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Cricket
By Ted Corbett
West Indies 224 & 94 England 226 & 93 for two
BRIDGETOWN, APRIL 4. England cruised to a three-day victory against West Indies at Kensington Oval on Saturday, making history every step of the way. It won a series in the Caribbean for the first time in 36 years, it had never won three matches in a series here before and showed that it was back on track after more than 15 years of indifferent results and false hopes. Afterwards, the England supporters celebrated extravagantly under a timely rainbow even as the local police stood back tolerantly. England needed only three bowlers to dismiss West Indies for 94 and only 20.1 overs to score the 93 needed for victory by eight wickets. There is a new confidence about the Englishmen, a greater assurance from the captaincy of Michael Vaughan that runs right down to the improvement made by Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff and the quiet skills of wicketkeeper Chris Read. This defeat will plunge the Caribbeans into even greater depths of despair; they have hit rock bottom and there are few signposts to the escape route. That is a tragedy for world cricket as well as these islands where the modern game, based on fast bowling and aggression, was built by men like Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and a band of superlative bowlers. We should not celebrate their demise, we should hope that their return is hurried. The greatly under-appreciated Hoggard began the humiliation which has been West Indies' burden. His hat-trick did not just remove three potential stumbling blocks to an England win but confirmed once again that the visitor was in control as it had been for most of the three Tests. It is time to examine his place in England Test history but more particularly in Yorkshire's story. We will wait to find out how Hoggard performs in the future but there is every chance that before long he will be regarded as inferior only to Fred Trueman. Yorkshire has traditionally ignored fast bowlers: too wasteful, too time consuming and too prone to accidents. They preferred fast medium men with immaculate line and length and looked on men like Darren Gough, Chris Old and Paul Jarvis as oddities. Now the team has the fair-haired, slightly irascible Hoggard who can bowl outswingers on a fine length around off-stump with plenty of pace. Of course, in the modern way he will not play for his county often because England will protect him from too much work whenever he is not required in Tests or one-day internationals, but at 28, he is at the height of his powers. England's luck on this tour is that both he and Harmison have remained fit. Hoggard deserves his place in the game's exclusive club of England hat-trick heroes; only 10 against all countries, only three against West Indies and the first for England on these islands. His patience and persistence have allowed Harmison and Simon Jones to bowl flat out and at last he is reaping his reward and now he has 13 wickets in three Tests to compare with Harmison's 22.
Remote dream
West Indies batting centred around Brian Lara, a lonely figure if measured by talent or the willingness to curb his attacking instincts for the greater good. He took three hard blows on the hands but declined all medical attention as he continued to bat without flinching. He told me this week that he sees his duty as leading West Indies back to the top and hopes that in 10 years' time he will watch young players succeeding with pride. That is a remote dream now. On Saturday, he clearly had little admiration for what he saw. When Ridley Jacobs followed quickly after the hat-trick, six batsmen were out for 48 and although rain and a dozen runs from the fast bowler Tino Best helped to stop the England juggernaut it was an immense struggle to collect any runs. The triumph brought England's most amazing result abroad since Mike Gatting's men kept the Ashes in 1987. The weakness of West Indies has been a major factor, of course, but you have to admire the bowling attack that has restricted Lara to a top score of 37 and only once let West Indies' supposedly strong batting line-up reach 300. This series success does not mean England is about to win the World Cup or regain the Ashes or do more than give the Aussies a run for their money. But at least the travelling fans can look on Vaughan's valiant men and say with more than a little pride: "that's my side."
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