Tony Becca
EVER SINCE that summer's day, June 23, 1928, when they walked on to the field at Lord's for the start of their first Test match, the West Indies have
produced some of cricket's finest batsmen and some of the game's greatest individual batting
performances.
The great batsmen, for example, include George Headley, Gary Sobers, Vivian Richards and Brian Lara, and numbered among the great batting performances are Headley's 223 against England at Sabina Park in 1930, Sobers' 132 versus Australia at Brisbane's Gabba in 1960, Richards' 130 against India at Queen's Park Oval in 1976, Lara's 153 not out versus Australia at Kensington Oval in 1999, and, of course, Gordon Greenidge's 214 not out against England at Lords' in 1984.
SLIM CHANCES
The list of great batsmen produced by the West Indies does not include Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and although it is possible that they could make it, they will have to come good, really good, to do so.
Not so the list of performances, however. The performances of Hinds and Chanderpaul on the first two days of the Test match now in progress at Bourda must rank with the best no question about that.
They were, undoubtedly, great performances and especially so because of the circumstances.
After weeks of turmoil in West Indies cricket, the West Indies went into the first Test against South Africa against the team that, apart from the one-off Test in 1991, had beaten them 5-0, 2-1, and 3-0 in three successive series without captain and top batsman Brian Lara, without batsmen Christopher Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, and with everything against them and the fans crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.
Although some were praying that Devon Smith, Daren Ganga and Ryan Hinds would come good this time around, and that new-comers Donovan Pagon and Narsingh Deonarine would deliver, the hope was that Wavell Hinds and captain Chanderpaul, the two most experienced players in the team, would perform.
To many, that was the only hope for the West Indies and in fairytale fashion they delivered with Wavell Hinds, batting at No. 1 after the West Indies had won the toss, scoring 213, and Chanderpaul, batting at No. 5 and joining the action at 106 for three, scoring 203 not out.
Batting as if their lives depended on their performance, batting as if to show the West Indies, including the board and its selectors, that cricket is bigger than any one man, that West Indies cricket is bigger than any one man, and that the West Indies can play good cricket without any one man, Wavell Hinds and Chanderpaul batted better than they had ever done and in the process ticked off the highest score of their careers as they passed the 200-mark for the first time.
In posting 284 for their partner-ship, in carrying the West Indies past 500 runs for the first time in 16 Test matches against South Africa before they declared at 543 for five, Wavell Hinds and Chanderpaul erased the previous best West Indies fourth-wicket partnership at Bourda 240 by Sobers and Rohan Kanhai versus England 1968.
It was even more a fairytale for Chanderpaul. After playing his first Test match at home at Bourda, Chanderpaul not only captained his first Test match at home but he also enjoyed the distinction of scoring a century and then a double century in his first Test as captain.
Wavell Hinds was brilliant, his driving, particularly his straight drives, were out of the book and perfect, and although his strokeplay was not as consistently
brilliant, Chanderpaul was as solid as a rock.
BEST PERFORMANCE EVER
Great men, it is said, do great things when great things are needed, and with many believing that the West Indies is a one-man team, with the West Indies short of Lara, Gayle and Sarwan, and with many predicting a walk-over for South Africa, Wavell Hinds and Chanderpaul paraded their greatness a greatness that lifted the West Indies to their best batting performance ever against South Africa.
It is still a long way to go before the series is over, but regardless of what happens later on, the fans will never forget the first two days of the first Test.
They will never forget it because of Wavell Hinds and Chanderpaul.
The two left-handers batted so well that Lara, Gayle and Sarwan were not missed and that the West Indies were in such a commanding position that they declared the innings closed not against Zimbabwe, not against Bangladesh, but against South Africa.
