The contrast has been too stark to escape notice. Over the last few weeks, the cricketing gaze has largely been at the evenly-matched, intense game seen in the ongoing Ashes Test series, between archrivals England and Australia. At the same time, the touring Indian team’s 1-0 test series win against West Indies in the Caribbean has hardly caused any ripple. Keeping aside the overkill factor in the round-the-year cricketing calendar, the reactions to the Caribbean tour, or rather the lack of it, is one more telling sign of the definitive fall of the Caribbean team – from being the past giant to joining the list of minnows in world cricket.
Far from discussions on what was seen as a foregone conclusion, the chatter in the series was more about some individual performances, and some experiments that the Indian team did with the batting slots and the pace bowling battery. That meant that test debutants, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar, did evoke sporadic interest. But the lack of contest on the field was hard to compensate for. In fact, by the end of a short test series, bemoaning the decline of the West Indies as a strong force in world cricket became the subtext to the commentary on the series. In fact, such lament over a languishing side became the defining emotion for the few who kept an eye on the series.
