There are occasions when one individual intervenes in history to make a difference to the prevailing tide of events. France’s war general of the 18th Century, Napoleon Bonaparte, T&T’s first prime minister, Eric Williams, Frank Worrell, amongst the greatest of West Indian leaders and the first black man to be made the permanent captain of the West Indies cricket team, Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore who transformed his country from a bicycle society to one of the most significant export production platforms in the world of the 20th Century, Toussaint L’Overture – the 18th century liberator of Haiti, and Clive Lloyd the W.I. captain who established and engineered the greatest of all cricket teams deserves special mention.
In the realm of West Indian fast bowling, it was Andy Roberts who inspired into existence, the quartet of demon fast bowlers of the 1970s-1990s to lead the West Indian cricketing nation to an unprecedented 15 years of domination of the cricket world.
We do not want to place too much weight of expectation on the fairly narrow but muscular shoulders of 24-year-old Shamar Joseph to begin the kind of revolution needed in the tide of West Indies cricket, which has been suffering more than its fair share of the Biblical Seven Years of Famine.
However, Joseph’s displays of stamina, intent, his determination to resuscitate West Indian cricketing pride, and the wicket-shattering last ball of the game, and the most decisive bowling spell in the second innings of the second Test have handed him the responsibility to lead a rebirth of the cricketing nation of the West Indies. In the lyrics of the bard, “To rise again like ah Raging fire… when the time comes we are going to take it higher.”
“My aim is to make him, my family, my country and the entire West Indies proud by giving my best at all times,” said Joseph in reference to the late West Indian off-spinner, Clyde Butts, whom he credited for giving him encouragement as a young tear-away fast bowler.
Shamar, from the tiny, very rural village of Baracara, in the New Amsterdam area on the eastern coast of Guyana bordering the Caribbean Sea, far away from the Essequibo, emerged as the spearhead of the West Indian bowling attack in Australia in the two-test series, taking the leadership role from his senior and namesake, Alzarri Joseph.
It goes almost without saying that Australia is not a place for faint-hearted cricketers. It’s a gladiatorial arena where Australian cricket teams take no prisoners in the language of war: there are no hostages, obliteration and disgrace are usually what the Aussie men seek to do; beyond-the-boundary niceties of Australian civilization can be extended; but not on the cricket pitch.
This time though, and while winning the first Test handily by 10 wickets inside three days, Australia were kept fighting against this almost amateur team of West Indian neophytes right down to the fourth day of the second Test at the famous Gabba Grounds in Brisbane.
It’s a venue at which Australian teams have swallowed their opponents whole – “eat dem raw” would be a more appropriate West Indian phrase to describe the voracious appetite of Australian teams for victory and domination at the Gabba and indeed any other ground on that vast continent.
Eventually, the West Indian team minus several senior players who preferred to follow their financial future in the T20 adventure, prevailed against the highly touted World Champions Australia in the second Test decisively through the deadly full-length delivery ‘at pace’ by Shamar. It knocked Hazelwood’s off-stump out of the ground to give the West Indians victory: “I feel like it’s a series victory,” says destroyer of the Aussie batsmen (sorry I cannot bring myself to call them by that other name) Shamar after his incisive 7-68 bowling spell in the second Test, having achieved a “five for” – 5-98 in the previous Test in Adelaide.
It must, however, be said with a measure of thankfulness to the Australian administration to have paid the West Indian team the honour, perhaps for old time sake, of playing their first team against the West Indians; the men from the Caribbean having had their reputation greatly diminished over the last 20 years of less than glorious cricket.
Cricket Australia could easily have resorted to playing a second X1 to rest their senior players against the West Indies, our team that has been bordering on being considered amongst the Minnows – the “small frys” of international Test cricket for many years now.
Thanks Cricket Australia and the tens of thousands of cricket-mad fans of the leading cricket nation in the world at this point for coming out in large numbers during this series.
Shamar apart, there were performances of promise from new players Kirk McKenzie, Justin Greaves, Kavem Hodge, Alick Athanaze, with a couple of encouraging moments from Kevin St. Clair – his double flip after getting his first wicket in Test cricket and his two knocks down the order in the Gabba Test included. So too his spin companion, Gudakesh Mottie, who will have his time.
Now seeming like an old-timer compared to the other inductees into Test cricket, Josh Da Silva played a very spirited and determined innings in the first Test, his batting once again showing the potential he has.
Although the seasoned and reliable West Indian skipper and opening batsman, Kraigg Braithwaite made very few runs in the series, his guiding hand amongst the inexperienced group showed itself. And so too did the lion-hearted and very experienced opening bowler, Kemar Roach, display his continuing worth in a few spells. And while Roach is in the twilight of his career at 35 with over 250 Test wickets, he is sure to have given encouragement and advice to his young colleague fast bowlers; his experience in England will be greatly valued.
At the end of the Australian tour, skipper Braithwaite was in place to deliver a couple most-timely responses to an Australian fast bowler of a previous era, Rodney Hogg, who dismissed the team as being “pathetic and hopeless”.
“I must say we had two words that inspired us in this Test match. Mr. Rodney Hogg said we were ‘pathetic’ and ‘hopeless’, so that source was our inspiration. We wanted to show the world we’re not pathetic,” said Braithwaite.
Maybe though, Braithwaite and West Indian cricket lovers everywhere should forgive Hogg as he is in all probability still suffering from the mental disequilibrium “cut arse”, put on him by the great Sir Viv Richards in the 1979-1980 series Down Under.
Then Hogg (what an unfortunate name) after hitting the proud Viv on his head with a bouncer was rewarded with a sound flogging from the unforgiving greatest batsman of that age. Such events in the life of an individual last forever; pity the poor Hogg.
History has a way of following itself. Back in the 1976 West Indies vs England series, the England skipper, Tony Grieg, went out of his way at the start of the tests to claim that he would make the “West Indies grovel”. As the cricket world knows by now, the South African-born England player at the end of the series walked on his knees and hands as a sign of contrition for his fastness.
For the sake of West Indies cricket and national pride, maybe Hogg’s disrespectful diatribe can usher-in another 15-year triumph. If it pans out that way, we will be thankful to the former Australian fast bowler.
Back to the star of the show on the Australian tour, Shamar with gratitude to the Australian Dr. Byam, who tended to his toe, crushed by one of the pinpoint Yorkers of the Australian counterpart, Mitch Starc to end his second innings, Shamar said thanks.
“He did something to my toe, I don’t know what he did,” Joseph said. “I feel that we’ve won the series, even though it’s 1-1. I already cried after my five-wicket haul … I’m not that tired; I told my skipper today I’d bowl until the last wicket falls,” said the hero of the drama.
Twenty-four-year old Shamar Joseph is the latest in the long-line and tradition of West Indian fast bowlers. We all look forward with hope to the performances of the young team when it tours England in July 2024.
England, where the ball moves around in the air and off the pitch, is going to be a real trial for our inexperienced batsmen and for our bowlers to find the right line and length to make the best use of the English conditions. We wish them well.
