BlackMan Time

Archive for September, 2004

Hooray, the West Indies cricket team for beating England by two wickets and seven balls to spare, in the ICC Trophy at the Oval yesterday!

It was a most dramatic win with the much improved England team on course to clinch the trophy, until they bucked upon strong West Indian resistence and resolve.

The star Windies players were Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw whose record ninth wicket partnership of 71 helped snatch the win from under England's noses.

West Indies were dead and buried at 147 for 8 before Browne and Bradshaw joined each other at the crease, but slowly they edged towards England's total of 217, and sealed a stunning win with two fours in the penultimate over of the game. Understandably, jubiliations is all around!

One of the best aspects of this win is the fact that all the players have decided to give the proceeds of their salary towards the victims of Hurricane Jeanne which devastated the Caribbean and has killed over 1,000 people in Haiti, beforing moving onto the Bahamas and Florida. It was a touching gesture.

There was a time when the West Indies team were regular match winners: feared, revered and exciting to watch. Great names like Sir Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Vanburn Holder and more, in the team ensured that anything was possible. To see Michael Holding’s bowling action, with his almost one mile long run-up, spread out on several tabloid pages in its actuality, made every West Indian filled with pride. These days that does not seem to happen and England, which was then a mere minnow as world cricketers, has very much taken some of the West Indies fire.

Their 4-0 series “whitewash” over the West Indies this summer has revealed a Windies team very much in crisis and troubled. Outbursts by Sir Vivian Richards against the leadership of Brian Lara further threw kereosene oil on the fire and Lara, holder of several world batting records, has indicated that this current tour may be his last in England. We hope not, but only Brian Lara knows what’s going on in his mind.

What we do know is that for today the ICC Trophy represents a big development and a jubilation all lovers of West Indian cricket should laud and applaud for many days to come. We hope it spurn the team back onto winning ways and rekindle some of what could be called “the glory days.”

Selah.

It was almost predictable. That, of course, is the nature of the British tabloid press beast!

Obviously I’m talking about their reaction to England’s 2-2 draw with Austria after being 2-0 up with 30 minutes to go. They didn’t need to look too far for a fall guy or two as goalkeeper David James’ off-night labelled him the most suitable candidate!

His two missed-ball fumble made him look like a right plank and did nothing to enhance his cool image.

You should see the press hacks calling for his blood! How quickly they forget the many times that James, whom they hitherto dub “King James,” has saved England’s backside! You can go many games being the saviour of the national side with your heroric antics in goals, but just have off night and suddenly you turn from hero to villain in two seconds flat! Suddenly, adjective phrases like “erratic performance” gets thrown at you when really who they would like to murder is none other than the team coach Sven Goran Eriksson!

What a bummer!

The doomsayers among them are predicting that James, usually a very capable keeper, and Sven will be out if England don’t beat Poland in their World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday, September 8.

I have no doubt that James will be an absolute star: he will England’s saviour, again. The team have usually shown when the (fish and) chips are down they are capable of pulling a rabbit or two out of the bag. They’ll need to pull a giant sized one to repair damage and win the public’s heart. That’s the only thing that will satisfy the press, then everything will be back to normal.

For now…