The West Indies finally got their captain back yesterday.
Two weeks into the team’s tour of England and a couple of days behind his originally scheduled date of arrival, Chris Gayle flew into Heathrow Airport after an overnight, 14-hour flight from South Africa where he was playing in the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
He deposited his bags at the Royal Garden Hotel and had a quick rest before heading directly to join his players in practice at Lord’s where the first Test starts tomorrow morning.
He found grey, sunless, wintry weather requiring two sweaters. But it was dry and he had a lengthy session in the nets, followed by a knock-up on the outfield of the Nursery ground at the back of the main Lord’s ground.
Gayle takes over after his team’s worrying build-up to the two Tests and three one-day internationals.
They were held to a draw in their opening match against Leicestershire, conceded a first innings lead to 117 to under-strength Essex and were beaten by 10 wickets by England’s reserves, now known as the England Lions, in three of the carded four days.
As the established opener with an average of 40 of 81 Tests and as captain, the pressure is on Gayle to perform. Coach John Dyson has already made his concerns known and there has been adverse comment on it in the media.
“It’s not enough time for an ideal preparation but we will work with it,” Dyson said last week.
With players understandably lured by the high-priced contracts offered, it is an arrangement that international cricket will have to get used to although the IPL has made an accommodation with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for contracted players to be released when required for national duty.
May 1 was the cut off date to join the West Indies team for Gayle, who played for the Kolkata Knight Riders on a US$800,000 contract, and fast bowler Fidel Edwards, who was with the Deccan Chargers at US$100,000.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) sanctioned Gayle’s extension to the Knight Riders’ must-win match against the Mumbai Indians on Sunday, which they lost to remain at the bottom of the eight teams. They now have virtually no hope of qualifying for the semi-finals.
Edwards arrived in London on Sunday.
The West Indies experienced the IPL effect in the tournament’s inaugural season when Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo missed the preparation camp for the West Indies’ home series against Australia last year.
Bravo arrived in Kingston two days before the first Test, flown back by private jet by the owners of his IPL team, Mumbai Indians. He scored 46 and 0, bowled 40.5 overs and took five wickets in the match.
Captain Daniel Vettori, wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum and all-rounder Jacob Oram missed the early part of New Zealand’s tour of England last year to play in the IPL.
And the West Indies are only on this tour as Sri Lanka declined the invitation because several of its leading players were on IPL contracts.
Dyson worried
John Dyson is worried about the effects on Chris Gayle of the captain’s 14-hour flight from South Africa and his belated arrival in London two days before tomorrow’s first Test at Lord’s.
“The medical boys all say that, after that length of flight, you need a minimum of a couple of days to get over the jet lag and re-acclimatise and then you need a couple of days of practice,” the West Indies head coach reported.
The “medical boys” might want to revisit their position when they consider the entry of Garry Sobers, Wes Hall and Rohan Kanhai on the first day of the first Test against India at the Queen’s Park Oval on February 16, 1962.
They might also claim, in mitigation, that Sobers was no ordinary mortal but, in the words of Sparrow, the “greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars”.
On February 12, the amazing left-hander amassed 251 against New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield state match for South Australia, for whom he was in his first season, in Adelaide. The next day, he took six wickets for 72 from 23 eight-ball overs to seal victory by 130 runs.
Early next morning, he boarded a flight to New York on the way to Port-of-Spain where he, Hall and Kanhai arrived 36 hours later, just hours before the start of the first day of the Test and three days after Sobers’ memorable double on the other side of the world.
Hall and Kanhai had also been playing in the Sheffield Shield; Hall with Queensland and Kanhai with Western Australia. Their last matches were on February 6. As it turned out, they had to take the field in the hot Caribbean sun after captain Frank Worrell lost the toss.
There was no sign of the effects of their flight, no need for acclimatization or practice.
In his second over, Hall bowled opener Vijay Nehra. Soon, Sobers was snaffling the first of his three catches for the day, to go with his two wickets, to dismiss Indian captain Nari Contractor off Hall
.
Perhaps the jet lag did set in next day – Kanhai only made 24, Sobers 40 – but not for long. As India collapsed in their second innings for 98, Hall took three wickets and Sobers four. A minimum of a couple of days to get over the jet lag and re-acclimatize and then a couple of days of practice? Not for those West Indian legends.
