It does not require much motivation to play in a World Cup final. Even so, on the eve of the match at Eden Gardens both captains, England’s Eoin Morgan and West Indies’ Darren Sammy, were keen to explain how much victory would mean to their respective sides.
For Morgan a win on Sunday would cap a remarkable year. “It would mean a huge amount,” he said. “I think about the strides that we’ve made in the last 12 months in white-ball cricket and this would be a great reward for the mindset we’ve shown, the dedication and the hard work.
“It’s quite a stark difference from 12 months ago and it’s hard to believe in some ways. I would never have imagined the turnaround being so immediate. It’s very exciting. I’m just very proud, very, very proud.”
There is no shortage of pride in the West Indian camp either. Sammy is a smiling, charismatic figure, who led West Indies to this trophy four years ago in Colombo. Before the semi‑final against the favourites, India, Sammy made reference to David and Goliath and he was not going to desert that theme.
“We are always David; David is a winner. Even now people don’t give us a chance. We will play like David and be smart.”
Sammy explained how his West Indies team has been brought closer together by provocative remarks from the outside – not quite on the Tony Greig grovel scale yet apparently very influential. They came from their own countrymen and, bizarrely, from a prominent Englishman.
“People just paint us as money-grabbing cricketers for our success in T20 cricket, yet still they don’t respect us in that format. So we get that sometimes from our own boards. I think the pre-tournament shenanigans [there was another pay dispute with their board] brought us closer together as a team.”
Then Sammy explained how his team had been stung by the observation in a preview of this tournament that “the West Indies are short of brains”. This prompted their coach, Phil Simmons, to tweet sarcastically after the victory over India: “Awesome display by this group of men with no brains, imagine if we had some”.
Sammy took up this theme. “How could you describe people that way?” he said. “Everybody’s got brains. Even animals have got brains. That particular comment really set it off for us. You see me getting emotional about somebody who I really respect. I have always had a good rapport with that particular journalist and to describe our team as guys with no brains is really out of order.”
The piece in question appeared on Cricinfo before the tournament and was written by Mark Nicholas, who now broadcasts for Channel 9 in Australia and Channel 5 in England. His preview of the tournament, which had eight paragraphs on India and the wonders of MS Dhoni and one sentence on Sammy’s side – “West Indies are short of brains but have IPL history in their ranks” – seems to have galvanised the World Cup finalists.
So Morgan and his team face determined, immensely powerful opposition with plenty of experience of Kolkata. “Every year nobody gives us a chance,” said Sammy. “All these things bring us closer together with the fact that some of us are getting old now. This could be the last time for a few of our key players.”
