Beautiful! It brought back memories of Worrell, Weekes and Walcott and of course Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Roy Fredricks and Seymore Nurse.
What seemed a resurgent Sri Lanka in the T20 world cricketing circus now seems a bubble, blown up by the mighty hitting of the West Indies who punched holes in it to leave the Lankans in a daze.
Not only were the cricketers, coaching staff and selectors left in a daze, but also the thousands of supporters who jam packed the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium to soak in the action and cheer their local heroes.
The Windies batting blasters – Lendl Simmons, Brandon King, Shimon Hetmyer, Andre Russell and Powell pummelling Lanka’s pace and spin and the tall and wiry pace missile Oshane Thomas causing fear and ripping through our batting, prompted all to ask the question: why did the Windies selectors leave them out of the one-day international squad which Windies lost three-nil?
Having been put to second best in the one dayers and smarting by these defeats, the fresh blood transfused Windies blasters made our bloated bowlers look village green trundles as they bludgeoned them for fours and out of the ground sixes to leave the Lankan cowboys in the middle and those watching in a dizzy spin.
Not for years have we seen merciless ‘batting crimes’ committed against our bowlers, especially the disrespectful manner in which Andre Russell treated them. The brutal assault and blasting of sixes in the games off Malinga, Kumara and Mathews were stunning. Sixes flowed off Russel’s bat like sparks from a welders’ gun.
The Windies hit squad is all muscular, with ox-like strength and when they launch out on the big hits, the ball travels like heat seeking missiles, not over the boundary, but out of the ground with some balls being lost and having to be replaced.
It was a batting exhibition that the Windies batters put on show under lights in both games. The white balls were treated with such disdain and arrogance which if the ball had life would have begged for mercy, unable to suffer such pain and punishment.
Their bowlers too were unplayable, especially the tall, baby faced and lovely to watch Oshane Thomas with his bullet train like express deliveries, especially his short pitched deliveries that whizzed past the batsmen’s head and thank god for helmets, if not to be hit could be life threatening or even fatal.
With the T20 World Cup in Australia come October being the target, the Windies under Kieron Pollard, if the wares in all aspects they showcased here is an indication, then they will challenge strongly to win the title, they won twice earlier.
The Windies play for glamour, England for pride and Australia or glory it is said and the calypso loving happy go lucky willow wielders from the Caribbean to whom the ball is meant to be hit will draw a spectator following like moths to a flame and instill fear in their opponents if they give continuity to their cricketing black magic. As a youngster having been cricket crazy and a cricketer later I have read, heard and listened on radio about the heroics of the famous threesome who were tagged the terrible Ws, Weekes, Walcott and Worrell, Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and Gordon Greenidge as punishing batsmen.
Incidentally Weekes celebrated his 95th birthday recently and we wish him enjoy a century like he was famous for doing so with bat in hand when the Windies were struggling for recognition in the elite league.
Then there was also the thunder and lightning pace of Roy Gilchrist, Wesley Hall, Charlie Griffith, Curtly Ambrose and the mesmerizing spin of Sonny Ramadin, Alf Valentine and Lance Gibbs.
I had the good fortune of visiting the Caribbean and covering the World Cup and Sri Lanka’s tours for the ‘Daily News’ and ‘Sunday Observer’ and in addition to their cricketers could vouch for the happy go lucky living of their people to whom music is the food of life.
Having said that we move on to the Lankans and it would have been galling, after clean sweeping the Windies like the Abans cleaners do in our streets the three one day games to see fate reversed and be bombed and cleaned in the two T20s.
T20 cricket is the game that all countries are concentrating on what with the World Cup looming and the Lankans need not be disappointed, because they have time to learn from the Windies defeats and get their game on rails before the big one.