It was a result that delighted all neutral cricket fans. The West Indies, everyone’s second-favourite team, secured the most miraculous victory possible in the final of the World T20 Championships. With 19 runs needed off the last over, Carlos Brathwaite launched a scarcely believable four straight sixes. It capped a remarkable period for West Indian cricketers, whose women won their own tournament earlier that day and whose under-19 team were victorious in their own country. The sheer joy the West Indies brought to the competition, from Chris Gayle’s victory dances to the way the team celebrated with the Afghans after losing to them, showed what unity can do to build team spirit. Captain Darren Sammy epitomised the selflessness of the team as he barely got a chance to bat in the tournament and hardly bowled too and yet was energetic in the field throughout. The West Indian victory is made all the more remarkable considering there was a chance the team wouldn’t make it to the tournament in the first place. Its cricket board is one of the poorest and badly-managed in the world. In fact, it makes the PCB look like a paragon of good governance. The players, not given the money they had been promised by the board, threatened to boycott the tournament, a threat they have carried out in the past. Only a last-minute agreement secured their appearance. And what an appearance it was.
West Indies’ victory says a lot about the importance of experience in T20s. Its most important players – Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy – do not play for the West Indies at the Test and ODI level, and have essentially become freelance cricketers who offer their services to the various domestic T20 franchises that have cropped up around the world. By focusing only on this format of the game, the West Indians have become one of the best at figuring out its nuances. Pakistan, though, whose cricketers are barred from the IPL, does not have
this advantage. This is why we should resist the temptation to see this tournament as a harbinger for the return of West Indian dominance. Its Test team is still among the weakest in the world, unable to compete with any other nation. And, as seen by Darren Sammy criticising his cricket board’s chairman by name during his press conference, the politics that besets West Indian cricket is not about to go anywhere. We should enjoy their win as a reminder of why so many of us fell in love with West Indies in the first place. However, the glory days are far from returning.