A series fit for King Cricket (11 April 1999)

11 April 1999

A series fit for King Cricket

Tony Cozier

The adjectives have all been used but, separately or collectively, they still don't do justice to the latest battle for the Frank Worrell Trophy.

The West Indies' revival was incredible.

Its positive impact following the debacle in South Africa was critical.

Brian Lara's batting that sparked it was amazing. His response to the most immense pressure any captain could ever have endured was astounding.

The skill and stamina of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, both well into fast-bowling old age, was mind-boggling.

For Australia, Steve Waugh's confirmation of his status as the game's most consistent batsman was undeniable. Glenn McGrath's 30 wickets from unrelenting, highquality pace was unique.

The decline and demise of Shane Warne was sudden and startling. And Australia's resilience in achieving the result mandatory in the final Test to retain the trophy was typical.

No Test match ever played in these islands has ever been as close, exhilarating and emotionally draining as the third at Kensington Oval, none as one-sided as the first at the Queen's Park Oval.

If, as usual, Queen's Park is excepted, even the pitches were ideal and the umpiring acceptable.

A topsy-turvy, unforgettable series, it fortified cricket's status as the sport of West Indian people, all of them, against the recent challenge of alien pretenders and against the uninformed carping of those who take delight in denigrating it.

Seldom has there been such intense support for a team its public recognised needed it more than ever. For six fascinating weeks, day after day, it held the Caribbean and the wider cricket world spell-bound.

Its short-term impact was of far more consequence to the West Indies than Australia.

The humiliation of the 5-0 whitewash in South Africa that immediately preceded the encounter with opponents acknowledged as the strongest in contemporary Test cricket had created universal despondency and anger.

Lara was grudgingly retained as captain but only for a probationary period of two matches. Manager Clive Lloyd and coach Malcolm Marshall were also put on notice.

The effect of another heavy loss to the unofficial world champions was too dire to contemplate.

Capitulation to their all-time low 51 and defeat by 312 runs in the first Test merely confirmed fears for the worst.

The challenger had been mauled, was on the ropes and staggering about to just avoid a knockout.

Had Don King been involved what followed would have been deemed a fix, it was so unbelievable.

Lara, the egocentric superstar of a dozen different controversies, had been humbled by events in South Africa.

Now, he told the Press following the Port-of-Spain debacle, it was time for him to pay more attention to his batting and return to his high-scoring habits that had brought him his Test record 375 and first-class record 501 within six weeks of each other in 1994.

His response was immediate, emphatic and decisive. With his trusted colleague, fellow left-hander Jimmy Adams, by his side, in a record, day-long fifth-wicket partnership of 322, the captain fashioned an innings of 213 in the second Test.

It was fit to rank, in the context of the situation, as the most significant ever played by a West Indian batsman.

It was sufficient to inspire a team without two of their most essential batsmen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper, and containing six players with a combined total of nine Tests, to a resounding triumph by 10 wickets and rekindle lost pride and confidence.

That single achievement also restored waning board and public trust in the mercurial captain. It was his first hundred in 14 Tests, an omission that was a travesty for a batsman of such immense talent.

Two Tests remained and his account was still in the red. He wasted no time delivering, virtually single-handedly carrying the West Indies to their nerve-wracking Kensington triumph with an unbeaten 153.

Those best placed to make such judgements exalted that innings even higher than his Kingston masterpiece.

If his 100 off 84 balls in the final Test in St. John's was a dazzling cameo too rapid to deny Australia the time they needed to complete their mission, it was only five days after his Bridgetown epic and he was understandably mentally drained.

Lara's feats were colossal. In the context of reversing a seemingly hopeless situation for his team, they are matched only by those of England's Colossus, Ian Botham, that equally transformed the 1981 Ashes series against Australia and that have long since entered the game's folklore.

But they were not alone. There was more to this series than one man.

Waugh's even 100 in Kingston and 199 in Bridgetown should have been enough to guarantee his team at least invincibility but for Lara's genius.

The new Australian captain's encounters with his two familiar adversaries, Ambrose and Walsh, were as fascinating as Lara's with his old nemesis, McGrath.

The three great, indefatigable fast bowlers were as dominant in their roles as Lara and Waugh were in theirs. The rest simply played minor supporting roles.

Lara totalled 546 runs. No other West Indian managed over 200. Waugh's 409 runs were 108 more than the next Australian.

In his 37th year, Walsh still found the energy and enthusiasm to send down 208.1 overs and the pace and penetration to earn 26 wickets, carrying him to an overall 423 and within 11 of Kapil Dev's record.

Ambrose, a year Walsh's junior, was only less successful because his best deliveries kept missing probing edges.

His spell on the fourth morning of the final Test - 10 overs, with a ball past its quota of 80 overs, for nine runs and the wickets of the Waugh twins (both caught behind) was as close to perfection as any he has ever delivered in his 88 Tests.

Yet McGrath's statistics were even more imposing than his West Indian counterparts.

His 30 wickets, at 16.93 apiece, were a new record for a visiting bowler in a Test series in the Caribbean, surpassing the 27 of two other fast men: England's John Snow in 1968 and New Zealand's Bruce Taylor in 1972, both also in four Tests.

Such statistical imbalances left both teams with worries for the future. Australia's surround Warne, Test cricket's most successful spin bowler, and Ian Healy, its most prolific wicket-keeper who, at 34, had a poor series hinting at terminal decline.

They are two cricketers fundamental to their gradual progress to the top and to their continuing well-being under the new captain.

Yet Australia are less dependent on one man than the West Indies.

The home team's prolonged search for a reliable opening pair continued, in spite of the returning Sherwin Campbell's dogged 103 before his home crowd at Kensington.

They badly missed the stability of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and were unable to uncover a middle-order batsman for the future in his absence.

Pedro Collins and Corey Collymore, the latest of the many young fast bowlers used as support to Ambrose and Walsh in recent times, obviously have promise, while off-spinner Nehemiah Perry fit comfortably into the picture in his debut series. But it is still difficult to imagine a West Indies attack without the two stalwarts.

Where the West Indies gained most was in the restoration of team spirit and commitment, so glaringly missing in South Africa.

The appointment of Dr Rudi Webster as "performance consultant" to mentally toughen the players obviously had an impact, as did the work done by specialist fielding coach, Englishman Julian Fountain.

In the end, Lara was the happier with the outcome, Waugh the more relieved. For a host of reasons, the 2-2 balance was just about right.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)