London
Civil war, not for the first time, was engulfing Caribbean cricket. A few days before their home series against Bangladesh in 2009, every member of the West Indies squad went on strike. A motley group of replacements then suffered the ignominy of a 2-0 loss to a Bangladesh side that had only won one previous Test. Their wins came on slow, turning wickets that embodied how the West Indies had not only lost their competitiveness, but also the character that once defined their cricket.
Amid the debris, the West Indies stumbled upon one gift that they scarcely deserved. His name was Kemar Roach, a 21-year-old from Barbados who was both unusually short and unusually quick. The 13 wickets that he took over those two Tests, defying pitches that could have been designed to emasculate him, amounted to the most minuscule consolation. Yet they would mark the start of Roach’s journey to becoming just the ninth West Indies player to 200 Test wickets.
For all their woes in the 2000s, the West Indies could still produce express pace bowlers: at their best, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor and, briefly, Jermaine Lawson could all bring to mind the quick bowling greats of yore. Yet by the time Roach emerged, this trio had either departed the international scene or were down on pace and venom. As Caribbean pitches increasingly favoured spin, it fell to Roach to keep the flame of Caribbean pace bowling alive: at home, he was often the sole bowler much above 80mph.
The first iteration of Roach was visceral and always compelling: “Speed was my adrenaline,” he later reflected. Economy was sacrificed at the altar of aggression. His 90mph bouncers could leak runs, but they could also dismiss – and hit – the best batsmen in the world. In Australia in 2009, Roach snared Ricky Ponting three times in five innings; a brutal lifter at the Waca thudded into Ponting’s elbow, compelling him to retire hurt for the first and only time in his Test career.
This thrilling iteration lasted as long as Roach’s body allowed. In 2014, he was involved in a serious car crash half a mile away from the 3Ws Oval in Barbados. A few months either side, he suffered shoulder and then ankle injuries on tours, denting his pace.—AFP
