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The Windies of change

As India's cricketing heroes tour the West Indies, VIJAY LOKAPALLY recalls the days when the Windies bowled fire and brimstone

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.

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.

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.

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.

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