The sorry demise of Windies cricket

Spectator

4 days ago

The tub-thumping atmosphere in the Long Room at Lord's was so raucous late on Monday afternoon as India and England fought out the tightest of Test matches that it made a Millwall home game against West Ham seem like the Albert Hall. So a great triumph for Test cricket, yes? Well, up to a point. While England and India were showcasing the five-day game at its most thrilling and competitive, in front of a sell-out crowd for the fifth day running, one of the sadder events in the history of Test cricket was unfolding in front of no one in Kingston, Jamaica, where the West Indies were being flattened by Australia for 27 in the third match of the series to lose by 176 runs.
The pitch was clearly a factor – only one of the four all-out totals was more than 200 – but that couldn't obscure the fact that it was yet another example of what a sorry state Windies cricket is now in. This was in Jamaica, the home of Chris Gayle, Courtney Walsh, Michael Holding and countless other stars of the game. How the mighty and all that… The total of 27 only missed out on being the lowest-ever score in Test history because of a misfield by the hapless Sam Konstas. Mitchell Starc took six wickets for nine runs and Scott Boland three for two, including a hat-trick. It was an utter demolition of a team that dominated Test cricket for two decades in the last century and were admired all over the world.
But it's not just the decline of the Windies that rankles: Sri Lanka, home of legends such as Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and not forgetting the most successful bowler in Test history, the great Muttiah Muralitharan, are but a shadow of their former selves. Or take Pakistan, again a country with a great Test history but who barely play much red ball cricket these days. Even South Africa don't have a home Test match until October 2026 at the earliest.
So by all means celebrate the glories of the five-day game, but until it expands beyond the might of England, India and Australia it will be a bit shallow. Do we just want to see the 'Big Three' play crowd-pleasing series against each other?
But what a game that was at Lord's. Ben Stokes was singled out for his heroics with the ball and his magnetic captaincy but it was Jofra Archer who was equally the player of the match. The sheer excitement of seeing that elegant, effortless run-up before some unplayable rocket was unleashed did so much to stir the crowd up to the fever pitch that encompassed the game.
Archer removed the prolific Jaiswal cheaply in both innings, as well as taking out Pant's middle stump and leaping to take a brilliantly athletic catch off his own bowling to remove Sundar. As Pant departed, Archer wondered in his ear quite why he hadn't given the ball the charge as he had done two balls earlier. Top sledging. The England set-up deserves great credit for persevering with Archer through all his injury travails.
Personally, I have loved the Club World Cup despite the abuse flung at the contest, and Gianni Infantino, Fifa's biggest fromage. Where else do you get to watch the best Saudi and Brazilian clubs? And as for Chelsea, does their brilliant 3-0 win over PSG suggest they may be close to cracking the Premier League? Is the remarkable Joao Pedro the missing piece in the jigsaw? They were suffering from their usual problem – too many £60 million talents to fit in the first team. But now, thanks to a bit of ruthlessness (goodbye Sancho and Madueke)and some hard-nosed selection decisions (take a breather Jackson), they look like plausible title contenders. And their odds of winning it (8-1 with some bookies) look way more alluring than Man City (3-1), Arsenal (5-2) and Liverpool (9-4). Just saying.