Sports fandom at the highest level is often love soaring at extreme levels. It is unconditional, obsessive, moody, prone to ecstasy and equally vulnerable to heartbreaks. And from Saturday night, it was time to nurse a bleeding heart as the West Indies failed to qualify for the ICC World Cup scheduled to be held later this year in India. The loss to Scotland, in the World Cup qualifiers at Harare, was the final nail in an old, weather-beaten coffin.
The West Indies to cricket is what Brazil and Argentina are to football. These are teams that soar above the narrow confines of nationality, draw fans from across the universe and play a brand of sport that is elemental, aesthetic, have the sweetness of hot chocolate, the spice of a Peri Peri sauce and above all gift us a sense of wonder.
Unfortunately time waits for none, trends wane, collective attributes vanish, people change and teams succumb to that old cliche — the glorious uncertainties of sport. With the West Indies, the fall from grace wasn’t sudden, this was a free-fall but in slow motion. Perhaps, the first stumble was in 1983 when Kapil’s Devils humbled Clive Lloyd’s men in the World Cup final at Lord’s.
