Windies look for redemption
It?s been 25 years since Lloyd's men won the World Cup. This isn't big one but it could see wheel come full circle, writes Kadambari Murali.
England coach Duncan Fletcher was asked on Thursday whether he thought Brian Lara should be peppered with short-pitched stuff from Flintoff and Harmison after the West Indian skipper took a blow from a Shoaib bouncer that took him off the field in Wednesday’s semi-final.
Fletcher promptly said, “We’ll discuss everything in the team meeting,” but quickly added: “Brian is a great player. He’s taken blows before and recovered. I don’t think it would have affected him.”
Lara, on Friday, the eve of an unlikely Champions Trophy final against England, seemed more than recovered. He seemed both calm and confident as he stood on the threshold of becoming the first West Indian captain since Clive Lloyd to hold a “World” Cup.
It’s been 25 years since Lloyd held the 1979 World Cup aloft and even though this isn't cricket's biggest prize, it could well see the wheel come full circle, after what seems like an interminable aeon of decline and despair for Caribbean cricket.
It is difficult to imagine that Lara and his boys will pull off what would be a miraculous win (on form and in every other department England hold the edge), but they would have something driving them that the English do not have - a sense of history (if the players can recall it) and a desperate, driving need for redemption.
