The Demise of Bouncy Tracks

“Kill him man”, the audience would yell, as the bowler got ready with a piece of red cherry in his hand. As the tall, intimidating figure of the bowler approached the stumps, the first instinct of the nervous batsman on the other end of the 22 yards battle yard was not to hit or even defend the ball; it was a primitive, natural desire to survive, to see another day, to meet his family back home and to experience all the beautiful things the life had to offer. But in West Indies, life was miserable for the batsman. The size of the bowlers and pace of the ball were a matter of concern and only the fittest survived. As the ball zoomed past the scantly protected heads, ribcages and chests, teams often forgot they had a match to play and survival was the only mantra.

That was the West Indies of 1970s.

With probably the best pace attack in the history of the game and bouncier pitches for assistance (it wasn’t required anyway!) the famed West Indian pace bowlers demolished teams and careers with equal aplomb. The Caribbean company consisting of Joel Garner, Malcom Marshall, Michael Holding and Andy Roberts were skillful and the pitches assisted them beautifully, creating a dangerous combination of lethal pace and unmatched skills.

As the pace bowlers retired and as West Indies failed to sustain the aura of invincibility, things started to change in Caribbean cricket. The pace bowlers who succeeded the famed quartet were neither skillful nor fast. With the honorable exception of bowlers like Walsh and Ambrose, West Indies fast bowling department was just a shadow of its glorious past, threatening to vanish at the slightest hint of aggressiveness from the opposition.

Unfortunately for West Indies, even the pitches deserted them when they needed it the most. The same pitches that made the ball rise up and made the batsmen dance on the pitch to save their skin now invited them to dance down the track and hit the ball out of the park. There was no pace in the pitch and there were no bowlers in West Indies who could justify the existence of a bouncy pitch.

And a legacy started to disappear.

Contrary to what teams like South Africa and Australia believe, slow and turning pitches are not bad for the game at all. They test the skill of the batsmen and keep that artistry called spin bowling alive. If all the pitches in the world were fast tracks, there would have been no Chandrashekhar, no Prasanna or no Shane Warne. But the state of the pitches in West Indies is not planned. They just happened over a period of time and West Indies does not have the skilled bowlers who can utilize that condition. If every cricket expert is banking on a sub continental team to win the cup, the reason for that is the state of the pitch. They turn, they offer uneven bounce and they suit India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka! So much so even a relatively weaker sub continental team like Bangladesh beat New Zealand who had defeated Australia in three successive matches not so long ago!

Even in other warm up matches, teams from the Sub Continent have been registering easy wins. If the state of the pitch remains the same, my personal favorite to win the cup would be Sri Lanka. They have just the right combination of slower bowlers, led by all powerful Murali, to succeed in these conditions. In spite of being the host, West Indies does not stand a very good chance of making it to the final.

Because for them, the best of the pitches and the men are gone.