The hunt for a Test-class claret

In one respect, there has been a reassertion of normality, though this is nothing to do with the virus. Although the recovery was almost sabotaged by young Mr Archer’s bêtise, the problem long antedates Covid-19. But it now seems that once again, the West Indians are a formidable Test side. This is wonderful news, for world cricket has not been the same without them.

Cricket is a game of paradoxes, a symphony of beauty and brutality: a cross between a vicarage tea party and Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon. Facing a fighting bull or the fearsome West Indian fast bowlers of yesteryear — they are both supreme tests of manhood, in which a balletic athleticism has to conquer fear in order to be transfigured into courage.

The current West Indian side still lacks the terror of a Holding, a Marshall, an Ambrose. They do not have an anchor to rival Greenidge and Haynes, or an artist up there with Richards or Lara. But they have a formidable skipper. It was never clear whether Viv Richards was a great captain, because he did not need to be. There were batsmen who would always make runs, bowlers who would always take wickets. Often, his sides did not merely beat their opponents. They crushed them. The conductor of that magniloquent orchestra faced few demands.

Today, it is a different story. The West Indies do not have a single world-class player. England have two: Root and Stokes, with at least three rising stars, plus one recently former world-class bowler, Jimmy Anderson, who is just waiting to prove that he has been written off prematurely. Over the past few years, West Indian sides have often appeared to lack discipline, while their cricketing authorities have not been good at grip.