KOLKATA: It's a typical Friday evening in the city. And typical means the streets of Kolkata are bustling with heavy traffic. The roads are jammed, the air with filled with the sound of multiple horns, contributing to the cacophony. Typical Friday evening sound.
On Saturday, West Indies, two-time champions, will be hoping to bring some noise of their own to a tournament they had dominated previously. Their opponents? Scotland, who till a few weeks ago, were in indoor training mode, completely oblivious of how the stars would align.
Bangladesh were supposed to play in their place, Kolkata being a natural choice for their opener because of the history as well as the geographical proximity. Their fans, and journalists were supposed to travel for the matches, cheering and reporting, respectively, for the team. The players also expressed their desire to play the World Cup as well, but none of it materialised. Their journalists may yet travel for the latter stages of the tournament, once the elections are over on February 12. But Bangladesh' pain is Scotland's gain, an unexpected manna from heaven.
As one enters the stadium, the mood is vibrant and energetic. For the European nation, the call-up came a little late, but they have quickly assembled as a group. Over the last two weeks, they have had to a lot of things including sort of sponsorship as well as a new kit.
Some players were just coming vacations post Christmas and New Year, their assistant coach Gordon Drummond was with the U19 team at the World Cup but things were put together quickly for they knew it was a chance they did not want to miss. “I think as an associate team, you're always feeling like you're trying to move forward all the time. There could be a case that you're always feeling like you have a point to prove. That's always there as a mentality. All of our competitions have qualifications for World Cups. We don't really play any bilateral games. All of our games have pressure on it to try and get to this top level, and our players are used to that. It's whether they can adapt quickly to the conditions and who they're playing, because we don't always get that regular chance to play against top players all the time,” Drummond said before adding that franchise leagues have helped players relax a little.
If Scotland were happy to grab the chance they have got with both hands, the West Indies are delighted to be back at the venue where they achieved global glory in 2016. Their coach, Darren Sammy, said as much as he walked into the press conference room where he addressed the media as a World Cup-winning captain ten years ago. Sammy reiterated that the West Indies are here in India to win the World Cup and not just compete.
Despite the lows of the last few years, Sammy remained hopeful that the current generation of cricketers would get to write their own piece of history. “There was a period between 2009 and 2016 where we really invented the game. Cycles come, and especially with us, the challenges that we face in keeping players, in developing players, whether it be facility-wise, whether it be systems that we have, we face a whole lot of challenges. But I'm not one to make mistakes. I dream for an era where we say we did this because of and not in spite of, but that's what we have,” Sammy said. “You can't talk about cricket and not talk about the West Indies. So, the maroon for me is still what makes me who I am today. It brings a lot of history, and that is what I try to instill in the guys. If you understand the history, if you know where you came from and what you've done, and you now understand that, you now have an opportunity to shape the next generation. And I told them in the huddle today, ‘create your own piece of history.'”
The road to that, for both teams, begins at Eden Gardens on Saturday.
