THE EDITOR: The WI men's cricket team is possibly the greatest X-factor team in the history of modern sport. So, despite our recent shortcomings and poor place in the international rankings, no right thinking person can bet against team WI winning the upcoming T20 International World Cup.
The very history of cricket says this very resoundingly. The story of the gentleman's game says that when Test cricket was the biggest format in the sport, the WI was a juggernaut that took it by the scruff of the neck and shook it as it had never been previously shaken, beating the world for more than a decade.
The WI had unprecedented bowling that was fast and furious because the sheer genius of Sir Clive Lloyd unleashed in cricket the 'fire in Babylon,' to quote the work by that title, boasting a group of fearsome pace bowlers that included the legends Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and the great Malcolm Marshall.
If the WI fast bowlers did not deliver the coup de grace against opposing teams then the batters were sure to make them 'grovel,' as they desired to do to the WI. But, as calypsonian Shadow sang, they would have been better served 'planting peas in Tobago.' They included Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Larry Gomes, Sir Vivian Richards, Lloyd, Richie Richardson and Jeffery Dujon, who represent a formula that Test cricket teams follow to this day to win trophies.
These men then dominated the new wave of ODI cricket for many years, starting with World Series Cricket in Australia and went on to win two of the first three World Cups in this format, only losing to India in what should have been the first three-peat in cricket because WI batters became overconfident when Sunil 'the little maestro' Gavaskar's men fell cheaply to the WI bowlers.
As statistically improbable is it may be, the WI players then became the sole inhabitants of the zenith of the new craze in cricket, T20 International, winning two World Cups and reaching several 'semis' while producing the game's first icons on the way.
The WI track record of dominance in cricket, despite at times being very woeful, begs the question of who, being of fair and reasonable mental persuasion, would bet against the Caribbean cricket team winning the upcoming T20I World Cup, though fans never know whether they would be woeful or world champion? It certainly won't be me!
FITZROY OTHELLO
Princes Town
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