The promise of dal pakwaan

The abiding memory from Saturday’s second one-day international at the Sabina Park is of two Jamaicans getting into a heated debate AFTER the match about Lara’s decision to give Dwayne Bravo the last over to bowl.

“Dem Indians bat all the way down, Lara make big mistake,” said one.

“No way,” argued the other, “Lara know his job, Dwayne know his responsibility, you don’t know your cricket.” The debate raged long into the evening one presumes. It can only happen in the West Indies.
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Accolades from his captain came profusely after the match. But Lara was not the only one who believed the 20-year-old Bravo could be someone special.

“If he can keep his head, and learn from here, he can be a class act,” says veteran commentator and historian Tony Cozier who has watched and written on the rise and decline of West Indies cricket for almost half a century.

Cozier admits to writing less nowadays (“I feel burnt out,” he says) but is enthused about the emergence of players like Bravo, Jeremy Taylor, Gayle, Ian Bradshaw, Dinesh Ramdin.

“The West Indies have been in the doldrums for some while now because not only has there been a shortage of skilled players, but even the good ones had lost their head,” says Cozier. He has had serious issues with Lara in the past, but believes that the left-handed genius can salvage pride for the West Indies in his third stint as captain.

The glorious tradition of West Indies cricket, it must be said, occupies the mind space of some key players in the dressing room too. Sarwan, man of the match on Saturday, claimed he is committed to restoring the legacy of Caribbean cricket to its pristine glory.
“That’s what I have wanted to do since I started playing.” Does Saturday’s victory mark a watershed, one wonders.
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Going to St Kitts from Kingston via Miami is like going to Alibag via Panvel instead of across the creek from the Gateway of India: quite senseless, yet sometimes unavoidable.

From Miami, the flight’s choc-a-block, throbbing with Americans of all shapes and sizes and creating as much of a cacophony as the crowd at the Sabina Park. The touchdown into St Kitt’s, however, has everybody silent. It’s silken smooth, and the pilot wins a generous round of applause from the appreciative passengers.

St Kitts is a small island country renowned for its golden-black beaches, salubrious climate which is thought to have therapeutic values and posh condominiums for American millionaires.

Incidentally, sports buffs will remember this as the place where Ben Johnson took steroids and trained for the 1988 Olympics under Dr Jamie Astaphan. Johnson is still remembered with some awe and some distaste, but the big hero currently is local sprinter Kim Collins.

Cricket is followed keenly, but with a population less than 45,000, St Kitts is pretty much the ‘kid brother’ in the West Indies scheme of things where the sport is concerned. The island hosts its first one-day international on Tuesday, and this could usher in a new era.

At the airport, a handful of people of Indian origin want to know the whereabouts of Rahul Dravid and his team. They are Sindhis from St Maarten, here for the match.

“There are at least 200 of us coming from St Maarten, some from St Thomas, St Lucia, Barbados… from all over,” says one from the group. The Sindhis have been the ‘Columbuses’ among Indian businessmen, and many of them have set up enterprises in the Caribbean going back half a century.

“If the Indian team wins, we will give the players dal pakwaan. Home made,” says another, probably in jest. In any case, given the itinerary, it would be impossible for Dravid and his team to take up the offer. But in another sense, what a wonderful incentive to win.