Last Friday, the wives and girlfriends of the members of that long suffering group, the West Indies Test Cricket Fan Club, had to endure an annual ritual which coincided with the arrival of the sixteenth English Test team in Barbados.
Members of the West Indian Test Cricket Fan Club, whose numbers probably rival that of the Imperial Parrot of Dominica, which is currently locked in a formidable battle with the impacts of climate change, as it faces extinction, awoken from their hibernation in their armchairs in front of the television set, stretched their arms and legs, double checked the status of the batteries in the television remotes and duly declared to all and sundry that they were ready for the Test series which commences a week today.
In between falling back to sleep and daydreaming of winning the three Test match encounter, the fans would have been familiarizing themselves with the location of the matches which reads like ports of call on a cruise ship itinerary; Barbados, Antigua and St. Lucia, for the three Test matches, with the latter hosting its inaugural England/West Indies Test. The tour returns to Barbados for the first two One Day Internationals then proceeds to Grenada for the next two games, thence back to St. Lucia for the conclusion of the ODI series and the first T20 match. Warner Park, Basseterre, St. Kitts is the site of the final two T20 matches and the conclusion of the English visit.
The West Indian cricket fan, long of tooth, will remember the days of yore when the tours commenced in Jamaica and meandered south through the Caribbean with stops in places such as Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, with the former territory hosting the third and final Tests in the five match series. Nowadays, English tours are designed with the English fans in mind, who will arrive in droves, like migratory birds heading south for the winter, to support their side, and tend to favour the tourist oriented beach destinations of the sunny Caribbean. The English fans will easily outnumber the locals whose attendance at the Test matches will likely be as rare as the sighting of the Imperial Parrot of Dominica.
Late last year, while the West Indies were suffering a humiliating 2 – 0 defeat at the hands of Bangladesh, including an innings defeat, the host’s first in 112 matches, Joe Root’s side was ascending the ladder of the ICC rankings, sweeping Sri Lanka 3 – 0, during a visit to the sub-continent. Currently, England are in third place with a rating of 108 behind the rampaging Indians and the South Africans, while the West Indians are languishing at the other end of the spectrum in eighth place, with a ranking of 70.
However, the Caribbean has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for English cricketers, who have won only three series in these parts, and in fact, only the 2004 team, led by Michael Vaughan, in a convincing 3 – 0 victory, have won a series in the last fifty years. In the last two trips, England lost 1 – 0 in a five-match encounter in 2009, and allowed the hosts to rebound to salvage a 1 – 1 draw, in 2015.
This is an important series for Joe Root, England’s eightieth Test captain, as his team prepares for an Ashes battle with the Australians this summer. England is well aware that the West Indies, a very weak side when playing abroad this century, albeit for the occasional flash of brilliance, such as was displayed at Headingley, during England’s 2 -1 victory in the last battle between the two sides in 2017, can be an entirely different flock at home. Last year, the Windies held Sri Lanka to 1 – 1 draw, before sweeping Bangladesh 2 – 0.
The hosts will be depending heavily on the opening attack of Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel to undermine the top order of the England batting line-up which no longer boasts the presence of Alastair Cook, now Sir Alastair Cook. The lack of a third penetrative bowler, one who takes wickets on a consistent basis continues to be a problem for the home team.
Surely the time has come for Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope to score heavily at the international level. Is this the occasion when Shimron Hetmyer will seize the mantle as the future of West Indies batting?
As the members of the West Indies Test Cricket Fan Club bid a warm welcome to the English team and their accompanying contingent of fans, they will be secretly hoping that this is the year of the Great Revival of West Indies cricket and a series victory.
