IPL’s Gangnam effect

Shamik Chakrabarty : Sun Oct 14 2012, 01:22 hrs

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Lack of consistency has been the bane of West Indies cricket. Now there's a silver lining in the cloud; the World T20 showed they have the batting firepower to decimate their opponents

So, West Indies did it Gangnam style and they are hungry for more. Standing on the World T20 platform, Marlon Samuels said, "Test cricket is the best cricket" and they wanted to use the T20 triumph as a platform for future success. Desire seems to be burning once again in Babylon.

It's too early to use the word revival. Lack of consistency has been the bane of West Indies cricket for the past two decades. Now there's just a silver lining in the cloud. West Indies were Sourav Ganguly's choice before the start of the tournament. People, including some small-time cricketers-turned-self styled experts, took a jibe at the former India captain for backing a team that didn't win anything since 2004. But Ganguly's logic was based on his experience at the IPL, where he saw the Caribbean stars from very close quarters.

So much has been said about the negative effects of the Indian Premier League. Just a couple of days after West Indies won the world event in Colombo, Carl Hooper took a dig at the IPL from faraway Australia, saying that it is "one of the biggest threats to cricket". Hooper reacted in haste, for the facts say otherwise. If he would have looked at it without prejudice Hooper might have admitted that the IPL played a big part in helping West Indies cricket come out of the rut. Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo—players who formed the bedrock of this success, have all benefited from their stint in the IPL. The cut-throat world of the Indian league taught them the importance of winning, which they brought into their national team. Killer instinct was lacking in the West Indies team. We saw a refreshing change in the World T20.

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