Two-time champions West Indies take long flight home after their misery is compounded on a dramatic day by Ireland at the Bellerive Oval
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Ireland and West Indies
Whoa, what a shocker it turned out to be. Ireland knocked out West Indies from the ICC World T20 cricket championship and grabbed a place in the Elite Super 12 on Super Saturday. Names of Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie were almost unheard of. No, not after their sterling performance on Saturday where they knocked the stuffing out of the two-time champions. For the record, Ireland won by nine wickets.
This is not the first time Ireland have served notice of their potential. That the T20 format produces surprise winners in club stage is well known. What is even more remarkable is Ireland, a country with no big cricket tradition in comparison to the West Indies, showed pluck and poise.
If, in batting, they had the men to chase on Saturday, Paul Delany bagged three wickets for 16 runs to choke the mighty West Indies. The pioneers of big hitting in cricket were restricted to 146 at the Bellerive Oval.
Such a total was just not enough from the Bajans, as the West Indies are known. Flip through the annals of cricket, West Indies have defined the art of lusty hitting in cricket. It did not matter if the ball was red or white, they had classy batsmen to whack the ball.
Names like Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, and Dessy Haynes come readily to mind. More recently, in the last 15 years, Chris Gayle showed what he could do in instant cricket. His six-hitting ability was devastating, though he preferred clubs over country, including the IPL. None can fault him for that as he wanted to make money.
The downfall of the West Indies
Cricket today is commerce plus entertainment. The evolution of cricket has seen many changes. From 60 overs ODIs to 50 over ODIs and now T20, there have been innovations.
What went wrong with the West Indies cannot be answered in one story. They have won the ICC World T20 title twice, in 2012 and 2016.
Their cricket board is in turmoil and the direct result is how the team is struggling. Few would have imagined in the good old days, West Indies would be struggling like a fish out of water in T20 cricket.
Reality has dawned, and it hits hard. That Ireland won on Saturday is a big deal. And for a country that had a club cricket culture since the days of Raman Lamba over two decades ago to evolve as a nation with potency shows how T20 is becoming a global brand.
What happens to the West Indies? They will fly back home. It’s a long flight and captain Nicholas Pooran will have to bury his head in shame. The start provided to the ICC World T20 by Ireland measures on the Richter scale. Maybe, it is a tectonic shift in the balance of power in the world of instant cricket.
Also Read: “India can’t dictate how Pakistan play their cricket” – Wasim Akram lashes out at BCCI
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S Kannan
(382 Articles Published)