The Caribbean islands are a different world altogether. For its natural and serene beauty, beaches, with multi-coloured waters, tourists of various casts and creeds, expensive hotels and, of course, above all its cavalier cricket.
Cricket remains the premier sport throughout the Caribbean despite the inconsistent and at times, even deplorable performance of the West Indian team in the recent past. Cricket is very much the a unifying force here between the many countries, possessing different cultures and heritage. They have unique and rich cricketing traditions.
When the Inzamam-ul-Haq’s Pakistan landed in Antigua for their first tour to the West Indies in five years, the morale in the home team’s camp and among the cricket followers was at its lowest ebb. The Proteas had just completed a whitewash, both in the Test and the One-Day series. South Africa, captained by Graeme Smith, had brutally exposed the limitations in the West Indian team. It was only after seeing such an outstanding performance that the Pakistanis harboured hope of registering their first Test series win in the West Indies. They got off to a good start.
Pakistan started the One-Day series at the picturesque Arnos Vale Ground in Kingston in style in what turned out to be a low- scoring game. After being dismissed for a paltry 192 in the 45th over, Pakistan hit back to bowl out the home team for 133 to record an impressive 59-run victory.
Abdul Razzaq was the architect of Pakistan’s win with four wickets for 29 runs in nine overs. Shahid Afridi and Shabbir Ahmed took two wickets each. If Razzaq spearheaded Pakistan to victory in the first ODI, it was Afridi who spun Pakistan to a 40-run win in the second One-Dayer with four wickets for 38 runs as the tourists wrapped up their first One-Day series against Calypso.
Afridi was at it again in the third and final One-Dayer at the same venue. His explosive batting, up the order and then the final onslaught from Kamran Akmal helped Pakistan post a huge total of 303 in 50 overs. The West Indians responded positively but collapsed after the departure of centurion Chris Gayle.
Following the One-Day win, surely Pakistan would go on to win in the Test series as well. However, disappointment struck home when the team crashed to defeat in the first Test, after having blanked the hosts in the One-Day series.
With the defeat in Barbados, the unpredictable Pakistan side squandered the opportunity of winning their first-ever Test series. However, they did not lose it and went on to win the second Test.
The batting collapse in the first innings had Pakistan on the back foot and they suffered the ignominy of 276-run defeat in the first Test. The episode involving stand-in Captain Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi on the eve of Barbados Test on the issue of opening the innings did not help the Pakistan cause either.
The following day, Younis Khan was furious, but refused to bring the matter on record when confronted by the media. Chairman PCB, Shaharyar M. Khan though admitted that the incident did take place on the morning of the match and it partially disturbed morale and spirit of the team. And then there was Yousuf Youhana’s departure before the start of the Tests, saying that he had to be back home to attend his ailing father, who by the way, was not even admitted in any hospital. Youhana’s abrupt departure from Bridgetown to Lahore still remains a mystery.
Despite all these problems, Inzamam-ul-Haq and his bunch of talented youngsters bounced back to hand out a 136-run defeat to the West Indies in the second Test.
Diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal had an exceptional tour and remained in the shadows of Younis, Afridi, Inzamam and Danish Kaneria despite a defiant knock of 49 in the first innings of the Kingston Test. He gave excellent support to Shabbir Ahmed and Kaneria by taking nine catches in the match. Kamran ended the two match series with 16 victims behind the stumps. Southpaw middle-order batsman Asim Kamal, despite his consistent batting and straight bat, has yet to get in the limelight. Maybe because he has yet to reach a three-figure mark, though he’s scored eight half centuries in 11 Test matches. But the bearded Karachi batsman needed confidence of the captain and the coach to go places.
It was a worthwhile experience considering that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is set to stage cricket’s showpiece event World Cup 2007, in less than two year’s time. If the current scenario is taken into consideration, the WICB must take gigantic steps in all areas for the smooth conduct of this mega- event.
Roads leading to World Cup venues particularly in St.Lucia, Barbados and Jamaica are narrow and it must be expanded and improved to avoid traffic jams as hundreds of thousands of followers of the 16-teams are expected to attend the proceedings. Except for Barbados, media facilities were below par and there was not a single scorer in the media box as compared to two each in every media box, in almost every Test and One-Day centre in Pakistan.
Like in Pakistan, there is no tradition of providing a desktop computer or free Internet or fax facilities for media in the West Indies. You must pay $100 per day to procure high-speed Internet connection to cater to your needs. There were no electric fans in the media center, which was devoid of air conditioning facilities. It was a tough time enduring the heat and humidity in the media box.
Lara compliments Kaneria
Though Pakistan’s Danish Kaneria received a lot of hammering, he also won a lot of praise from the batting great, Brian Lara.
The 36-year-old Trinidadian, who scored 130 and 49 in the first Test allowing him to equal Sir Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries, said, “He (Kaneria) is an attacking and an aggressive bowler. I gave him some thrashing but in end he got me. He impressed me in both the Test matches.”
The 25-year-old Kaneria took five wickets for 46 runs to bowl Pakistan to a 140-run win in the second and final Test which helped the tourists to square the series. Kaneria’s wonderful spell also included the prized scalp of Lara for a duck in the second innings.
The Caribbean islands are a different world altogether. For its natural and serene beauty, beaches, with multi-coloured waters, tourists of various casts and creeds, expensive hotels and, of course, above all its cavalier cricket.
