No matter how this 2009 Digicel Test Series turns out, the West Indies drove a dagger through England’s heart in the first Test at Sabina Park. Of course, this is not the first time that a cricket team has been shell-shocked. But this one in Kingston might have been the most riveting and it should have ramifications for years to come. For the future of West Indies cricket, let’s hope that a few ten-year-olds were on-hand to witness the mayhem. At least one will undoubtedly be `Taylor-wannabe.’
Some years ago, the Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson recalled the day he took a train down from his home in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales to see his first Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. So enthralled was he at the sight of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson terrorizing the Englishmen, that he wanted to be fast bowler right then and there. And a decent one he turned out to be.
Forget us long-suffering fogies who can’t remember when last we saw the West Indies win a Test. We are probably paying for some sin committed in a past life. But if this latest feat didn’t inspire, then call in the director at Maddens Funeral Parlor. Our souls must have expired.
A much needed lift
Of all the cricketing venues in the Caribbean, none needed such a pepper-upper as the grand old lady in the heart of Kingston. In a city riddled by crime, a murder rate ranked close to the highest in the world, and where hope is in scarce supply, this respite from wretchedness was like rain playing music on a zinc roof.
The winning performance had all the lyrics of pride, hard work, self-belief, self-worth and application – lyrics not played by the West Indies cricket team for their fans in ages.
Fittingly, in the crowd too, was Usain Bolt who high-stepped and jigged to these same lyrics in Beijing last August. “I wanted to be a fast bowler myself,” he told the Nation News in an interview.
We all know that the Caribbean has talented individuals – even if none might ever rise to Bolt’s zenith. But to do it collectively as a team – a modern-day West Indies cricket team, was beyond belief. Let’s hope more of us, not only in Jamaica but across the Caribbean as well, will be similarly inspired.
Taking us lightly
As they say: ‘If you walk with your head held too high, you risk stepping into an uncapped manhole.’ And at Sabina Park, England sure did step into one.
England were considering this Test series as a tune-up for the upcoming one with Australia (the Ashes) in England this summer. Their new captain Strauss would find his footing, a deposed Pietersen would learn to become a team-man, and Flintoff would prove that his body was whole. Too scant a thought might have been given to working up a sweat much less enduring a defeat – a humiliating one at that.
They forgot to read the artifacts on this cricket ground called Sabina Park.
She can be cruel to her own children, much less to those of others. If you happen to get on her wrong side, or take her for granted, may Gods be with you.
The West Indies were routed for 47 on a bright Sunday morning there four years ago, spoiling my pre-arranged lunch.
The England pacer Steve Harmison was the wrecker-in-chief then, and might have been chafing at the bit for a repeat. But the winds shifted, as they so often do, and now it was Jerome Taylor’s turn.
Sir Vivian Richards had inkling, and presciently suggested: `Now’s the time.’
There is something mystical about this venue and Richards of all people knows first-hand.
On a February afternoon in 1990, Devon Malcolm – the Jamaican-born England fast bowler, rattled Viv’s lumber to cast the die. “Chef cancel de steam fish fi Ash Wednesday,” one hospitality box hostess blurted in no uncertain terms, even before the great batsman had removed his gloves. “Di match done,” she said emphatically. And `done’ it was.
In May of 1995, scantily clad Australian supporters went cart-wheeling on the pitch when Australia wrenched the Frank Worrell Trophy from the clench-fisted West Indies.
But Sabina has smiled on us too.
Sir Gary Sobers made his famous Test triple century there, the first by a West Indian. And Lawrence Rowe, that immortal Test debut against New Zealand. Michael Holding, with figures not as flattering as Taylor’s, but with more deadly pace, frightened the daylights out of India there in a 1976 Test. And who dares to forget Brian Lara’s spine-tingling double-hundred which stunned Australia and propelled the West Indies to a remarkable victory back in 1999?
An intimidating cauldron
In all of cricket, there mightn’t be a ground more electric than Sabina’s - the fluttering flags atop the green-canopied Kingston Cricket Club to the west, the cratered Blue Mountains to the north, the Palisados strip and Port Royal, the once wickedest city to the south, the smell of home-grown marijuana drifting across from the cheap seats to the east, and a chatty crowd egged on by effervescent bass-line music from the Mound.
When packed, this ambiance can buoy or weight, inspire or intimidate, deflate or inflate It all depends. This time, around England were intimidated.
“Its (Sabina Park’s) history is replete with devastation wrecked by lethal fast bowlers,” of the latest eruption veteran cricket journalist Tony Cozier wrote.
When Australia kicked off their last Test series against South Africa, at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground (the WACA) in Perth, it wasn’t because they wanted their visitors to savor the country’s cleanest city. It was because the WACA with its fiery wicket, is known as a skull-cracker. The hosts wanted to set the tone.
Following suit and establishing a tradition, the West Indies Cricket Board might, from here on out, want to give serious thought to having future Test tours kick off in Kingston. In all of the Caribbean, there mightn’t be a more intimidating Test venue. To some visitors, it’s a lions den.
Some of our speed demons might be long dead and buried. But this location will always haunt.
Kingston College on North Street just down from the George Headley Stand, has to-date paraded seven West Indies players in a total of 156 Test matches. Two of the lot – J.K. Holt, Jnr., and `Collie’ Smith, made their debuts at Sabina Park. The former opened his account with 94 against England in 1954 and the latter scored a century in the second innings of the First Test against Australia one year later. And in the recent one at Sabina, Brendan Nash – the son of K.C. old boy and former Jamaica Olympic swimmer Paul Nash, made 55 in his first Test appearance on the hallowed turf. Let’s hope some of the K.C. student-body were on-hand last Saturday.
One or two might have been inspired and want to add their names to the distinguished list.
