India vs West Indies 2013: Tourists aim to light-up Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell with their unique brand of cricket

Sachin Tendulkar's farewell has meant that West Indies arrived in India almost unnoticed. However, Aayush Puthran  says that the visitors can light-up the stage with their unique fun-loving brand of cricket.

West Indies will be motivated to put up a much better bowling performance in comparison to their last tour to India in 2011 © AFP

Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell has meant that West Indies arrived in India almost unnoticed. However, Aayush Puthran says that the visitors can light-up the stage with their unique fun-loving brand of cricket.

 
The lush green fields of the Caribbean islands, patriotically symbolised in Bob Marley’s tri-colour strip and the beaches, romantically picturised alongside reggae music in countless videos, all have a place for the young boys. Those boys, with oddly shaped willows and makeshift bamboo sticks as stumps, indulge in a game that the people of the beautiful islands have grown to love and unify themselves for a cause. Over the years, reasons for playing cricket have changed, but none that could disappoint the social scientists of the Carribbean of the 1970s.
 
The change of times and fortunes of West Indies cricket is bound to be harsh for generations to come. Even as the team starts a new series against India, the result would obviously matter. A victory would be a pleasant surprise and a defeat would only make the fans recall the glory days of the 1970s and the 80s, and wonder where they are. A fight for independence and the struggle to announce themselves as a dominant force isn’t the cause anymore. Cricket isn’t a game for them to showcase their identity any longer. For valid reasons, money matters. Today, unlike during the rebel tours to South Africa, to play for money isn’t rebellious enough. As CLR James had predicted decades ago, all peoples are entangled in the net of the world market.
 
With changing times, reasons to play the game they love have changed. It has changed as much as the cause of celebrating independence in India has. Irrespective of what stood decades ago or in modern times, winning remains the only constant.  
 
When West Indies play India, one team will be busy celebrating a glorious career, while the other will hope to come out with a much improved showing than the one of 2011 — the last time they had toured the country. For during that phase, the West Indians have tasted success. They have shown that they are not merely the best freelancers in world cricket, but can combine to form a deadly unit. They have shown it by winning the ICC World T20 2012. Since the championship last year, they haven’t lost a single Test match of the six they played. Barring two, T20 encounters, they have won all their games in the shortest format too.
 
Darren Sammy is leading an inspired side, full of life and ready to enjoy their game. They are touring a nation where the Indian Premier League (IPL) has made them as big heroes as some of their Indian counterparts. The West Indians of today have moved on from the menacing and intimidating players to fun-loving ambassadors of the game. What would be pleasing as Sachin Tendulkar walks down the last leg of his career, would be to see the men from the Carribbean amidst all their frolic, rekindle their modern brand of good cricket.

(Aayush Puthran is a reporter with CricketCountry. Mercurially jovial, pseudo pompous, perpetually curious and occasionally confused, he is always up for a light-hearted chat over a few cups of filter kaapi!)

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