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West Indies were never going to
chase 375
Self-inflicted pain
Fazeer Mohammed
April 11, 2007
Brian Lara's dismissal, bowled off the inside-edge by Jacques Kallis, was
probably the lethal gust of wind that effectively left Caribbean aspirations in
ruins © Getty Images
"Dey wukkup in de West Indies bowling!"
Relentless cut-tail has the remarkable power of stripping the veneer of decorum
from any occasion, moving Adriel Richard, the CMC CricketPlus producer, to draw
on his Bajan dialect, in the midst of a "live" update, to describe the extent to
which West Indies bowlers were torn apart by South Africa's rampant batsmen.
"357 to win. Just like the caliber of bullet WI should shoot themselves with."
As this text message from a disgruntled fan back home revealed, a macabre sense
of humour also prevailed at the interval in Grenada, with supporters of the
regional side everywhere finding different ways to express their frustration,
anger and pain at the manner in which the team on whom they have invested so
much emotional energy dragged them to a new low in what has already been an
increasingly dispiriting World Cup experience.
Even for a people given to often unfounded levels of optimism, especially in
apparently hopeless causes involving their beloved regional side, it was asking
a lot of a deflated home team to get anywhere close to a daunting target of 357
needed to keep any lingering Caribbean interest in this tournament alive, a
prospect made all the more depressing with two Super Eight matches still to play
next week in Barbados.
Maybe it was the memory of how humiliated they felt four years ago when, as
hosts, they could not even advance out of the first-round grouping that prompted
the South African top-order's merciless plunder in the quest to keep their own
ambitions alive after the shock defeat to Bangladesh last Saturday in Guyana. It
was an assault that silenced boisterous home fans keen on celebrating the
magnificent reincarnation of the Grenada National Stadium.
More than the other new or redeveloped venues around the region, this impressive
structure is symbolic of what can be achieved by the people of our tiny
territories (with a little help from the Chinese, let's not forget) when
properly motivated, even after the ravages of two devastating hurricanes only
two-and-a-half years ago. Issues of accountability and sustainability
notwithstanding, the point is that we can achieve a minor miracle, even if the
fact that it has primarily been at the prodding of external forces and with the
enticing prospect of financial rewards that will remain more than a little
troubling.
At 87 for 3 after 15 overs, with Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the middle,
rebuilding a stadium almost from rubble would have seemed to be like
chicken-feed compared to pulling off a record-breaking World Cup victory.
The poignancy of the moment was hard to avoid: a beleaguered captain in
partnership with his talented but often impetuous deputy trying to rebuild the
crumbling edifice of what were, just over two weeks ago, grandiose expectations
of glory on home soil come April 28.
For all of Lara's proven genius with the bat and Sarwan's felicitous elegance,
the overwhelming feeling was one of an effort too little, too late, even in the
midst of strokeplay that almost took the breath away.
Patently fallible as captain and tactician (his decision to delay employing the
final power-play until the 45th over was a recipe for even greater carnage), he
remains peerless, even three weeks from his 38th birthday, as a strokeplayer, a
square-drive off Andre Nel to the point boundary in the 17th over reminding
everyone as to just how majestically destructive he can still be. His dismissal,
though, bowled off the inside-edge by Jacques Kallis, was probably the lethal
gust of wind that effectively left Caribbean aspirations in ruins.
'If the desolation was not as stark and the atmosphere not as suffocatingly
sterile as at other venues so far, most notably the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium,
there was still an artificiality about it all' © Cricinfo Ltd
Too little, too late may also define the efforts by the World Cup organisers to
bring some "West Indianness" to the tournament. Again it was more than a little
unusual to see the ground, on a national holiday, for an ODI involving the West
Indies, with hundreds of empty seats. If the desolation was not as stark and the
atmosphere not as suffocatingly sterile as at other venues so far, most notably
the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, there was still an artificiality about it all.
Apparently the new campaign to energise the World Cup atmosphere is entitled
"Ram de Dance". But they could have called it "Rama the Jamma" and it wouldn't
really matter, simply because too many people feel betrayed by the entire event,
taken for granted in what was expected to be their unstinting support for West
Indies in particular and cricket in general, to the extent that they would not
bat an eye at the boot camp-style restrictions in their desire to be part of the
spectacle at any cost.
As they say, you can fool some of the people all the time, but even for people
as gullible as we tend to be around here, you can't fool all of us all the time.
Yet the mamaguile continues. On Monday, the media were advised that there was no
such thing as "cheap tickets" for matches in Grenada. Troy Garvey, media
communications director for the LOC here, explained that the prices of tickets
had not been reduced, just the sizes of certain categories.
So, for example, if tickets for a certain category were going slowly, that
category was reduced and the extra seats incorporated in a cheaper category.
If you can see any difference between that explanation and saying that tickets
are now cheaper, then you're as disconnected from reality as so many key
personnel involved with this World Cup.
© Trinidad & Tobago Express
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