Shai Hope- The Man True To His Name And Unaffected By Hype-Loving, Cringe-Loving World
Hope's century steered WI to victory [X.Com]
The one thing Shai Hope does and he does quite a bit actually for his West Indies is score runs under pressure. Last evening he arrived at the wicket when the asking rate was already north of seven and was soaring since Keacy Carty, otherwise talented and capable, decided to keep mum when only the opposite would’ve helped his own cause and that of his captain’s.
But, well, never mind.
There’ll be those who’ll constantly get consumed by pressure; and there’ll be those who’ll turn the tables on it and revel amid the gloom.
Truth be told, it had already begun to get gloomy for the West Indies with King and Athanaze back in the dugout, though not before playing valiantly and giving the side a good foundation.
Athanaze must be lauded for his impressive fifty and the ability to make runs despite little experience at the international level. Ditto for Brandon who often plays like a King and so often eschews the joy of big scoring for reasons best known to him. But fortunately for the West Indies, lest it is forgotten, the hosts, Shai was there.
Which meant some Hope, at the very least, was there, literally speaking.
What followed thereafter was a century to savour
Frankly, an effort that in its efficacy and undertaking of rigour was no less important than Shai Hope’s glorious East London century that came thousands of miles away from any familiar Bajan turf in South Africa earlier this year.
To those of us who complain that Shai Hope is a talented, but a “slow” scoring one day bat, then it augurs well for grey cell recovery to note that Hope back then scored a vital 128 off 115 deliveries, including 7 sixes and 5 fours.
Not only did Shai stand and deliver as captain in a critical game, it was his first as West Indies’ one day format captain. A few months before, when the going got tough, which it often does for the West Indies national team, Shai Hope had scored a powerful hundred against an opponent no less mighty than India.
It was a century in his one hundredth international. But like many of his previous previous knocks, little was said by those who claim to cover “journalism” when their media bosses and TRP-chasing head-honchos chase sensationalism in the garb of cricket writing; “ethical” journalists for whom where Virushka partied carries more significance than a West Indian doing well in a sport where his team were once giants.
Nevertheless, whether one lauds Shai Diego Hope or doesn’t, won’t increase the price of fish in his own and also Sir Sobers’ Barbados, nor would it lessen the bank balance of publications that intentionally write grotty headlines.
Here’s a batsman who’s aware that if the team in the one day format has to find its rhythm again, then runs have to flow from his bat.
A rejuvenated Hope in the middle-order
Quite frankly, they’ve been flowing as we speak. Particularly harsh towards anything bowled short and inventive in his hitting abilities, that highlight of his batting that’s been on much evidence ever since he made crafty fifties at Lucknow a few years ago against Afghanistan, Shai Hope’s been the man on the job for the West Indies. And it seems he’s content being that way.
What else would the team want at a time where many of his colleagues- you know their names, you know who they are- are gladly flexing their muscle either in the Abu Dhabi T10 league or elsewhere where national representation can be avoided.
And why that has even happened, why that’s even the case with West Indies cricket, which should’ve had two of their former white ball captains in this England series is something that neither I, just a fan, can answer nor cerebral forces of the Caribbean such as Vernon Springer or Fazeer Mohammed.
But surely we know some of the reasons. The lack of runs. The sheer dubious decision making that’s been a trend of sorts, a regrettable one; all of which have perhaps created a climate of insecurity in the minds of talents whose hearts still beat for the West Indies.
As does Shai Hope’s, but obviously; had that not been the case, the often quiet and always gentlemanly right hander would never have accepted the captaincy of a team where bearing the responsibility to lead is often akin to willingly wearing a crown of thorns.
Had that not been the case then the Shai Hope we condemned in the past for being slow, which is when we were somewhere obsessed about T20-style hitting, won’t have toiled in practicing big hitting in 2023.
The very Hope we cared little about for faring lowly in the strike rate column, when he was being organised and cautious in run scoring since the beginning, note his 40-something against Zimbabwe in debut ODI (2016-17 season), today has come a long way.
How is that?
He was deemed too slow for one dayers for scoring in the mid seventies, an equivalent of a well above passing percentage as far as the laborious and mentally exhausting Indian schooling system’s grades are concerned.
A 75 out of 100 in your decisive 12th standard senior secondary school examination cannot fetch you admission in any top institute (college), which is when it is nowhere a terrible percentage.
This innings has changed the perception towards Hope
But today, things have changed; well, not in the demanding Indian landscape with which I’m making this rather strange comparison to, but speaking about Shai Hope’s batting.
His 2023 ODI strike rate prior to his latest one day century, the sixteenth of his career, was 96.
At the moment it reads 100.14.
To a world obsessed with numbers, a world that conveniently forgets achievements and overall impact if the glib factor isn’t well accounted for, on what grounds will Shai Hope’s critics further deride him?
Truth is, a world where only Root, Williamson, Virat and Smith are the lords, and they’re heroes, of that there’s little doubt, there’s a man called Shai Hope too.
One of the most conveniently ignored facts from the cricket calendar year 2019 was that Hope belted 1,345 runs in the one day format.
How many?
1,345.
Yet, to us, the overenthusiastic hype-loving minds that are less of minds and more of critics, the West Indian’s feat was considered far less staggering than the status it deserved. Why not? We had Virat with his usual dazzling feats to obsess about.
We had England, the World Cup winners of that year to talk about. And that was the right thing to do.
But we also had slimy headlines to care about that, in reality, care little and will likely care less about the actual game and more about cricketers’ personal lives.
You think this is gibberish?
Which other cricketing psyche would focus about Rishabh Pant’s private romantic life or the lack of it than a mild-mannered cricketer from Sir Wes Hall and Sobers’ land.
The tragedy, truth be told, and it is a tragedy, isn’t only that you, the reader whiles away precious time in consuming junk served cleverly by so-called journalists who have the audacity to call themselves one.
The real travesty of justice is when a Hope makes runs, as does a Rassie, Bavuma, Bracewell, Ishan Kishan, even then you stay glued to the hyped narrative that’s served to you, whether in the name of Dhoni, who’s retired, the “God” Sachin, or India’s much loved son called Virat Kohli.
Not that he shouldn’t be loved. When women’s cricket loses Meg Lanning to a retirement call that still has the actual fan-not fanboy- in shock, your attention, sorry TRP-catering mind is fed a diet so sugary and bloated with calories that you’re dumbed into thinking that the only thing that matters are Steve Smith or Virat Kohli, Joe Root or Kane Williamson and of course, there’s Babar too.
Not that these great batsmen mustn’t be given the love they deserve. But are they alone making runs? Does the world not have in it a batsman who gives hope to the entire Caribbean much like his name?
Well, the world will play its own way, Shai. You keep scoring and keep belting England. For that’s what your West Indies team wants and deserves. Though, am not too sure whether a certain Jos Buttler would agree to the thinking.
 "Dev Tyagi")
