Even 500 years after its demise, the Roman Empire continues to exert its impact on modern civilisation as well as current-day pop culture. As much as their legacy pertains to glory, “The Fall of Rome” is one of the most popular phrases across history classes. Well, the link to the above facts with our sport is the West Indies national team. A side which did not lose a single test series from 1980 to 1994, the only away series wins of the Windies in the 21st century have come against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Thus, possessing a heritage like the Romans, there’s another analogy which can be drawn between both Relics.
When the topic arises about the cause of collapse, amateur enthusiasts cite the Barbaric Invasions and military inadequacies but often overlook the in-depth aspects such as slave labour or currency chaos within the Empire. Similarly, we are all aware of the administrative mishaps of the Windies Cricket Board but choose to ignore the fact that logically the Men in Maroon are always going to be at a disadvantage. A union for the Caribbean Islands, West Indies, virtually functions solely for cricket. Combined with globalisation, which has opened pathways to different sports, the youngsters of the region have neither the financial nor the sentimental incentive to toil hard for 5 consecutive days. Well, if I try to force the contrast of the “overhyped v/s overlooked”, the modern perception of the team’s bowling and batting contingent with respect to the team’s decline in tests is a good candidate.
Clive Lloyd’s men were a well-oiled machine, but bowling was the jewel of this crown. Most attacks would fall pale on a comparison against the Horseman, followed by Ambrose-Walsh, but the current Windies bowling line-up at the very least carries hope with them. On one hand, Jayden Seales has had such a terrific start that only Rabada and Lohmann have picked more Test wickets at a better strike-rate than him. Whereas on the other hand, Shamar Joseph has recently starred in one of the iconic red-ball moments of this decade. Even Alzarri Joseph seems to have adjusted himself to the longer format. Unfortunately, the radiance of hope loses its glimmer when we focus on the team’s batsmen, which indeed is our focus for today.
George Headley is arguably the first cricketing superstar of the region, who was succeeded by the 3 Ws. Then came Sobers, who is arguably the biggest superstar of the sport. We then had Richards and Lara, who are worthy competitors for the tag of the best, whereas Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul went on to build their own reputations in the longest format. Not only has this rich line of World-Class batters been torn apart by the current corp, the batting-unit of today’s West Indies is amongst the worst in 150 years of international cricket.
West Indies averages 22.03 with the bat in this decade. Not only is this the worst amongst the 12 test-playing nations of today, but only 5 other teams have had a worse figure in the last 100 years, which comes down to 2 if you remove the teams that made their debut in the respective decade. Numerous such atrocious analyses exist, but the naked eye is itself capable of judging the sorry state of WI batting. Take the example of the most recent series of theirs. Hosting Australia, surely the pitches provided were a seamers’ paradise, but the West Indies did not even come close to competing in any of the three 4th innings chases. Additionally, the last innings of the above series witnessed one of the most humiliating standpoints of the sport’s biggest entertainers. Set to chase 204 runs, West Indies were reduced to 11-6! With mercy from Konstas, the team dragged themselves to 27 runs, narrowly missing New Zealand’s record of 26 set in 1955. As a consequence, the CWI president has officially announced an emergency meeting, but one wonders if the meeting is too little too late for redemption and is rather a requiem for the once greats who have been invited to the gathering.
The highest run-getters list for the national team in the past 10 years provides an interesting case-study. At number 2, we have Jason Holder, who is probably categorised by the majority as a bowling all-rounder. One of the few T20 talents who chose to grind it out in the test format, Holder ascended captaincy in only his 9th match and seemed to be the precious drop in a barren land. Holder is amongst the three double centurions for his team within the period. Well then, where was he in the above-mentioned series? 4000 kilometres away in Los Angeles, playing a dead-rubber in the recently concluded MLC. Holder was sacked from captaincy in 2021 and subsequently made the decision to prioritise leagues over international games in 2023.
One of the other double-centurion, Kyle Mayers, followed suit and refused a central contract in 2023. Having one of the out-and-out greatest debuts; Kyle Mayers starred in a 395-run chase on a day 5 Bangladesh pitch by scoring 210 after coming in at 59/3. He could not live up to this promise in subsequent games, averaging only 25 in the next 17 games, but his bowling was unearthed. 34 wickets @18.29, only 7 proper all-rounders possess a better average difference than that of Mayer’s 14.43. Yet, he hasn’t played a test in the last 24 months. The 3rd person to have crossed the 200 mark is Tangerine Chanderpaul. Son of a legend, he averaged 40 in his debut series, which came down-under. However, underperformance against the top 3 teams of the previous WTC cycle, accompanied by a quiet domestic season, was enough for him to get axed. His replacement is Mikyle Louis, the first Test cricketer from St Kitts. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to carry on his golden form from domestic cricket and averages 18.45 in his 10 games, the same number of matches as that of the one whom he replaced.
Only two people average more than Tangerine’s 32.94 in our aforementioned 10-year filter. One of them is Carlos Braithwaite, who played a total of 3 test matches. The other batter is Nkrumah Bonner. The leading batter of the national side in his debut year of 2021, chief-selector Desmond Haynes remarked that they looked forward to having him back for the India series in 2023 after dropping him from the squad. Well, it has been 2 years since then, and Bonner is yet to play his 16th test, and with him being 36 years old, the tally might stay there forever.
I first saw a 24-year-old Shane Dowrich in the 2016 series against India, where he valiantly partnered up with current captain Roston Chase to save a lost match. Hence, I am not surprised that he has the 3rd most centuries for WI since his debut while being a first-choice wicketkeeper. In fact, only Jeff Dujon has a higher average than Dowrich’s 29.07 amongst all Windies keepers (min 1K runs). However, I am certainly dismayed that Dowrich had to retire by 2023 owing to personal health issues. In his penultimate match, Dowrich suffered an injury, which led to Joshua Da Silva being called upon as his substitute. The latter would go on to make his full-fledged debut later that year. Like his predecessor, Da Silva’s batting statistics do not stand out, but both of them made difficult runs, were astute glovesmen and loved to make runs against England. It might feel weird as to why am I talking in the past tense, given he is only 27 years old, but he was dropped recently by the Darren Sammy regime, and you can never be sure about anything in Caribbean Cricket over the last few years.
You might be wondering then, which batsmen are part of the side right now? Well, leading the way is ex-captain Kraigg Brathwaite. The poster-boy of the most torrid period of the WI Test team, he recently completed the milestone of 100 test matches. Making his debut in 2011 as a teenager, Kraigg has seen all the troughs and the minimal crests in these 15 years. He has scored 4,596 runs in the last 10 years, which is more than 2x the 2nd highest. Despite memorable centuries in 3 of the SENA nations, Brathwaite has arguably the most mediocre record in the 100 matches club. One can never deny the fact that he has been the brightest beacon for his team, but has he shone bright enough to be amongst the world’s best?
Other than that, you have captain Chase and Shai Hope, who are 3rd and 5th on the list, respectively. Both made their comebacks in the series against Australia. I do think both of them can be good Test cricketers, given that Chase also performs the duty of a spinner, whereas Hope dons the gloves, yet their batting average of 25 does not back up my claims. The same can be said for younger talents, Alick Athanze and Keacy Carty.
Pretty much all cricket fans hope for a revival of the West Indies. All of us want to see the sport reach a new audience, and it feels disappointing when an existing foothold is slowly eroding in front of us. Yet, we hope for a miracle. We hope for a messiah. Shamar or Seales can play that role in the bowling front, but one of the batters needs to step-up.
