Followers of domestic leagues around the world will doubtless enjoy their exploits for years to come, but for those who prefer their West Indian cricketers decked out in whites or maroon, Sunday’s World Twenty20 final could represent the last time being able to watch a number of their leading names in international cricket.
With the short-form tournament switching to a quadrennial event in future, the next will be in Australia in 2020, and West Indies failing to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy, the 2019 World Cup in England will be the first possible opportunity, after Sunday, for a Caribbean assault on a global title.
For up to five of the elders in a popular and talented team, one that has scaled the summit of the shortest format and could become the first to win the World Twenty20 twice, this three-year gap could make it a tournament too far. None were given central contracts by the West Indies Cricket Board in January and a changing of the guard appears on the cards.
Among them is their captain, Darren Sammy, who identified this before the dramatic seven-wicket semi-final victory against India on Thursday that booked their meeting with England at Eden Gardens. The 32-year-old pointed to his age and that of their star batsman Chris Gayle, 36, when agreeing that the current campaign could be seen as a last hurrah for the pair of them at least.
Sammy, who held the trophy aloft in Colombo four years ago, has been a passionate and popular all-rounder for his region. However, he and the board fell out over terms of remuneration before this tournament – a situation he claims has brought the squad closer together – and given that he already picks up better-paid, less fractious Twenty20 work around the world, a separation of ways looks on the horizon.
The leg-spinner, Samuel Badree, and the slow left-armer, Sulieman Benn, are 34 and similarly without international deals – the former in spite of his status as the world’s No1-ranked T20 bowler – although the nature of their trade means international retirement is not a certainty.
There is, however, every chance the all-rounder and Twenty20 freelancer Dwayne Bravo, 32, will see little value in continuing for a board he has continuously rucked with over his 12-year international career and one that 12 months ago left him out of the 50-over World Cup, muttering something about blooding youth when the truth seemed more linked to an aborted tour of India under his captaincy.
Bravo, the go-to man for West Indies at the death in Twenty20 due to his armoury of slower balls, is the man responsible for the song Champion, an earworm of a Soca anthem that has been the soundtrack to the team’s march to the final and their post-match celebrations, the lyrics of which name-check various sporting heroes, including himself and Gayle.
Of those possibly bowing out, it is the latter whose mark has been most significant and if Twenty20 wound up being the format of choice for the self-styled Universe Boss – and one he will continue to pursue domestically, back injury permitting – Gayle will be able to look back on a West Indies career where all three were mastered.
In Tests, where he recently stated a desire to return despite a two-year absence blamed on fitness issues, he is one of four batsman to score two triple centuries; the 333 on the back of his domestic shirts is a nod to his best, an 11-hour epic against Sri Lanka six years ago. Only six cricketers boast more than the 22 hundreds scored in his ODI career, which seemingly stopped after the 2015 World Cup. The left-hander’s excellence has felt somewhat on loan to the West Indies in recent years, however, with 2014 the only year during the current decade when he has signed a central contract.
Gayle has instead preferred to roam the earth playing for 14 Twenty20 sides in nine countries – Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Jamaica, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe – with the bank balance and the runs spinning like wheels on a fruit machine.
The numbers are little short of phenomenal, with his 8,835 runs in the format nearly 2,000 more than the next man. Averages may be a slightly passé measurement in T20, but his 43.3 is the highest of the 30 cricketers with more than 4,500 career runs, while he is the only batsman to have cleared the boundary rope more than 400 times, his tally of sixes currently sitting at 637.
The Jamaican’s larger-than-life character has sometimes polarised opinions – propositioning a female journalist on live television during last season’s Australian Big Bash League caused an almighty Gayle storm and puts his return next winter in doubt – yet there is no questioning his status as the most dangerous Twenty20 batsman around, even if the international charts currently have him sixth.
He sits now, going into Sunday’s final, akin to a dormant super volcano, having scored nine runs in two innings since his unbeaten 100 against England in their group opener in Mumbai just over a fortnight ago, a knock of 14 strolled singles, five fours and 11 sixes, carved between long-off and square-leg, with Eoin Morgan’s bowlers having no answer.
We wait to discover whether Sunday’s showpiece decider will see Mount Gayle erupt once more, in what could prove to be the final international appearance for a group of hugely significant West Indies cricketers.