Focus on the fast men as India’s rebuilding process begins

The first Test match I saw marked the debut of Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge. Also making its debut was the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, while Andy Roberts was playing only his second Test. The West Indies team, then in transition, was led by Clive Lloyd who had played under both Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai two all-time greats.

Lloyd led the team to a 3-2 series win; Richards, Greenidge and Roberts became the mainstays of the side as great fast bowlers and batsmen appeared as if on a conveyor belt. For a span of about a decade and a half from 1980, West Indies won nearly four times as many Tests as they lost, and were undefeated in a Test series.

The West Indies played a superior brand of England’s Bazball cricket today. They didn’t have to work at it, or be conscious of enjoying themselves. It all came naturally; the enjoyment was built-in and communicated itself to the viewers. They bowled fast, batted with authority and caught everything with ease.

Richards dominated world cricket with a self-belief close to arrogance while they won the first two World Cups. Lloyd made 102 in the first final and Richards 138 in the second. It was all so magical. You admired them, but you were also a bit scared of them for what they could do to the opposition.

And now the team that produced Richards and Greenidge, Curtley Ambrose and Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding and dozens of players youngsters around the world aspired to, have failed to qualify for this year’s 50-over World Cup.

Cautionary tale

For a while now, the West Indies have been the cautionary tale of cricket: what happens when you take your status for granted, what happens when you don’t build on what you have, what happens when administrators and players steadily lose interest in their jobs, what happens when short-sighted planning meets financially insecure performers.

It would have been difficult for the West Indies anyway, as the focus shifted from national players to T20 franchise professionals, from a cricket culture to American sports, and from cricket as a road to unifying the different islands to cricket as a means of emphasising the differences.

The West Indies, alone among Test teams is not a single nation — and thought was given at one time to fielding different teams from the constituent countries like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana and so on. For years, Barbados had a team stronger than most Test-playing countries.

It is easy to blame T20 and franchise cricket for the decline. But at least it gave the players a sense of security that might otherwise have been missing. It kept them in the sport. Rather than working out a compromise that meant the best players would be regularly available for national duty, the cricket board let ego and personal issues cloud the big picture. It serves as a warning to other teams, some of whom have already begun to feel the backlash of the club versus country choice.

Much to offer

While the World Cup disaster might be the saddest development in cricket recently, the fact remains that as a Test team, the West Indies have much to offer. India, who begin their tour with a Test starting on Wednwesday (July 12) cannot afford to take them lightly. If it comes down to a battle between the respective fast bowlers, India’s group is way behind the home team’s in terms of both pace and experience.

India’s pace attack is spearheaded by Mohammed Siraj in the absence of Mohammed Shami who is being rested. Siraj made his debut just over two years ago and has played 19 Tests while his four colleagues have together played 13 Tests. India, who seemed to have a conveyor belt of supplies in recent years, suddenly find they are a bit short. The rebuilding could start here. The four experienced West Indies medium pacers have 225 Tests among them — and they are playing at home.

India have won the last eight Test series against the West Indies, four of them away. India last lost a Test to the West Indies in 2002. The West Indies’ record in their last five home series is impressive: they have lost just one. The current series is as important to a resurgent West Indies as it is to a rebuilding India.