A week ago, thinking about what this week’s article would be about, I decided it’ll be about the final of the in augural Limacol CPL. At the time, I had no doubt it would’ve been an article celebrating our team, the Guyana Amazon Warriors bringing home the trophy. (The trophy itself, I’m not too enamoured about… but that’s another story!) But this is still a celebratory article – it’s just a celebration of something else. The LCPL and our Warriors have given us much to celebrate.
As a country, we can be proud of the way our team acquitted themselves during the entire tournament. They gave us so much to cheer about throughout the tournament so that we could hold our heads high with pride.
As a region, the Caribbean can be proud of the fact that we’ve pulled off such a major tournament flawlessly. The tournament has thrust so many young West Indian players into the limelight, where they can get the exposure and experience needed to flourish. It would be ludicrous for the WICB to not give players like Santokie a try-out on the West Indian team. This tournament was a welcome injection of life into West Indian cricket.
And it probably came at a perfect time as well, since the well-established players on the team still have some prime years left to play. That should give them enough time to pass on to the new players some of the skills and tips that their years of experience have taught them. Then we’ll have that sense of continuity in the team instead of having to construct a team of completely new players six years from now.
And while the tournament pits country against country with there being strong rivalry between competing countries, on another level it forces us to embrace players from other Caribbean countries as one of our own – the franchise system puts them on our team! I think I definitely cheered on Lendl Simmons as much as I cheered on Permaul.
Although I still can’t fathom the logic behind sending out the Trinidadians high up the order in the final instead of potentially more capable batsmen. But we got to put our countries on display. We got to broadcast our Caribbean culture to the world. We got several nights of good fun and some nerve-wracking nights – I was in Trinidad for the semis and final.
I still have my Guyana Amazon Warriors flag that I waved. I just might tack it onto my dorm room wall. It’s been a terrific tournament – I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every game. So let’s wave our flags, raise our glasses (with passion fruit juice!) and lift our voices to cheer on our boys for the good job they did at the inaugural LCPL. I’ll never forget that overwhelming sense of pride I felt at that first game at the Providence Stadium. It’s really something. It’s indescribable, seeing those cricketers in front of you. And you even get that feeling for the players of the opposing team. It’s when you see players like Chris Gayle on the field in front of you that you realise exactly how much they mean to you. It’s when you’re about to faint at the sight of Dwayne Bravo that you realise how much West Indian cricket and cricketers mean to you. So all hail the Limacol CPL! All hail the Guyana Amazon Warriors!
