1 year ago
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WHILE JAMAICA, as a country, has a proud history of producing cricketers at the highest level, when one looks back at the year of cricket, there may be far more interest in the performance of the regional team – the West Indies.
In 2024, the region hosted the T20 World Cup and the West Indies had as good a chance as any to lift the competition’s trophy for what would be the third time.
In truth, since the 2019 T20 World Cup win, the West Indies have had their struggles, going through two captains, Kieron Pollard, who retired after a poor showing at the 2023 T20 World Cup, and Nicholas Pooran, who quit the post after a World Cup qualification failure.
Now led by Jamaican Rovman Powell, there had been a bit of a resurgence for the team.
They came into 2024 on the back of a remarkable 2023, where they seemed unbeatable after their failure at the 2023 T20 World Cup, won by England.
The West Indies beat South Africa 2-1 in their first series after the World Cup, enjoyed a 3-2 series win over India, before handing England a 3-2 defeat in the Caribbean.
But at the beginning of the year, there was trouble. A 2-1 loss to Australia in Australia may not have been too unexpected and a 3-0 thrashing of South Africa just ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean should have certainly put the defeat behind them.
But the shadow was still there. This West Indies team had a weakness.
There vulnerability, which was absent the year before, chose the worst time to show up, at the World Cup in the Caribbean and the United States.
On mutually agreed bad pitches, the West Indies’ batting was called into question.
The West Indies beat Papua New Guinea by five wickets in their first match, making heavy weather of 136.
Even when they went on to absolutely dominate Uganda, scoring 173-5 and bowling them out for 39, there were questions.
BELOW PAR
170+ is a below-par score against a team you are supposedly much better than.
Still, it is never about how you start.
Then came the real test – New Zealand. The West Indies passed, winning by 13 runs on a difficult Brian Lara Cricket Academy wicket in Tarouba. Again, the score, 149, suggested the West Indies had a problem with the bat.
But 218 for five against Afhanistan set those fears to rest, especially when backed up by bowling that routed the opposition for 114 to boot.
England brought the first reality check.
Scoring 180-4, the West Indies were made to understand what it took to beat a good team at this World Cup, England romping to victory with eight wickets to spare.
The West Indies recovered to trounce the United States, scoring 130-1 to overhaul their 128 in just 10.5 overs.
Hope sprung anew.
But then the age-old problem of inconsistent batting reared its ugly head against South Africa, who with a few additions, had become a completely different beast.
Still, the game was a fight, South Africa getting to 124-7 and winning by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. Earlier, the West Indies had limped to 135-8.
The West Indies were out at the Super Eight’s stage, leaving the Caribbean and the United States World Cup, sans the hosts. India went on to win a record, third T20 World Cup.
It was disappointing and Daren Sammy, the West Indies whiteball coach, said he needed to teach the team how to win tournaments and not just series.
After the Super Eights loss at the T20 World Cup, the West Indies looked like they understood the mission, thrashing South Africa 3-0 in a series, but they haven’t won a series since.
Losing 2-1 to Sri Lanka, they were then levelled 3-1 by England in a five-game series, before Bangladesh blanked them 3-0.
Then they went to Sri Lanka and found a roadblock of spin, winning the first T20, before losing badly in the next two.
Then England turned their fortunes around in the Caribbean, the dethroned T20 world champions thumping the West Indies 3-1 in a five-game series.
Then came the ignominy of being blanked 3-0 by Bangladesh to close out December.
So inconsistent when it counted, but the West Indies showed, in spurts, they have the tools to compete, at least over the course of 20 overs.
The same can’t be said of 2024 when Test cricket is considered, although, there was that one day.
The day when Shamar Joseph came to play. Australia had already beaten the West Indies in the first Test of two inside three days. It wasn’t close and the Caribbean visitors looked well and truly second best, the Aussies running out 10-wicket winners.
Fast forward to the final Test, a January to remember if you will.
The West Indies scored 311 and the Aussies responded with 289-9 declared.
They wanted to win and wanted to give themselves enough time to do so.
Blowing away the West Indies for 193 in the second innings, Australia needed 216 to win and had two days to bat.
REMARKABLE SCORE
A tired and bleeding Joseph, who had been struck on the toe when he was batting, notched the remarkable figures of 7-68 on a fateful day four, ripping through the Australian batting to leave them nine runs short at 207 all-out.
At 1-1 Australia retained the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy, but the West Indies beat them in their house for the first time in 27 years, thanks to the special efforts of a debutant no less.
Joseph has not replicated the performance in Tests, but to be fair, the West Indies have not been very active in the Test arena.
In 2023, the West Indies won one of four Test series, beating Zimbabwe, in Zimbabwe. In 2024, they were winless.
Head coach Andre Coley’s position was in trouble and Daren Sammy was announced as his replacement in December, 2024, the deed actually completed in January.
After Australia and the West Indies drew their Test series in January, the latter went to England with hopes of improving their away form, but were humbled in James Anderson’s final Test series, losing 3-0.
South Africa clipped the West Indies in a two-Test series 1-0, claiming the Sir Vivian Richards Trophy.
Bangladesh came to the West Indies for two Tests as well. The West Indies started well enough, dominating the first Test in a 201-run win. But the frailties of the team came back to leave them winless for the year, Bangladesh dishing out a 101-run defeat on the West Indies to leave the series tied.
When the West Indies look at their One-Day International record last year, they won’t feel much better.
On the back of winning that famous Test against Australia in January, Shai Hope’s troups felt they had some momentum a month later but it was crushed, a 3-0 hammering that accurately explained the gulf between the two teams the result.
They then moved to Sri Lanka where they, at least managed to win one of the three ODIs.
The West Indies did find reason to smile though, as they got the better of England in the Caribbean, winning a three-match ODI series 2-1.
But by early December, that win over England seemed a distant memory, Bangladesh coming to the Caribbean to whitewash them unceremoniously.
Already one Test series deep in 2025, the West Indies Test seem not to have an answer for spin against Pakistan, but with Daren Sammy at the helm of the Test team as well, let us see what differences there will be for the remainder of the year.
English (US) ·