We have often heard of tales when the great West Indies (a conglomeration of island nations) was synonymous to cricket.

By Himanshu Shekhar
 
The great Caribbean stars not just contributed to personal records and achievements but gave a different identity to a sport which until then was perceived as a favourite pass-time of elites.
              
Come Airtel Champions League Twenty20 2010, and it would be a bunch of extremely talented and capable set of fifteen, who will bring the same panache in the cricket’s slam bang race beginning September 10 in South Africa.
 
Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan may have lost out on the West Indies central contract citing fitness issues, but the Guyana skipper would be aware about how fortunes can change with a few good  knocks  in the Champions League.
 
Sarwan’s Guyana have earned a place in the Champions League after beating last year ' s most discussed team, T&T in the semifinals and then by stealing a one run  thriller against Barbados in the finals of the Caribbean T20 tournament.
 
Players like Travis Dowlin and Jonathan Foo may not be international names to envy but the experience of Kieron Pollard is a classic case in point on how few balls can change all that. 
 
Foo scored a sensational 42 runs  off 17 balls and led Guyana to the title win in the Caribbean T20 tournament and has been in tremendous form in the warm up matches this island nation has played in prelude to the South African sojourn.
 
Guyana, as a team, looks like a mix of utility players and some hard-hitting batsmen who can change the complexion of the game in spate of couple of overs. It’s the lack of express fast bowlers which looks like the only handicap team might face on bouncy tracks like Kingsmead, Durban.  The only genuine pacer in the team is Esaun Crandon, who off late has struggled with his form and claimed only  seven  wickets from the 11 matches he got to play.
 
The team goes as the most underrated team in the Champions League, considering the star filled opposite line-up like Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians and Anil Kumble’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. Guyana goes into the  tournament as a team with  the  least number of international experiences, except few like  skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan.
 
But names and big opponents never mattered to the type of calypso cricket the Caribbean nations has often displayed in the past.
 
In an amazing series on Story of Cricket (IV), done by BBC on West Indies cricket, one of the doyens of the game Clive Lloyd is quoted as saying: “Cricket is the glue which keeps us together. For over 75 years, we've done extremely well for just five million people."
 
Sir Clive Lloyd may have had referred to the population back home, but the legend definitely was being modest enough for discounting the ecstasy, pleasure and thrill the Caribbean gave to the true followers of cricket.
 
If history is a slightest testimony, fans world-wide should be rest assured that the land which has produced greats like Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Roger Harper, Carl Hooper and many more would bring with them the calypso beat which can be ignored only at own peril.

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