WEST INDIES VERSUS SRI LANKA - SATURDAY 12TH APRIL, 2008

SPORTS: FEARLESSONE IN THE BOX COLUMN – FOR SECOND ONEDAYER- WEST INDIES VERSUS SRI LANKA – SATURDAY 12^TH APRIL, 2008

By Andre E Baptiste

 

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Saturday was cool, overnight rain and heavy cloud cover, did not deter the numerous beautiful women that were at the Queens Park Oval.

Sport is a meritocracy. Women athletes appeal to men because they work hard. They combine form with function. On Saturday, the form to quote one of my horseracing friends read good, real good.

It was ordinary, it was oh so ordinary. It was a salad, a dinner roll, a steak, a half potato, a slice of cake, a clinking fork, a podium joke, a ballroom full of white-linen-tablecloth conversation, so with that I left West Indies Cricket Board box.

I managed to enter the – Trini Posse – Stand , without any fuss and without any ticket , someone noticed me passing by ( working hard, very hard) and ensured that I was allowed in to a mesmerizing experience of music, beauty , more music , food, a lot of beauties and just fun and excitement .

It was the sort of experience that ensures that cricket will not die with 50 overs and 20 overs cricket always present.

Most of the beautiful women I spoke with and there were too much to mention, were all enthralled by the spectacle and overcome by the fact, that I was interviewing them for a special piece on – Beautiful women in cricket – (Oh, by the way, I have not spoken to my editors, about when I will run the series in the Trinidad Guardian, partially because I only thought of it, the moment, I was bounced by two gorgeous brunettes.

What was great about these interviews, was their knowledge of cricketers, they knew a lot about Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Bravo and then Lara . But I hasten to add quickly he was not playing, but they countered they had seen him in the stands.

Sri Lanka’s stop start innings was always going to be difficult for any quality team, and given the fact, that Sri Lanka were beginning to look rather ordinary, it was no wonder they struggled to 112-5 from 30 overs. For the West Indies Captain Chris Gayle’s innocuous spin claimed two scalps and the brilliant Dwayne Bravo (too much pumping up from the Trini Posse CROWD) and consistent Jerome Taylor captured one each.

Now only, Duckworth Lewis could save Sri Lanka from another defeat. In a land where curry duck and cricket ducks are aplenty, it was no surprise that many at the Queens Park Oval were skeptical about Duckworth Lewis.

The West Indies were set a revised target of 125 from 25 and the air was now tensed.

The machine will win because it has no mind. It flattens even as it lifts, trivializes even as it exalts, spreads a man so wide and thin that he becomes margarine soon enough.

 

Supporters in Trinidad and Tobago are of a different breed to any other in the Caribbean.

It was indeed a weekend of PAIN, BEAUTY, GAIN and RAIN.

 

:: AB