When Brian Lara Retired (Cricket)

Saturday 21st April 21, 2007, why is this day significant? The day one Brian Charles Lara played his last match for the West Indies Cricket One Day International Team. I always held out the hope over the years supporting West Indies cricket that Lara could've been good enough to have them return to their winning ways. But it was never to be, so when Brian Lara retired, I chose to walk away with my support of West Indies cricket, (since 2007, coincidentally, that was the last time I've gone to the Queen's Park Oval to see a cricket match.)

As Fazeer Mohammed puts it - "Compare that agonizing experience with Lara's muted departure and they appear almost to be worlds apart. The common denominator seems to be the same, though: disappointment, disillusionment, even outright disgust by players whose deeds on the field have made them universally popular and admired."

Has these sentiments changed in the last 10 years? Not all that much actually. 

Which team did I choose to support from then? The winner's of the 2007 World Cup - Australia, why? I've long since admired them since I started following cricket in 1996. Switching allegiance was an easy thing to do, and one always wants to support a winning team don't they?
Using ESPN's cricinfo's handy dandy Stats Guru search, one can see that Australia's Win Loss ratio is all above one, with the exception of probably the only other truly strong team in the last ten years South Africa. In the last ten years, with two World Cup wins (2007 & 2015), one Champions Trophy win (2009) and one runners up in the T20 World Cup (2010) they have been performing well over the last decade. 

Conversely, West Indies statistics over the last decade have been abysmal, with two World Cup wins coming in their favored format T20's (2012 & 2016), and not much else to write home about. From selection issues, pay disputes, race, political infighting, complacency, and just plain disillusionment, has results in such shocking statistics, with ratios in despair right across the line, it's been amazing that any of the West Indies players care to play at all. 197 defeats across all formats in the last ten years as compared to 155 for Australia (and Australia has played 77 more matches).

As a testament to West Indies declining fortunes, no one wants to play them any long series of four or five test matches anymore, they've played two four match series and one five match series in the last ten years. Compare that to their first 78 years of test cricket, 5 six match series, 46 five match series, 18 four match series, everyone wanted to play them, everyone wanted to be them. Will they ever improve? God only knows, but a sure sign would be if they could beat Australia in a Test Match Series in Australia, that may give an indication that they could be on the way up again. 

Have I regretted supporting Australia? Only why they've lost badly over the last decade, but that has been very rare. 

To be honest, it's not like I've seen the passion fade away from West Indies fans, the passion is still there, as it was in 2012 and 2016 with the T20 World Cup wins, everyone was bursting with pride. Especially last year, when West Indies won the T20 Men's, T20 Women's and the Under 19 world cup, an unprecedented trifecta. 

Everyone thought, yes! This is it, they're on their way up again, after digging the rocky bottom for so long, but inconsistency has mired them in a veritable morass of failures, Played 49 matches (across all formats) and won 13 and lost 29, in what world could this be good enough? Attendance at the cricket grounds in the West Indies has fell over the last ten years, and it's a sure sign that no sponsors in the West Indies wants to be seen anywhere near the West Indies team, for the Pakistani and Indian series this year, we've seen foreign sponsors take over the grounds (i.e. the advertisements painted on the field, as well as the boundary boards). Last nails in the coffin that has the meager survival of West Indies cricket?

Will I support West Indies cricket again? "Maybe" taken with a tonne of salt, they'll not only have to become number one in the world in Test Matches, but also become number one in One Day Matches as well as winning the 50 over World Cup, to change my mind. That's my line in the sand. 

Sure, it's been painful to think that the sport that unites fans throughout the Caribbean, could've fallen into such disrepair, thanks to neglect and complacency that they'll always be number one throughout the 1990's. My support has so changed towards West Indies cricket, that any team they're playing I'm always supporting the other team be it Ireland, India, Sri Lanka, England. I'm less likely to be disappointed that way, don't ya think?

Coming to think of it, the title of this blog post could've been more aptly named, a retrospective on support: the last ten years. It's been a passionate blog post today admittedly, as the love of cricket has been spurred on by the tremendous reach of ESPN Cricinfo.