The West Indies won a marvellous double in WorldT20 cricket with the women winning the title to show the way and the men following in spectacular fashion in an unbelievable finish of four successive sixes by the muscular Carlos Brathwaite. Darren Sammy’s men sparkled under his inspired leadership, recovering from a defeat by Afghanistan to two crucial knockout wins — over the host India and England in the final.
At permanent loggerheads with their cricket board over pay and perquisites, the Caribbean players stood united as of old to emerge victorious on the world stage and become the first team to win two WorldT20 titles. The limited-overs formats seem to suit their temperament and playing strengths.
Team India, despite man of the tournament Virat Kohli’s exploits, could only watch from the sidelines as the West Indians triumphed, the selfishness of their opener Ajinkya Rahane having denied them a bigger total to defend in the semi-final. The batsman, who took 34 balls to score 40 with two boundaries while batting into the 16th over, seemed to play for himself.
That probably made all the difference. Team India’s obsession with designer pitches that encourage spin was bound to militate against better all-round performance on good cricket wickets, of which we saw a few in the knockouts because the playing surfaces were prepared under ICC guidelines. The cricket world could not be happier because a performing West Indies will brighten the game even as its professional players socio-economically.
