Debasis Sen, Jamaica: The next destination for the cricket caravan is the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica. Jamaica’s popularity has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade with the success of sprint king Usain Bolt. The Jamaican will be eyeing a third Olympic gold in Rio next month.
As I board the Caribbean Airlines flight to Jamaica, the first thing that draws my attention to is the in flight book with the cover picture of Bolt. I was seated next to Richard who is from Jamaica and our discussion starts with Bolt. He reckons like every Jamaican, Bolt will bring back the memories of London. Richard was suggesting the amount of hard work and dedication Bolt has put in to bring smiles on the face of a nation striving in poverty, corruption and economic crisis. In fact the entire nation is banking on its athletes to bring more glories in Rio. Our discussion switches quickly to cricket, and for the first time Richard seemed not interested about. He reckons the people are fast shifting their attention from cricket particularly test matches as no one would love to see a team lose like the way it did against India in Antigua. A large photo of Bolt, who is also the brand ambassador of Digicel, the largest mobile network here welcomes the visitors at the Immigration.
As I come out of Norman Manley airport, I board a taxi to the city. Taxi driver Boddy Gayle seems more interested to talk about Bolt and Jamaican athletes rather than wasting time on cricket. As Bobby puts it, “People just do not love watching test match cricket. The majority of Caribbean people are interested about the CPL. We love our athletes as they are our biggest ambassadors.”
Another identity of this beautiful country is it is the birthplace of reggae legend Bob Marley. The capital Kingston is the home to the Bob Marley museum, dedicated to the city’s most famous son.
The focus will now shift to Sabina Park, the home of the Kingston Cricket Club. Once regarded as the hardest and fastest wicket in Caribbean for many years, Sabina Park is just basking in its glory of yesteryears as it had slowed down considerably despite attempts to restore life by relaying the surface on more than one occasion.
The spectacular Blue Mountains, (home of the world famous Blue Mountain coffee) form a picturesque and spectacular backdrop to the north facing the George Headley Stand, with Kingston Harbour to the south.
Sabina Park’s greatest moment in Test cricket was the 365 not out made by Garry Sobers against the Pakistanis that stood for many years as the highest individual test score. Conversely its worst moment was when the England – West Indies Test in 1998 was abandoned on the opening day due to an appalling pitch endangering the players.
The country also had its share of mouth watering jerk chicken. It seems to be an offence if one has not tasted jerk chicken. People here just love having jerk chicken.
On the cricketing front the Indians after having a relaxing session playing FIFA games in their hotel on Wednesday, were back to practice at the Sabina Park. The players had a good work out session in the morning under Anil Kumble. Later after the practice session leggie Amit Mishra had an interaction with the media. According to Mishra, who had a decent bowling performance commented, “The team is motivated after winning the first test. That was a collective effort. We did well in all the departments. But we have left behind the success in Antigua and are now concentrating on the second test in Sabina Park.”
Mishra who bowled well in tandem with Ashwin in Antigua did not get the return as expected. But the leg spinner had no regrets, “There will be times when you will not get the same return. Ashwin bowled well from the other end. My job was to contain the batsman from scoring freely.”
Meanwhile, West Indies has included 19 year old pacer Alzarri Joseph in the14-member squad for the second Test against India to be played at Kingston in Jamaica from Saturday (July 30).
Joseph played an instrumental role in West Indies’ Under-19 World Cup win earlier this year – bagging 13 wickets in six matches. He has also scalped 24 wickets in eight First-Class matches for Leewards Islands, with the best figures of 7 for 46.
Despite surrendering to an innings and 92-run defeat to their touring Indian counterparts, West Indies head coach Phil Simmons says his charges will not throw in the towel, but will look to square the series 1-1, at Sabina Park in Kingston.
“You can’t be demoralised with one Test out of four; there are still three Test matches to go and we know we didn’t play well. If we played well and we got beaten like that then something is wrong,” Simmons told yesterday.
“We need to move past this thing about youthful team. If we have a youthful team, then we need to bat and bowl and field well and we didn’t, and didn’t get enough partnerships when we batted so we just have to make sure we do everything a lot better and make sure we bat better in the series,” continued the coach.
Simmons says he will stick with the same team, while noting there is no excuse for his charges’ poor performance.