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| Pakistan fans in full voice at the Oval |
West Indies fans are only just beginning to feel the pride again. Our team won the ICC Twenty20 World Cup last year and we are finally starting to see a side which will compete with the best of the cricketing world, if only in the shorter formats. We took that pride to the Kia Oval last Friday, despite being drowned out by chants of 'Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Pakistan)' from a larger and more vociferous set of fans.
That pride was evident in the way a stout woman with maroon head-wrap waved her St. Lucian flag. It was on show again every time the two West Indian men, engulfed in a sea of green and white in Block 10 in the Vauxhall Stand, answered Preacher's call to 'Jump an wave, jump up an wave', the Trinidadian singer eventually telling us that 'The party caan ova'.
If the party wasn't over in the ninth over, it certainly stalled, when Dinesh Ramdin did something no right-thinking West Indies fan should be proud of: claim a catch he obviously knew he had grassed. At first I jumped out of my seat at the implication that Kemar Roach had taken his and West Indies' fourth wicket. But I slumped down again in disgust and embarrassment as the evidence was shown on the big screens, and Pakistan Zindabad turned into choruses of boos every time the Trinidadian touched the ball.
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| Windies players warm up prior to the game |
Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain and batsman who would have suffered had the eagle-eyed umpire Nigel Long not seen Ramdin's misdeed, later said the wicket-keeper had acted against the spirit of the game. I agree with him, but more importantly from a Caribbean point of view, it is just not the West Indian way to play like this. Team captain Dwayne Bravo said as much in his post match interview: "History has shown that we play the game in true spirit of the way it should be played."
Bravo could easily have referenced Courtney Walsh's refusal to run out Pakistan's Saleem Jaffer in Lahore in the 1987 World Cup game. The batsman had left his crease as Walsh was about to get into his delivery stride at a pivotal stage of the game, and with a semi-final at stake, but instead of running him out, the lionhearted Jamaican stopped and returned to his bowling mark. Thus Walsh is not only remembered as the fast bowler who terrorised batsmen on his way to 519 wickets, he is also considered as one of the true gentlemen of the gentleman's game.
Walsh's action is the epitome of the West Indian way and should be the benchmark against which young West Indian players measure themselves. Play ferociously but fair. Grind your opponent down but be gentlemanly.
At the moment Ramdin is not adhering to these ethos. We thought his 'Talk nah Viv' transgression last year at Edgbaston would be a one-off. But a year later he is at it again. He's an outstanding wicket-keeper, and has the potential to become a very good international batsman. Therefore, he should stay clear of the controversies, and play the game in such a way that we, the fans, can party in the stands and in the streets without apology.
