Cricket
By Frank Birbalsingh
Virtually half a century had passed since I watched Test cricket at Sabina Park, Jamaica. Now, in February, 2009, it was again England v. West Indies, this time with players who might have been sons, even grand sons, of those I had seen in 1960. At that time, England were on the crest of a wave. In 2009, however, they had suffered the sudden loss of both their captain and coach. But they still had match-winning batsmen like Pietersen and Flintoff, and Steve Harmison who had taken seven wickets for 12 runs to bowl West Indies out for 47 runs at Sabina Park in 2004. Despite several contests between the two teams, West Indies had not prevailed against England since 2000. Their batsmen, except Chanderpaul, were inconsistent, and they seemed incapable of bowling an opposing side out twice.
In 1960, I sat on unnumbered wooden benches in public stands covered with corrugated zinc sheets. Now, I was fortunate to get a Jamaican friend, member of the Sabina Park club, to provide me with tickets in the pavilion. As far as I could see, the old, zinc-covered stands had disappeared – refurbished or modernized with rows of numbered plastic chairs, while the players who were formerly housed in the pavilion, were translated into a shiny new building with super facilities very different from the old change and shower rooms in the pavilion. A spanking new press box looked as frighteningly high tech as the adjoining electronic scoreboard that had consigned its ancient wooden counterpart to deserved oblivion.
England won the toss and decided to bat on a placid looking pitch. I feared for the West Indian bowlers because of their feckless forays in foreign parts in recent times. But wickets soon began to fall, and with their total at 96 for four, England had ceded whatever advantage the toss may have given them. Another 84 runs were added by Pietersen and Flintoff before Pietersen unluckily lost his wicket, merely 3 runs short of his century. When England reached 236 for five by close of play, with Flintoff (43) and wicket-keeper Prior (27) still in possession, honours for the day could be said to be equally shared. So far as the West Indian bowlers were concerned, Suleiman Benn the left-arm spinner from Barbados stood out, his 33 overs for 64 runs and two wickets reviving memories of legendary feats by the equally tall and combative Guyanese off spinner Lance Gibbs.
Early the next morning Flintoff somehow lost concentration and slashed a simple catch to point, while Prior resisted manfully helping his side to reach a total of 318. Benn did the most damage with four wickets for 77 runs. For all that, the sun shone brightly and the innocent pitch betrayed no terrors to induce West Indian fear or suspicion. So after Devon Smith was removed for 6 feeble runs by Flintoff’s menacing speed, Gayle and Sarwan could face Sidebottom’s accuracy and Flintoff’s aggression without undue alarm, while shepherding their team to an end-of-play total of 160 for one.
On the third morning, despite English accuracy and defensive field placement Gayle, at any rate, punctuated patience with occasional aggression, hoisting five sixes and slamming five fours before he was bowled by Broad for 104. His partnership with Sarwan (107) had yielded 202 runs and was followed by a West Indian decline from 220 for two to 254 for five. Ramdin and Nash then played plucky innings to bring West Indies to 352 for seven by the end of the day.
Other brief but gratifying tail end contributions raised the West Indian total to 392 well before lunch on the fourth morning - a lead of 74 – not nearly enough to enforce a West Indian victory, but perhaps enough to rule out an English triumph. In other words, a draw seemed most likely. Yet none of these possibilities came remotely close to the electrifying turn of events that unfolded at Sabina Park when the English batsmen again took guard for their second innings.
By lunch the total was 11 runs for two wickets. If impending catastrophe awaited England, the home side could expect nothing less than a miracle. It began with Jerome Taylor’s removal of Pietersen’s off stump with an out-swinging yorker that eluded the batsman’s confident leg side flick. After Pietersen the deluge! Strauss, Collingwood, Prior and Broad departed in a solemn funeral procession organised by Messrs. Taylor and Benn, Undertakers Ltd., and it left England reeling in blind incomprehension at 26 runs for seven wickets.
To compound the catastrophe there was real danger too that England might provide West Indies with sweet revenge if they were dismissed for less than the 47 of Harmison’s 2004 onslaught. But mercy saved them from this added humiliation when they were bundled out for 51 and ceded victory by an innings and 23 runs. Taylor’s five wickets for 11 runs gave him a match analysis of eight for 85 which won him the Man of the Match award; but Benn was not far behind with match figures of eight for 108. They had restored West Indian pride.
Thousands of empty seats during the first three days of the match confirmed cricket’s loss of influence compared with the 1950s when, along with literature, the game spearheaded an historic drive for West Indian political independence. Today, while deep-seated damage from British colonialism had not disappeared – note the persistence of a near majority of upper-caste light coloured and white spectators in the pavilion during the match – more insidious damage continued through dependency on American values, games and TV shows, and rampant immigration to North America that furnished illusory financial benefits.
On the day after the match, for example, the leading “Sunday Gleaner” front page story mentioned Jamaica as having the highest murder rate in the world in 2005, and spoke of the prevalence of “Borderline personality disorder” in Jamaica. What this Test match reveals is cricket’s still potent if diminished capacity for harnessing acknowledged individual Caribbean talent with discipline, teamwork and collective purpose.
Jan 25-27 v St Kitts XI, St Kitts
England won by 217 runs
Jan 29-31 v Windies A, St Kitts. Match drawn
Feb 4-8: 1st Test, Jamaica
West Indies 392 beat England 318 & 51 by an innings and 23 runs
West Indies delivered an old time shocker when they hammered England in the first test. West Indies made 392 in reply to England’s 318. Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan each scored a century. West Indies then led by a modest 74, but suddenly turned this into a huge deficit. England simply wilted and fell for 51, giving the home side a win by an innings and 23 runs. Jerome Taylor did the damage. Taylor took five wickets for 11 runs, and with that earned the man-of-the-match award.
Feb 13-17: 2nd Test, Antigua
Match abandoned because of unfit outfield.
Euphoria and anticipation quickly dissipated as the second test between West Indies and England was abandoned. The abandonment came after 10 balls because of an unfit outfield at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. The West Indies bowlers were struggling to keep their footing on turf covered in sand following recent rain. After talks between the players, umpires and the match referee, day one was called off with England 7-0.
Remaining Games
Feb 15-19: 3rd Test, Antigua
Feb 21-22: v BCA President's XI, Barbados
(TBC, following arrangement of third Test)
Feb 26-March 2: 4th Test, Barbados
March 6-10: 5th Test, Trinidad
Mar 14: v WIPA President's Select XI, Trinidad
March 15: Twenty20 International, Trinidad
March 20: 1st ODI, Guyana
March 22: 2nd ODI, Guyana
March 27: 3rd ODI, Barbados
March 29: 4th ODI, Barbados
April 3: 5th ODI, St Lucia (d/n)
The PCB's probe comes after the International Cricket Council again amended the result of the August 2006 England-Pakistan test at The Oval. Initially ruled a Pakistan forfeit and England victory, the result was officially changed to a draw before the ICC ruled last month that it would revert to the initial ruling.
"There's a hue and cry everywhere (about The Oval test) and we will look into this before submitting our findings to the PCB," Sohail told The Associated Press on Friday.
Sohail, who is presently working as director of the National Cricket Academy, will be joined on the committee by the PCB human resources director and former test wicketkeeper Wasim Bari, plus the PCB's domestic cricket director Sultan Rana.
At the test in question, Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq refused to continue play on the fourth day in protest at his side being docked runs for allegedly tampering with the ball. Umpires at the match ruled that it was a forfeit.
The ICC then reversed that decision in July last year, officially recording it as "match abandoned as a draw".
However, the Marylebone Cricket Club, which is the independent governor of cricket's laws, recommended in October that the ICC overturn the draw and restore England's victory. The ICC did so at a meeting in Australia last month.
"We will seek all the relevant documents on this issue from the ICC while most of the details are available even on the internet," Sohail said.
Tour Match v New South Wales at Sydney - Nov 13-16, 2008
New Zealanders 266 and 256; New South Wales 361 and 162/4 won by 6 wickets
1st Test v Australia at Brisbane - Nov 20-23/08
Australia 214 and 268; New Zealand 156 and 177. Australia won by 149 runs
2nd Test v Aus at Adelaide - Nov 28-Dec 1/08
Australia won by an innings and 62 runs
New Zealand 270 and 203; Australia 535
Australia took the test series 2-0. They are still the number 1 test team.
Tour Match v Prime Minister's XI at Canberra - Jan 29, 2009
Prime Minister's XI won by 6 wickets (with 13 balls remaining)
New Zealanders 271/5 (50 ov); Prime Minister's XI 272/4 (47.5 ov)
1st ODI v Australia at Perth - Feb 1, 2009
Australia 181 (48.4 ov); New Zealand 182/8 (50 ov) won by 2 wickets.
2nd ODI v Australia at Melbourne - Feb 6/09
Australia 225/5 (50 ov); New Zealand 226/4 (48.5 ov) won by 6 wickets (with 7 balls left)
3rd ODI v Australia at Sydney - Feb 8, 2009
Australia 301/9 (50 ov); New Zealand 269 (47.3 ov). Australia won by 32 runs.
4th ODI v Australia at Adelaide - Feb 10, 2009
New Zealand 244/8 (50 ov); Australia 247/4 (48.2 ov) won by 6 wickets (with 10 balls left)
5th ODI v Australia at Brisbane - Feb 13, 2009
Australia 168/4 (22/22 ov); New Zealand 123/6 (14/20 ov). No result.
With the final game a no-contest, the one-day series finished at 2-2.
Only T20I v Australia at Sydney - Feb 15, 2009
Australia 150/7 (20/20 ov); New Zealand 149/5 (20/20 ov). Australia won by 1 run.
Sri Lanka won a one-day series in Pakistan 2-1 last month but have since lost five out of six home matches to India and Jayawardene was dropped from the team for Tuesday's Twenty20 match in Colombo, when they were led by Tillakaratne Dilshan, because of his own poor form. It is expected that Dilshan will take over as full-time skipper, although Kumar Sangakkara may be favourite for the job. Jayawardene, who was voted ICC captain of the year in 2006, is Sri Lanka's most successful skipper in statistical terms, having won 62.5% of Tests and 57% of limited overs matches.
He explained that giving up the job was "not an easy decision" because it had been a "source of enormous pride". But he said: "This is something I have been considering for some time as it has been my long-held belief that my successor should have at least 18 months in the job to imprint his vision on the team for the 2011 World Cup.
"I look forward now to extending my full support to my successor and hope to play a major part in the team's success during the coming years as a batsman." Jayawardene has played 100 Tests and 299 one-day internationals and has scored more than 16,000 runs for Sri Lanka in all forms of the game. His 24 Test centuries are a national record and he is still ranked the sixth best batsman in the world Test rankings, currently headed by Shivnarine Chanderpaul of West Indies.