Well Begun is half done.

Darren Sammy and his team has manged a cricketing rarity by winning a Test Match. In so doing they have ensured that Pakistan would not win a Test series in the west Indies for the first time on this tour.This may not be a new dawn but the West Indies team through the Brian Lara days struggled not on account of their batting but their bowling and it is here that they are showing depth.Even with a weak batting,a good bowling team can off and on produce a good result.If the batting becomes consistent, the team could do even better.In Darren Bravo and Adrian Barath, they have promising youngsters.
It is the bowling which offers hope.Taylor,Edwards,Roach and Russel are genuine quicks and had it been the pre helmet days, the West Indies would have blown several teams away as they blew Bangladesh away in Dhaka during the World Cup.Devendra Bishoo has played only one test and looks a veteran.Sammy swings a few and sandwiched between genuine quicks and an attacking spinner manages to do well.
Inspite of the presence of a genuine all rounder in Shakib ul Hassan and the mercurial Tamim Iqbal, it is Bangladesh and not the west Indies who bring up the rear in Test Cricket.The West Indies did not lose to New Zealand the last time they played and will not lose to Pakistan this time.A consistent record against three teams for a few years will bring them to a feared middling status from where they can launch themselves.The india series coming up will be interesting and bring back the memories of following cricket from the other side of the Time Zone.

Indian Origin Fast bowlers

A few years back in his blog India Uncut, Amit Varma had bemoaned the absence of indian origin fast bowlers, even outside India. I had pointedout to the numerous fast bowlers plying their wares in England hailing from South Asian origins.Amit pointed out that he was talking of "Indian", origin fast bowlers and those that I was referring to were with Family ties in Pakistan.As a trained critic I wanted to quibble, that those carrying on the heritage of Indian Fast Bowler Jehangir Khan, and nationals of the UK, were of indian origin.However I gave up as even India had produced only Fast medium Bowlers from Kapil to Srinath and I did not know how Amit would view Nissar and Jehangir Khan.I searched my memory and could come with no one but the Guyanese military medium bowler Kamal Singh.

Today,four years on I was happy to note that the Sky Coverage of the Pakistan West Indies test put down Ravi Rampaul as "Fast" Bowler.Rampaul is from Guyana and decidedly of Indian origin and gets into theteam over Edwards and Taylor and generates good pace.What is even more contextual is that Rampaul is contemporary of two Resident Indian Fast bowlers,Ishant sharma and Varun Aaron.The bogey of India not producing genuine quicks and the diaspora also producing quality spinners like Ramadhin but not Fast bowlers has been laid low and the future generation of Indians and PIOs can point out to a few quicks of their own.

Fire in the Belly

Everytime, the West Indies start a Test series,I hope that they will go back to their winning ways.Each series proves me wrong.Besides their cricket, their inter personal problems and their scrap with the administration remain in the news.If they have to come out of the rut that they are in, they have to do that in spite of the system.It is true that the West Indies free lancers have now found an avenue in the IPL.More possibilities are there now than the NBA.However, a working cricket culture is required to keep producing good cricketers.A strong West Indies performance may even make a North American League possible. A 5 AM India time start will have sufficiently big audience in India besides the Desis in the USA.For that to happen, the West Indies must get back to believing in themselves and claw to a middling ranking in Tests.