Congrats to West Indies and Warrican

To mark the return of that much neglected form of cricket in the West Indies, first-class cricket, to our own newly revamped Arnos Vale stadium, we take this opportunity to make a few editorial comments on West Indies cricket.

There is no better way to begin than by offering our heartiest congratulations to the much-reviled West Indies Test team following its victory over Pakistan on their home ground to level the two-Test series. Along with this, was the leading role played by the Vincentian-born spinner, Jomel Warrican, a feat for which he deserves every bit of praise.

It is important to put this performance by the regional team in context. The West Indies remains the only major Test-playing nation whose leading lights at international level prefer to play in all kinds of T20, even T10, leagues than to represent their country and region in the highest form of the game. The on-field returns at Test level reflect this lower-level participation. The team which once ruled the world in all forms of the game has become an also-ran, the Pakistan victory just enabling us to finish second to last in the international Test table.

Yet this victory in Pakistan is all the more remarkable for, in spite of the international dominance of our test teams in the “glory days”, Pakistan has not been a happy hunting ground for the West Indies, our last victory there, previous to this one, being more than three decades ago. This team was not given much of a choice to change that. Worse, Pakistan had made it clear what it had in store for us by packing its team with spinners, our traditional nemesis.

However, with our Vincy-born Warrican leading the way with 19 wickets, we matched the Pakistanis in their own backyard, literally fighting fire with fire. Though given limited opportunities, Warrican’s statistics reveal that alongside another fellow Windward Islander, Dominica’s Shane Shillingford, he has been among the most successful of West Indian spinners since Lance Gibbs. In addition, he was the fourth highest run-scorer and topped the batting averages. Perhaps his Pakistani success may help to keep the eyes of the selectors in his direction.

There may be a lot more to glean from the Pakistan tour for West Indies cricket. Clearly our batting, heavily influenced by the slap-bang of limited-overs cricket, is in a far from healthy state. But the financial attractions of one-day cricket are such that such considerations take second place. In addition, West Indies cricket administrators face a situation all too familiar to their governmental counterparts, whereby the larger nations call the shots and institute policies which favour them.

Starting with the current first-class season, the spectator support would be far less than for the entertainment-laden one-day version, shows that we do have mountains to climb. As we contemplate how to proceed, at least we can take some inspiration from the performances of Warrican and his teammates.