From Guyana to the Gabba

The young West Indies team’s stunning win at the Gabba ground in Brisbane had every Aussie cricket fan excited on the Australia Day weekend. I have never seen so many Aussies happy about a loss! So, just imagine the reaction back in the Caribbean especially in Guyana, the home of new Windies spearhead Shamar Joseph.

Cricket was once the way of life in the Caribbean along with church and calypso music. I have been lucky enough to visit the West Indies… for work! My out of office message read: “I will be out of the office until June 1^st, so I will reply to your message on my return. However, if you are contacting me to: send me a cheque (made out in strong currency); give me a Nobel Prize; or you wish to invite me to a conference in an exotic location, I will get back to you straight away.”

Well blow me down, as when I first let that out of office message into cyberspace I actually received an invitation to an exotic location – to the ‘Caribbean Export Council meeting’ in Barbados no less and I was off to the Caribbean quicker than a Michael Holding over. 

And whilst cricket was on the lips of everyone at the meeting I spoke at in Barbados (as the West Indies was hosting the Cricket World Cup), the local game has since fallen on hard times with competition from US College sports and scholarship along with some local structural problems in West Indies cricket administration. On top of this has been the 20/20 cricket revolution and the lure of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for several West Indian seniors players. In 2023, the sport hit rock bottom when the West Indies did not even qualify for the men’s World Cup in India.

Then along came Shamar Joseph and that amazing win at the Gabba that has really captured the hearts of minds of cricket fans in Australia and globally.

Why is this so?

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Firstly, the West Indies is such a young inexperienced team, with many only selected because the more senior players decided to play IPL.

Secondly, it is the back-story of Shamar Joseph himself. He was a Guyana security guard in his small village in Guyana just a month ago who only had dreams of playing in the Caribbean Premier League. Now he has bowled the West Indies to a famous victory taking a seven-wicket haul, and with a broken toe!

Thirdly, there is pure nostalgia for those of us who watched the great West Indian teams growing up. Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and the amazing succession of quicks, Holding, Roberts, Garner, Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and so on who brought great charisma and personality to the game as well as being so ruthlessly successful.

Finally, the win was about not only the past but also the future. The Gabba victory provides a flicker of hope for West Indies cricket and in turn, Test cricket itself. There are already plans for saving Test cricket with cross subsidies from the big test playing nations like India, Australia, and England to struggling nations like the Windies as well as using the giant financial coffers of the IPL and 20/20 competitions to support the long form of the game.

That means there is work to be done and a long test inning ahead for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and trustees of the game. It means challenges ahead in terms of sponsors, scheduling and logistics but this is all very necessary for the future of the game. But in the meantime let’s join the calypso celebration and congratulate this young team for the joy they have brought to our shores and back home in theirs.