A platform for flight

For as many people who saw the ICC Champions Trophy victory as evidence of a critical turnaround for the West Indies, there were an equal number who thought it was another painful flash in the pan. The invitation to treat it as a new beginning has its allure in the team's remarkably improved performance right through the tournament. For the first time in years, the melding of fielding, bowling and batting represented the concept of teamwork at its finest.

The question dogging the sceptics, then, is whether something sustainable, coherent and structured has emerged. In other words, is this a platform for flight or a diving board?

The selection of this team offered something different in that there was a return to the traditionally proportionate blend of youth and experience. While it was striking that older players, such as Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw, were not the ones with greater international experience, Brian Lara did have a couple more mature heads to count on than usual.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has evolved into the batsman who can be rock and rocket, despite his unnerving fidgetiness. Someone who had seen the half-piece of a corrugated village ground on which the young Chanderpaul learned the game offered an interesting explanation: a batsman was bound to be able to weather anything after exposure to that uninviting and dangerous topography, and his cricket would be an act of basic survival.

With Chris Gayle continuing to unfold powerfully and Ramnaresh Sarwan getting a better grip on his talent, there was even room to savour the rawness of Ricardo Powell's singleminded desire to give every spectator a catch.

Yet it was the delightful promise of young Dwayne Bravo that caught the eye. His character holds some answers to the future of West Indian cricket. He is young and has little international experience. He is enthusiastic, cheerful and eager to learn. Most importantly, it is clear he is a clever cricketer. He has the ability to read the game and to adjust to suit. He understands the impact of subtlety, and his bowling has nuances that reflect an analytical mind. In Bravo resides the future, if recognised and nurtured. So inexperience and youth per se are not excuses for inconsistent performance.

Not many are as naturally cognitive as Bravo, and therefore, training programmes ought to focus on the development of analytical skills. It is all about educating the player.

Look again at Browne and Bradshaw. Both have captained Barbados. Browne had previously kept wicket for West Indies while Bradshaw had lead the West Indian Under-19 side. They saved the match on that nerve-wracking final day when all the good work of the English innings had already come undone, and at 147 for 8, the familiar sickening spectacle was being played out again.

They brought to the wicket their own culture of winning - the Barbados team has topped all the regional competitions in recent years - and this was fortified by cool heads which had seen off enough difficult situations to understand the need for a strategy that they would stick to.

But they also brought the qualities exhibited in its youthful stage by Bravo: thinking minds. Minds schooled not only in cricket, but refined in academics as they are both graduates of higher education. The result is developed individuals, able to comprehend a situation and make intelligent decisions. To see beyond the next ball.

Seeing off Harmison was Step One of their plan, and then under the darkening gloom, Step Two was simply to see the ball. They brought composure, patience and self-belief to that crucial stage of the game, maintaining the momentum and inching West Indies closer to the target, until hope began to flutter about the ground again. And as hope soared in that last, breathless over, from bended knee to boundary, they brought grace and style.