The T20 World Cup has found a happy haven in an island which has a deep bond with the game.
Cricket paradise welcomes you! When you step off the plane, after two weeks in United States of America (where cricket is baseball to India), Sir Garfield Sobers will greet you at Barbados airport. It’s not quite Sir Garry himself but rather a giant cut-out of the legendary allrounder playing his famous off-drive.
By the time one gets off from their plane it is clear that there is a fiesta of cricket on this side of the world. No, there are no insane crowds waiting to get sight of their cricket heroes at the airport, but just a quiet acknowledgement that there is a World Cup going on.
At first glance, it seems like a tale of two World Cups. The authorities in USA did everything they could to try and get some attention on the sport but you could see that they were working too hard for it. Yet out here, everything seems so effortless right from the volunteer at the airport wearing T20 World Cup t-shirt as he shows you around to the receptionist watching Bangladesh-Nepal match with interest in front of TV set in hotel lobby.
Barbados – almost looks and feels like Goa, occupies 166 square miles and perhaps it can be said – without being too far wrong – that this is West Indies’ unofficial cricket capital. In every corner and every hole, one can feel how deep its roots lie.” Just further down lies Malcolm Marshall’s grave” someone points out while another suggests that I should go to Bridgetown University that also has statues commemorating 3Ws.’
The home boys’ giant posters Sobers, Joel Garner, Everton Weekes, and Frank Worrell at arrivals tell me this is where I want to be if I am really into my cricket. From immigration counter talk through taxi stand talk and down to beach talk, all the chats happened on cricket. The latter stages of the World Cup are just about to begin and you can sense it here. But there’s no ‘selfie culture’ with the stars, something we’ve grown to believe is synonymous with Team India and its fans. It’s beyond that.
“Big stars? Oh yeah, if you are driving a taxi in Barbados for 20 years, maybe once or twice Sir Garry could have been your passenger. I did get him at least. And then so many others, remember how Garner lives near me and one starts talking about cricket and he doesn’t stop,” said Geoff.
Then there is Solly in his 40s originally from Surat who played with Irfan and Yusuf Pathan when they were kids and now has a business and plays club cricket here alongside Dyawne Smith, Kyle Mayers et al “We continue to live our lives but come weekends without fail it’s all about cricket” says Solly.
However, in the tone of an old waiter at a seaside hotel one can detect that touch of gloominess which has become like part and parcel of West Indies cricket. “Cricket was our only game”. I don’t know what went wrong or where we missed it? My sons and nephews play basketball plus football,” Royce narrates while dishing out fish along with beer.
The West Indies’ failure to qualify for the ODI World Cup was a humiliation that this generation, which grew up watching Clive Lloyd’s team winning the first two, still can’t come to terms with. For them, T20 is not the format that decides world champions. Nonetheless, good show would be like an ointment.
“Tickets for the final here on June 29 are sold out. I couldn’t manage to get one. West Indies aren’t doing too badly but I don’t have faith in them. If they can’t win let it be India, they have such good players. In our taxi-stand we watch Indian cricketers in the IPL between rides on this old TV,” said Geoff.
He’s right; they Rohits and Virats are in a different league though. However if you’re a cricket romantic walking down the winding roads of Bridgetown on a lazy afternoon you might just take some time to pray silently hoping Geoff’s first wish comes true.
