‘Wimbledon’ at Sabina Park

This time around, the buzz around Sabina Park is about this being a green, bowl-first surface. This is what the team has asked, they say. A few days ago, chief curator Michael Hylton told local newspaper Jamaican Gleaner that he’s grooming a Wimbledon-like grass court. “When everyone gets here on August 30, I want them to believe that they are at Wimbledon on the first morning — green, green, green … . That’s what I want them to see, and the team that executes the two disciplines well will get the desired result,” he had said.

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If the way their batsmen folded up on the fourth day on a placid surface in Antigua, and the fire the Indian seamers spewed, is any indication, a green track could easily backfire, posing a considerable dilemma for the ground-staff. It could just play into the hands of Jasprit Bumrah and Co, and the Test match might not even last as long as it did in Antigua. But in their darkest of days, it’s the tinge of green that gives West Indies the slightest ray of hope. It was the idea in Antigua as well, though the assistance was negligible beyond the first day.

Ironically, the Indian seamers seem more equipped to kick up nostalgia at Sabina Park. Back in the day, the venue had a reputation of offering a ferocious pitch and hostile atmosphere for any visiting team. The stands thronged with reggae and rum, the whiff of marijuana flitting in the breeze.

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The spectators — many from the neighbouring Trench Town, one of the roughest areas in the country — made the players feel as though they were performing in a coliseum. They no longer flock the arena as they once used to. In years gone by, the atmosphere was elevated by staggering, if at times, chilling performances from Jamaica’s famous sons — some of the quickest fast bowlers the world had ever beheld. Michael Holding slithering down the slope, scything through batting line-ups like a hot knife through butter, or Patrick Patterson, bow-legged and rumbling up the hill, pounding the crease like a heavy truck, or Courtney Walsh steaming against the wind, blowing techniques and temperament up. A lonely stroll across the pitch will stir memories and stories, exaggerated by each retelling down the years. Sabina has seen it all — blood, sweat, tears, toil, joy, jubilation, riots and ignominy, a full cycle of life and emotions like any other octogenarian.

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Jamaican cricket had other heroes, batsmen from George Headley and Frank Worrell to Lawrence Rowe and Chris Gayle, but here it was all about the bowlers; they’re the immortals of Sabina. Talk to any old-timer, and he will rattle out stories of how Holding detonated the Australians, or Patterson snuffed out the hapless English batsmen or how Walsh outwitted the South Africans. “No one beating us here then. No one dared to,” says Malcolm Junior, a 65-year-old member of the ground-staff.

It’s not a empty boast — for 32 years, from 1958 to 1990, West Indies were invincible at the Sabina, a string of 18 Tests matches. To beat West Indies at their peak in Sabina was the equivalent of beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon in the aughts or Rafael Nadal at the French Open anytime. Rivals (often batsmen) left with bruised bodies and battered pride. “I heard, England once had a dentist in their (support staff). Almost every broke their teeth,” quips Junior, revealing his sparkling white teeth.

Chances are that it will be the present-day West Indies team that might need a dentist in their support staff, with Bumrah bowling the way he did at Antigua. And considering their batting’s weakness, the best formula for the West Indies to square the series is for their bowlers to outdo their Indian counterparts. They no longer have the Holdings or Pattersons or Walshes, but they’ve the guileful Kemar Roach, the rumbustious Shannon Gabriel, the resourceful Jason Holder, and Keemo Paul, the last of them coming into the squad for Miguel Cummins. As they demonstrated against England and on the first day in Antigua, they can harass batsmen in favourable conditions.

The grass, though, could be trimmed on the morning of the match, or it could be there to bind the surface together as Kingston is enduring a torrid summer, the hottest in five years. Agreed Hylton: “I specifically requested that we maintain the heavy grass on the surface as this will help to bind the wicket together. I want to have a 60-40 percentage balance on this strip in favour of the batters; however, it will offer a lot of assistance to the bowlers as well.”

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Whether it would be a flyer or swinger or a belter, all Hylton wouldn’t want is a repeat of the 1998 fiasco against England when the Test was abandoned after 10 overs. Holding, a proud Jamaican, was devastated that this should take place on his home ground. He called it the most embarrassing moment of his cricket career. “I’ve never seen a pitch as dangerous as that. The people responsible should be brought to task. This pitch isn’t fit for Test cricket or even club cricket for that matter. It’s completely substandard,” he had said.

“It’s been 30 years since that happened, but whenever we walk out to prepare the pitch, we think of that shameful day. All we are trying to do is to recreate the old glory, to make it what it once was,” says Junior.

Ageing though the Sabina might be, it’s not an empty and echoing concrete structure bereft of life and soul, like the Vivian Richards Stadium. All it needs is perhaps a lick of paint, like the West Indies team if they’re to restore some pride, for themselves and the grand old Sabina, in the series.