Hosein), capable as they have often shown themselves to be, are not as world-class as we would like to believe, are they? They are not on the same level as (Jasprit) Bumrah and Arshdeep (Singh), are they?
We had taken the Indians down to the last over. Hope sprang anew. But, alas, it didn’t take long before that hope collided with reality. The Indians finished the job in two balls. How disappointing for a West Indian fan. A diehard West Indian.
What now? Concoct a conspiracy theory to the effect that Hetmyer was not really out because his bat hadn’t edged the ball and that, rather, it was the violence of his swing that had created a puff of air as his bat rushed by. So that we would have gone on to win the match and qualify for one of the semi-finals! Is rob they rob we dry, dry so!
Pour tons of investment money into West Indian youth cricket? What? With the West Indian private sector mired in the doldrums, where are we going to find the money? Surely, we are not looking to our meddlesome States to intervene in our cricket?
Persevere with our small pool of talented cricketers? How else will we be able to beat the world?
As massive as they are, India perseveres. Their fans persevere. Their administrators persevere. Their businesspeople persevere. They play the most exciting cricket. And they make the most money out of it. For everybody.
Many congratulations, India!
Dr Winford James is a retired UWI lecturer who has been analysing issues in education, language, development, and politics in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean on radio and TV since the 1970s. He has also written thousands of columns for all major newspapers in the country.
