The West In­dies team has cap­tured the imag­i­na­tion of the fans here in Eng­land for the cur­rent 2019 ICC World Cup with their bru­tal bowl­ing dis­plays and some on-field an­tics that are catch­ing on rather quick­ly.

One of them is the sol­dier’s salute by fast bowler Shel­don Cot­trell which has gone vi­ral on so­cial me­dia. Cot­trell, who was a sol­dier in his na­tive Ja­maica be­fore he broke in­to the re­gion­al team, has used the trade­mark salute through­out his ca­reer but many fans are see­ing it for the first time as he is at his first World Cup.

Young fans at the crick­et venues are now be­ing seen do­ing it all the time since im­ages of him do­ing it dur­ing the West In­dies’ first match against Pak­istan sur­faced on tele­vi­sion and on so­cial me­dia. Even at the prac­tice fields just out­side sta­di­ums, the young ones who flock there while their par­ents are fo­cussing on the live crick­et ac­tion are seen salut­ing when they grab a wick­et.

Cot­trell ex­plained the rea­son be­hind start­ing this salute to Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day.

"It’s a mil­i­tary-style salute. I’m a sol­dier by pro­fes­sion. Me salut­ing is just to show my re­spect to the Ja­maica De­fence Force,” Cot­trell said.

"They are at work and I just show them re­spect for the hard work they are do­ing back home. I do it every time I get a wick­et. I prac­tised it for six months when I was train­ing in the army.”

Cot­trell, who has bowled very well in this tour­na­ment to date, has had many chances to do the salute. Against Pak­istan in the open­ing sev­en-wick­et win, he snared one for 18 off four overs be­fore grab­bing two for 56 off nine overs in the 15-run loss against the Aus­tralians. Al­so against Aus­tralia, he salut­ed af­ter grab­bing an amaz­ing one-hand­ed catch at the edge of the bound­ary to send back a well set Steven Smith. In the third game against South Africa that was washed out, he took two wick­ets for 18 off four overs.

Cot­trell added: "I am a sol­dier and I re­spect the work that all sol­diers do around the world, so when I salute I pay re­spect to every sol­dier who has served."

Over time, Cot­trell has added an arched back to the en­tire per­for­mance which is not nor­mal in the army but he likes it.

"I did it once by mis­take and I saw that it worked. It was pure emo­tion run­ning through me at the time and I said that I like this, so I have con­tin­ued."