It has taken the simultaneous, belated arrival of summer and of Dwayne Bravo and the change to the game’s shortest, newest and most popular format to shake the West Indies out of the embarrassing lethargy that previously typified their cricket in the two Tests and two ODIs in which they were thrashed by England.
Victories in the past week in the second World Twenty20 championship over two of the strong favourites, Australia and India, the 2007 champions, have transformed the public image of a team justifiably derided in the media for its earlier indifferent performances.
“The crashing bores who flounced their way around England through May have become the hottest ticket in this tournament,” was how Simon Briggs put in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph after Bravo’s Man of the Match four wickets and exhilarating 66 off 36 balls against India at Lord’s on Friday.
Only a week before, Paul Newman’s verdict was vicious. “No heart, no spirit, no interest but overpaid,” he wrote in the Daily Mail. “The West Indian tourists were little short of a disgrace”.
And they were, even for all the explanations offered (the bitingly cold weather, the effect of captain Chris Gayle’s delayed arrival from the Indian Premier League, the Players Association’s opposition to the tour in the first place).
The turnaround in the approach and the results has been matched by the performances of one, if only one, among the several players it was hoped would progress in these couple of months in England.
After his struggles in the Tests, Lendl Simmons has finally shown his potential in the Twenty20 tournament. Initially, and inexplicably, omitted while the middle order spot went to Xavier Marshall, Simmons has had a major part in each of his three matches.
He claimed four for 19 with his intelligent medium-pace when Sanath Jayasuirya and Tillekeratnew Dilshan were running riot for Sri Lanka and followed with 29 off 19 balls.
On Friday night, there were three catches, one a stunner at point running with his back to the ball, and 44 off 37 balls in the win over India. And the piece de resistance yesterday, 71 off 50 balls with a six and 12 fours against South Africa at the Oval that was as fine an innings as any yet played.
The cry will be that it is “only” the certified swiping that is 20-overs cricket. In reality, there has hardly been an agricultural shot among the 24 fours and a six that have flown from Simmons’ bat. It has been clean, cultured striking. And his fielding stands out in a weak fielding team.
This is a timely boost to his confidence that would have been low after the previous encounters against England. His further advance in the longer game will be keenly noted.
So what has accounted for the team’s revival?
Clearly the shorter the game, the more the West Indies enjoy it.
In 2007 in England, the 3-0 loss in the Tests series was followed by a 2-1 win in the ODIs. Three years earlier, after the 4-0 Test whitewash in England in 2004 came the triumph in the 50-overs-an-innings Champions Trophy. Two years later, they were forced to go through preliminary qualification yet still reached the final.
So they were always going to be happier in the Twenty20 version where one devastating innings (such as Chris Gayle’s savage 88 off 50 balls against Australia and Bravo’s against India) can settle the issue.
And this tournament WAS on the International Cricket Council (ICC) programme, the source of the WIPA’s objections. There was no conflict with the IPL or anything else. There was no need for a union-type protest go-slow as seemed the case on the hastily arranged series that preceded it.
Just as significant has been the return of Bravo.
Why he wasn’t here for the Tests remains a mystery, the answer to which can only be guessed at. What is more certain is that, had he been here, there would have been little of the slackness so prevalent and obvious.
He enjoys his cricket too much to allow himself to be distracted by issues beyond the boundary. His enthusiasm is evident in every ball he bowls, every shot he makes, every catch he takes, every run out he completes. He is a dynamo who generates energy for the team.
Darren Sammy is another but, some way short of Bravo’s all-round ability, he didn’t figure in the Tests and in only one ODI – and hasn’t got a match in the current Twenty20 either.
These are the kind of individuals who make the difference when a crisis is forming, as they repeatedly did in the Tests. They lift the spirits with a dazzling piece of fielding, a vital wicket, a counter-attacking innings – indeed, with their very presence.
It’s why England are so desperate that Freddie Flintoff should be fit to return for the forthcoming Ashes series against Australia and Australia are bemoaning the problems that have eventually put Andrew Symonds out of the game.
It is a stimulus that doesn’t come on the field from the laid-back West Indies captain and, consequently, needs to emanate from someone else.
Yesterday’s loss probably means that the West Indies last Super8 match, against England at the Oval tomorrow, will decide which team from the group joins South Africa in the semi-finals.
And it will be South Africans for they tick every box for the limited-overs game. They bat deep. They possess in Wayne Parnell, a 19-year-old left-arm fast bowler who repeatedly propels yorkers at middle-stump (he had four wickets yesterday) and an attack comprising the fiery Dale Steyn, the experienced Jacques Kallis and the off-spin of Johan Boetha and JP Duminy combined with the left-arm of Roedolf van der Merwe.
And, to top it all, they are sensational in the field and disciplined.
It will take something special to beat them. But, with Bravo back, the West Indies are capable of that something – but they have to get to the final first.
