They call it the "Springer Dance". It started trending on Twitter soon after the West Indies Under 19 cricket team eked out a five-wicket win over India on Sunday in Dhaka to win their first ever U-19 World Cup title. Describing it is difficult – it’s a mix of Gangnam Style with the hips moving in careless abandon. Led by 18-year old ringmaster Shamar Springer, the celebration was in full force after the young men from the Caribbean won the tournament.
World cricket is a happier place when the West Indies are happy. And they had every reason to be. The tournament triumph was a throwback to the way the West Indies used to play cricket – fast and furious, and with equally fervent celebrations.
A determined lot
Before the jubilation, there was some controversy. In their last group against Zimbabwe, a place in the quarter-finals up for grabs. The Zimbabweans needed three runs to win from the last over of the match with one wicket in hand when a West Indian bowler ran out a Zimbabwean batsman at the non-striker's end before delivering the ball (a form of dismissal called “Mankading” after the great Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad). There are some ethical grey areas surrounding “Mankading”, with critics calling it unsporting behaviour. The West Indies team brooked much criticism from various quarters for not upholding the “spirit of the game”. The incident could have easily unsettled a weak team, but West Indies emerged stronger from the setback, almost determined to prove a point.
With four fast bowlers, they relentlessly attacked their opponents and won three consecutive knockout games against teams from the subcontinent in conditions in which they were expected to struggle. Despite the slow pitches, the ball zipped through to the wicket-keeper, something that would not have been out of the place in the 1970s.
ODI cricket’s old glow
In many ways, throwback was the key theme of the U-19 World Cup. It was a tournament played in tune with One Day International cricket of the past. The sixes were rare and when one did arrive, it was a cause for celebration, unlike the senior game where the maximums fly thick and fast. Targets of more than 200 proved difficult to chase – in the final, even 146 was chased down with difficulty. Run rates were low and bowlers found reward for their skills. Batsmen left balls alone and preferred to play themselves in. Grit and resilience became prized possessions again, albeit for a short time. It was ODI cricket, the way we used to know and love it.
There were no big double centuries but that did not take away from the many individual triumphs. Sarfaraz Khan, India’s feisty all-rounder, led the pack with seven half-centuries, the most by any player in the history of this tournament.
Almost all those half-centuries came when India were stuck in a rut and Khan had to curb his natural attacking instincts. Even in the final, Khan patiently withstood the onslaught from the West Indian pacers to carve out a battling 51 off 89 balls. It was only in the end, when he was running out of partners, that he decided to push for quick runs and lost his wicket in the process.
But the most heart-warming among all the themes was the one of West Indian resurgence. Over the last two decades, nostalgia for better days has been the pre-dominant theme in West Indian cricket because of the team's depressing fortunes. The senior team is routinely involved in contract disputes with their board. Some of the best cricketers from the region have already left international cricket to ply their trade in the myriad Twenty20 leagues that have proliferated across the world. The few that remain get thrashed by most top teams in international cricket, leading to sustained fears that the end of West Indies with a unified cricket identity is nigh.
It is in this light that the U-19 team's triumph has even greater significance. It indicates that amidst all the gloom, talented players are still around in the Caribbean Islands, players who can still play cricket in the typical West Indian style of joyous flamboyance. There is finally a ray of hope about West Indian cricket. Hopefully, cricket’s custodians will ensure that these promising talents are nurtured so they can go ahead and send the West Indies back to the top.