Windies Are A Throwback From The Good Old Days

Derek Pringle takes a close look at the current West Indies team and draws comparisons to the destructive greats of the 80s and 90s.

There is something about this West Indies team that is very much the last millennium – the start of it, not the end. Where other sides look and act modern there is a crudity to their game with both bat and ball that is as fascinating as it is eye-catching. Coliseum cricket based on physical prowess of being faster, stronger and hitting harder and further than anyone else.

This is observation not criticism, and it comes after watching their World Cup match against Australia at Trent Bridge yesterday. As England did there a few days earlier against Pakistan, West Indies put their opponents in to bat, then unleashed the hounds of hell, their fast bowlers instructed to batter and bruise where they could not dismiss.

Then, having perhaps conceded more than they ought to, having had Australia 79-5 in the 17th over, they set about chasing the 279 required to win with Chris Gayle, the ‘Universe Boss,’ dismissing the ball from his presence like Henry VIII might a serf.

Gayle wields his bat like a club, a stand and deliver buccaneer who stands tall. Not for him the ramp, or the reverse sweep. At 39, he probably couldn’t get down low enough to play those shots anyway. Striking three fours in four balls off Pat Cummins in the bowler’s second over, the left-hander nevertheless looked in fine fettle until Starc swung one into his pads. An Umpire’s review followed, Gayle’s third in two overs, though this one did not exonerate. Although West Indies appear over-reliant on his runs, the heavens did not fall in, at least not immediately.