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The Windies of change

As our cricketing heroes tour the West Indies, VIJAY LOKAPALLY recalls the days when the Windies bowled with fire

JUMBO EFFORT Anil Kumble bowled with a broken jaw after being hit by Mervyn Dillon in the Antigua Test during the 2002 series Photo: AP

The Caribbean was not the place for cricket, not if you were weak hearted, certainly not if you were not a West Indian. Cricketers, the reluctant types, travelling to the West Indies have discovered, through blows to their skull and chest, that there existed better ways to earn a living than taking a pounding from those demons with the red ball.

"It was frightening sometimes," confessed the fearless Pakistan opener Rameez Raja during a conversation recently.

Cozier's commentary

We grew up listening to Tony Cozier's impeccable description of the game on the radio in the middle of the night; of the serene islands and the laid back populace that prospered from tourism; Cozier's mellifluous voice ensuring that staying awake in the bed was a pleasant experience.

We gathered from Cozier that cricket in the Caribbean was hard, different, exciting, and high quality. If you did well in the West Indies, you could do better everywhere else. Cricket was a tough sport when you played in the West Indies. Most batsmen lost sleep on the eve of the matches, fearing the ferocity of the fast bowlers, the nature of the pitches hardly counting. The pitches were not fast; the bowlers were.

At Barbados in 1983, the Indian team was reportedly preparing for a training session when it spotted a local near the `nets', boots hanging from his cycle, his muscles a clear indication of his athleticism.

"Do you bowl?"

"I do," quipped the youngster. "For a few dollars," he added with a smile. A few overs later, with the batsmen hopping, weaving, and ducking to avoid his rockets, the youngster was handed a few dollars extra to relieve him from his assignment. "Thanks a lot," he gratefully cycled off into the distance, much to the relief of the Indians.

When coaches at home assessed batsmen, young and established, they would measure their talent with a simple yardstick. "Can he survive in the West Indies?" Scoring runs in the Caribbean was nothing short of attaining greatness. A batsman's character, and a bowler's too, was always gauged from his performance in the West Indies. Imagine facing Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Colin Croft in Test matches and Joel Garner, Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke, Winston Davis, Eldine Baptiste, Hartley Alleyne in side games. There was no respite.

When Nari Contractor was struck on the temple in 1962 by Charlie `Chucking' Griffith, cricket witnessed a near death on the pitch. He survived but was never the same batsman.

A glorious exception

Mohinder Amarnath, however, was a glorious exception. In 1983, he stood up to the hostile West Indian fast bowlers with admirable and enviable courage. "The best batsman in the world against fast bowling," hailed Clive Lloyd, the great West Indian.

Struck on the mouth by a Marshall special, Mohinder retired to the hospital, only to stubbornly return the next day, sporting the same blood-smeared shirt. Marshall greeted him with a first-ball bouncer that was promptly hooked, for a six. Lloyd applauded from the slips, and Marshall in his follow-through. Mohinder, who subsequently sported a moustache in the 1983 World Cup to hide the gash, which had called for more than 25 stitches, was a rare success story in the Caribbean when fast bowlers ruled the scene. He prepared himself by `knocking' on the worst spot in the ground, for it allowed him to tackle the bounce and wayward movement.

He would take the balls on his chest and take the ice treatment at night in the room. But he met fire with fire, punching the fast bowlers on the front foot when most of his mates played back. At the other end Anil Kumble set an example by bowling with a broken jaw in the Antigua Test in 2002 after being hit by a Mervyn Dillon's delivery while batting.

There was another tale of valour from the 1983 tour. Yashpal Sharma was hit on the head, even though protected by the helmet, and advised by the doctor to stay away from the West Indian fast bowlers. "You play on your own risk maan," said the doctor. But the gutsy Yashpal returned and remained unbeaten. Gursharan Singh, who was the youngest member on that tour with Maninder Singh, recalls an incident at Antigua when Dilip Vengsarkar was six runs short of a century. "Vengsarkar could not get the century and returned trembling from the horrid experience.

The subsequent visits to the West Indies, in 1997 and 2002, hardly tested the batsmen. Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh were not that ferocious, Ian Bishop had lost pace, and the likes of Franklyn Rose and Dillon were not a patch on the dreadful pace battery of the 1980s. West Indies had ceased to be a destructive force any more.

Holding, disgusted with the decline, took a pledge not to commentate in matches involving the West Indies. The former greats, their pride hurt, stopped watching West Indies' matches. Cozier's voice lost the calypso tenor, and the fans grew disillusioned. It was sad not just for West Indies cricket, but world cricket too.

Disillusioned fans

In the past decade, cricket has conceded ground to soccer and basketball in the Caribbean, where watching the game can be a heady experience with the rum and music enriching the carnival-like aura at the matches. Lying virtually at the bottom, the image of West Indies cricket — the result of one-day series against India notwithstanding — has plummeted to inglorious depths.

How dramatically times have changed! Today, batsmen fight to open the innings against the West Indies, and cricketers of all hues strive to travel to the Caribbean. The West Indies offers a cosy platform for them to establish their credentials. The serene beaches beckon the cricket fans while the placid pitches invite the mediocre to come and thrive. The Caribbean is the place for cricket now!

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