Wired868 Wired868 for smart sport news and opinion
If, in the Lloyd Best definition, limbo is finding space where there is none, the cultural artform had its best ever day on the international stage in Sydney in January of 1993.
No matter how many policemen Aussie captain Allan Border placed in the area between point and wide long-off, they couldn’t stop the beating. Brian Lara consistently drove and cut eventual 800-wickets king Shane Warne and the other bowlers through the offside to the boundary.
(Copyright Getty Images/ ESPN)
Poetry. Perfection personified. Two days later, we at the Trinidad Guardian were moved—aptly—to adapt Shakespeare to headline our commentary on the innings: Lara has murdered sleep.
The Prince of Port-of-Spain during that unforgettable 277 in Sydney was one of ten images that arrived unbidden in my busy brain. They came—belatedly—as I sought to respond to Valentino Singh’s question about what does ‘batting properly’ mean.
First, there was Senior Grade cricket at QRC in the late 1960s. Frank Worrell cutting so late that the shot was almost marked absent. And Jeffrey Stollmeyer caressing leg glances very fine or a little wider at will with all the elegance of a ballerina.
My mind’s eye saw Gordon Greenidge and Larry Gomes combining in a 287-run second-wicket stand to seal the nine-wicket Second Test win at Lord’s in 1984. Also at Lord’s 18 years earlier, Garry Sobers mentoring his cousin David Holford flawlessly through a 274-run partnership.
The pair added 274 for the sixth wicket to save the match.
(Copyright PA Images)
Two years later at the Queen’s Park Oval, Sobers again—with Wes Hall this time. The Bajan pair wielded straight bats up and down the line for over an hour at the Queen’s Park Oval to keep Colin Cowdrey’s England at bay.
In Antigua in 2003, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan going one better, defying a foul-mouthed Glenn McGrath to post a century partnership and steer the West Indies to a record match-winning 418.
Image number seven was of Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw stubbornly keeping going in fading light to steer Brian Lara’s side to Champions Trophy victory in 2004.
And number eight was of Viv Richards ruthlessly putting Devon Malcolm in his place, masterblasting him to all parts of Kensington Oval in 1990. The pacer had declared that he knew how to get the Master Blaster out.
Front and centre was the 30 March 1994 Trinidad Guardian front page picture. It’s Robin Smith’s perfect—but fractionally late!—forward defensive shot against a Curtly Ambrose delivery at the Queen’s Park Oval. It had shattered his middle stump.
And an indelible image of Geoff Boycott’s uncomprehending relief after his frustrating six-ball humiliation by Michael Holding at Kensington Oval in 1981.
Both English batsmen were, I wanted to argue to Tino, also batting properly. But how could I run with the hares and run with the hounds at the same time?
I hadn’t yet formulated my response when he urged me to answer. Getting only silence, he changed tack, demanding examples I gave him what I had. Red ball.
No Marlon Samuels in 2012 or Carlos Brathwaite in 2016 or 2019. Not for one second had I thought of Clive Lloyd’s 85-ball century in the 1975 World Cup. Or of Collis King’s rambunctious half-century in the 1979 edition.
Or of Richards’ then record 189* versus England in 1984. Or even of Glenn Maxwell’s incredible World Cup-winning double-century for Australia on metaphorical crutches last year.
(Copyright AFP 2016/ Dibyangshu Sarkar)
“Let me ask you something,” Tino said, trying to speed things up. “Were you satisfied with the way Pooran batted against England?”
“Of course not! You can’t bat for more than half the overs and then get out when he did.”
“But he batted properly, didn’t he? He played the ball on its merit—or tried to!”
No response.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
“Tell me this: you would have been satisfied if, instead of batting properly, he had leggo a few old-fashion voop and connect with all or almost all?
I didn’t want to answer. He waited.
“I not sure.”
“The honest answer is no.” He looked me straight in the eye.
“You’re a purist. You don’t want to win ugly. You prefer your batsmen to bat properly…”
Hearing him, you’d be forgiven for thinking that that last adverb was three separate words.
“Allyuh purists want to keep the game in the …,” he continued.
I groaned. “Allyuh purists”? He backed off, his point made.
“Let me ask you another question. Roston Chase against New Zealand. He come in at 20 for 2 in the third or fourth over. Get out trying to hit his third ball for six. Your view on that?”
Photo: CWI Media
“Irresponsible! You don’t get out that way at 20 for 2.”
“It was a full toss. Wasn’t that the right shot? Didn’t he play the ball on its merit?”
“At 20 for 2? Nah!”
“So proper batting is not playing the ball on its merit, then?”
Silence.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
“He made a mess of the execution,” Tino went on. “But what was wrong with the approach? I think he did the right thing. He tried to hit a full toss for six. If memory serves me right, Chris Gayle once hit the first ball of a Test match for six.
“But to tell the truth, I don’t hold your purity preference against you. You watch 50 years’ Test cricket and only what, ten years’ T20 if so much?”
“Purity preference. Nice.”
Photo: George Halfhide/ CWI Media
“It very real. But it ent have no place in the 21st Century. Michael Holding have it, plenty people who watch Lloyd and Richards side beat everybody in the 70s and 80s have it. It didn’t have no white ball side because the Test side used to play 50-over cricket too.
“I think that for allyuh, for that whole crowd, somehow, ODIs is real cricket—although you didn’t even go there! But T20, the shortest form? No, sirree!
“But you know what? The paying public today don’t care about purity; they want efficiency. They want to see the ball clearing the boundary—even if is off the edge!
Photo: CWI Media
“And is the paying public, not you, not me, not Holding, who’s going to determine what direction the game of cricket take tomorrow.
“And you could write three articles or 30 articles or 300 articles about Pooran not batting properly. It have nothing you could do to stop that.”
West Indies opener Kraigg Brathwaite has stepped down as Test captain and is expected to play in the upcoming home Read more
“[…] For all he has done—not just for cricket, but for the advancement of our Caribbean civilization—Dr Keith Rowley ought Read more
As many as 15 of the 74 players selected to play for West Indies in Tests since 2000 never got Read more
I support Melbourne Cricket Club president Mark Neita’s view that the best white ball players should play Test cricket for Read more
When the Champions Trophy tournament begins in Pakistan today, West Indies will not be among the eight competing teams. But Read more
“[…] The issue with players from the West Indies and any non-Big 3 cricket nation (India, Australia and England) having Read more
Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
