Just a stepping stone for Windies cricket – Opinion
After years of agony and despair, the team from Caribbean finally put to rest all their demons and became worthy T20 champions of cricket, celebrating, or more appropriately cherishing their victory in ‘Gangnam Style’.
Apart from the champions tag, it is the word before that which holds greater significance. Whenever a team is crowned victorious, it is human nature to argue whether they were ‘worthy’ enough, but the overwhelming smiles and celebratory acts have certainly lured everyone in dancing to their tunes. Be it http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806 in the commentary box, or the crowds, all have been drawn into a party-like atmosphere.
Such remains the impact of Windies cricket and it has certainly been tough on their fans and former cricketers, who had watched and played some of the most dominating cricket the world has ever witnessed. The likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clive-Hubert-Lloyd-c51327 to showcase their magic with the bat.
While hoping for the current crop to emulate their success would be asking too much, but this World T20 has certainly seen Darren Sammy’s XI matching the flair of their predecessors. Arguably, they had the best T20 batsman in their ranks – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CH-Gayle-c1221. After a troublesome past 12 months, the dynamite simply exploded into life and put his team into the finals of the tournament.
Though his contribution against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sunil-Philip-Narine-c91869 kept his mystery tag intact.
The years of pain, and the most recent disharmony was all but forgotten when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJ-Bravo-c1379 took the final catch to seal victory. The moment had arrived, which had simply been ruled out by critics and even by their most loyal fans.
Their success now begs the question, what’s next? A careful estimation needs to be made. They won the Champions Trophy in 2004 but that hardly paved for greater things for the Windies cricket. Instead, they again found themselves at the bottom of the pile, struggling to gain recognition.
The current group remains on track but have the tendency to run hot and cold. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJG-Sammy-c1382’s position is always up for debate but his leadership qualities have indeed stood out. The fast bowlers are unreliable to say the least, but offer competitiveness. So handling the illusive triumph will be a task for the management as now the weight of expectations starts to creep in.
They were free from that burden for the past two decades but indeed, now responsibility rests on the current generation to rekindle the magic, with their own drive and energy. One does not expect them to roll over oppositions as the game has evolved over the years. However, they have the personnel to do so, they have the fans to back them, and more importantly, they have the neutrals who want them to do well.
Indeed the road is a long one, but the journey has indeed started. They cannot go too ahead of themselves but need to realize the importance of their victory. For now, as Sammy puts it, ‘This is for the Caribbean People’, and yes, they know how to party!
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