Shamar Joseph celebrates his final match-winning wicket last Sunday at the Gabba. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The young West Indies team’s stunning win at the Gabba last Sunday had seemingly every Australian cricket fan as excited as the victors. I have never seen so many Aussies so happy about a loss!
So, just imagine the reaction back in the Caribbean, especially in Guyana, the home island of new Windies bowling spearhead Shamar Joseph!
After all cricket was once the way of life in the Caribbean, along with church and calypso music.
I have been lucky enough to visit the West Indies for work. My out-of-office message says: “I will be out of the office until June 1st, so I will reply to your message on my return. However, if you are contacting me to (a) send me a cheque (made out in strong currency); (b) give me a Nobel Prize; or (c) you wish to invite me to a conference in an exotic location, I will get back to you straight away.”
Well, blow me down, as when I first let that message out into cyberspace I actually received an invitation to an exotic location – to the Caribbean Export Council meeting in Barbados, no less, and I was off to the Caribbean quicker than Michael Holding pushing off the sightscreen.
And whilst cricket was on the lips of everyone at the meeting at which I spoke in Barbados (as the West Indies was hosting the Cricket World Cup), the local game has since fallen on hard times.
There’s competition from US College sports and scholarships, along with some local structural problems in West Indies cricket administration. On top of this has been the T20 cricket revolution and the lure of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for several West Indian seniors players. In 2023, the nadir was reached when the West Indies did not even qualify for the men’s World Cup in India.
Then along comes Shamar Joseph and that amazing win at the Gabba that has really captured the hearts of minds of cricket fans in Australia and globally.
Why is this so?
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Firstly, the West Indies is such a young inexperienced team, with many only selected because the more senior players decided to play IPL.
Secondly, it is the back-story of Joseph himself. He was a Guyana security guard and tree lopper in his small village in Guyana just a month ago, who only had dreams of playing in the Caribbean Premier League. Now he has bowled the West Indies to a famous victory taking a seven-wicket haul. And with a broken toe!
Thirdly, there is pure nostalgia for those of us who watched the great West Indian teams growing up. Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and the amazing succession of quicks like Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and so on who brought great charisma and personality to the game as well as being so ruthlessly successful.
Finally, the win was about not only the past but also the future. The Gabba victory provides a flicker of hope for West Indies cricket and in turn, Test cricket itself. There are already plans for saving Test cricket with cross subsidies from the big Test-playing nations like India, Australia, and England to struggling outfits like the Windies, as well as using the giant financial coffers of the IPL and T20 competitions to support the long form of the game.
That means there is work to be done and a long innings ahead for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and trustees of the game.
It means challenges ahead in terms of sponsors, scheduling and logistics, but this is all very necessary for the future of the game. But in the meantime, let’s just join the calypso celebration and congratulate this young team for the joy they have brought to our shores and back home in theirs.
*Professor Tim Harcourt is industry professor and chief economist at the Centre for Sport, Business and Society (CSBS), University of Technology Sydney. Tim also hosts Footynomics – The Economics of Sport www.footynomics.com.au
