The West Indies cricketers are in town and as in the past their presence always evokes memories of those Caribbean calypso style of play which is often associated with their style of play. West Indies cricket today no longer carries the big names and legends of the past, but wherever they play they are an exciting bunch of players that can draw the crowds because of their unique flair to play entertaining cricket.
From the present side the big names who are in the squad are the captain Kieron Pollard, former skipper Jason Holder and top order bat Darren Bravo. Among the younger lot are vice-captain Shai Hope, Sunil Ambris, Roston Chase and Nicholas Pooran.
The last two ODIs these two sides have contested have ended in dramatic fashion with Sri Lanka sneaking through to win both. The most recent of them took place in the 2019 World Cup at Durham where two of the brightest talents from either side Avishka Fernando (Sri Lanka) and Nicholas Pooran (West Indies) provided the first instance in World Cup history where two men under the age of 25 scored hundreds in the same match.
Fernando , 21 scored his maiden international hundred (104) to set up Sri Lanka’s score of 338-6 – their highest total against West Indies, and Pooran three months shy of his 24th birthday responded with 118 – his first international century too – to threaten a remarkable comeback in what would have been the highest chase at a World Cup.
If not for the golden arm of former captain Angelo Mathews, Pooran would have carried West Indies to victory. Airdropped to bowl the 48th over Mathews who had not bowled a single ball previously in the World Cup or in any ODI since December 2017 came onto bowl with West Indies needing 31 from three overs and a plundering Pooran on strike. Mathews’ first ball bowled full and wide Pooran flung his hands wildly at it and edged a catch behind the wicket to Kusal Perera. That was the turning point for Sri Lanka who went onto restrict West Indies to 315-9 and win by 23 runs in a dead rubber contest where both teams were out of contention.
The other instance too was a high scoring affair where both sides topped 300 plus and it took place in Bulawayo in the Zimbabwe tri-nation series in 2016 which Sri Lanka went onto win.
Enterprising knocks of 94s apiece from Kusal Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella contributed to Sri Lanka's highest ODI score against West Indies at the time – 330-7. The two were involved in a 107-run stand after Kusal Perera had been cleaned up by Shannon Gabriel who clocked average speeds of 145 kph in the third over. Dhananjaya de Silva hit an exuberant 58 to put Sri Lanka back on track before Mendis and Dickwella further consolidated that position. Both were within reach of their maiden ODI hundreds when they were dismissed. Mendis in particular was innovative in his stroke play peppering the leg-side boundaries with five sixes in his 73-ball knock in contrast to the 106 balls used by Dickwella. The final touches to the Lankan innings was put by cameos from stand-in skipper Upul Tharanga (26 off 19) and Sachith Pathirana (24 off 16).
West Indies run chase was spearheaded by opener Evin Lewis. With just a handful of internationals under his name Lewis struck a counter-attacking maiden ODI century to give West Indies a sniff of gunning down a 300-plus chase for the first time in ODIs. Lewis smacked 15 fours and four sixes in his 122-ball knock of 148. Unfortunately Lewis failed a fitness test and was left out of the present squad for the Sri Lankan tour.
Cameo knocks of 45 off 46 balls from skipper Jason Holder and 19 off 16 from Carlos Brathwaite brought West Indies within 24 of Sri Lanka’s total, but what followed was unpardonable. With victory within sniffing distance West Indies stumbled to a one-run loss triggered by panic, poor shot selection and lackadaisical running between the wickets that saw them finish on 329-9.
West Indies are not the dominant side they once were throughout the eighties and nineties, a period of dominance, which was made possible due to the perfect combination of intimidation, aura and skill, and still today remains the most fabled and feared in the history of cricket.
“We were so accustomed to being No. 1 in the world and being the team that everyone wants to beat. To see the decline as a former cricketer is very hard to take,” former West Indies pace ace Curtly Ambrose once said.
West Indies waning is clearly shown by Sri Lanka’s dominance over them in the recent past. Factually West Indies has yet to win an ODI series in Sri Lanka. Richie Richardson’s side drew the three-match series played in 1994, 1-all (1 NR), and West Indies lost the next two played in 2011 (0-2, 1 NR) under Darren Sammy and in 2015 (0-3) under Jason Holder.
Holder and Bravo are the only survivors of West Indies’ last ODI visit to Sri Lanka five years ago when they were whitewashed 0-3. Certainly Pollard’s new look West Indies team will want to put that record right on the present tour.
Sri Lanka and West Indies are two countries that have in recent times taken a dip in their cricket internationally and are struggling to compete with other nations. There can't be a more telling piece of statistics to show where Sri Lanka and West Indies cricket stands now. Sri Lanka are ranked no. 8 in ODIs and T20Is and West Indies are no. 9 in ODIs and no. 10 in T20Is.
However the reasons for their downfall are in contrast to each other.
Whereas in the Caribbean the attraction for cricket has lost its charisma with lots of youngsters turning to other fast-paced sports and the West Indies cricket board, perennially at war with players over wages, and unable to win the trust of its most gifted cricketers, the problem with Sri Lanka is that their first-class domestic structure through which all the national team players perform and come through has been diluted to the extent that it is no longer providing the platform for the cricketer to take the next step to international cricket and they don’t have a stable domestic program that keeps on changing each year.
These are factors that have contributed to the decline of two great cricket nations which are struggling to raise their heads on the face of increasing pressure brought upon by upcoming countries like Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Oman and Nepal who are making vast strides in white ball cricket.
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