Only the most attentive cricket fans will not be able to hear the ominous cacophony that surrounded Test cricket last month. First Jason Holder’s bells ringing: “Test cricket will die if we keep going this way.” The former West Indies skipper was close at the same time on the sidelines of the ILT20 in the UAE last week some In the current two-Test series, most of their compatriots are struggling against Australia.
It’s not just the players who are sounding the alarm. Marylebone Cricket Club has announced plans to hold a cricket symposium to discuss the numerous challenges facing the global game. For some, the sound of the guillotine being lifted above the Test cricket’s head is drowned out only by the hollow clatter of the ICC’s empty knitting needles next to the blade.
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But there are also quiet notes of hope. The game somehow finds a way. Ultimately, Shamar found Joseph. Just after tea at the sun-drenched Adelaide Oval on day one, the 24-year-old fast bowler became the 23rd player in Test history to take a wicket with his first ball. This was one of those transcendent moments. The sight of the bowler gliding to land the ball on the handkerchief-sized spot outside off stump, with enough pace to draw the eagle-eyed Steve Smith into the strike and enough movement to see the edge taken before Smith could pull his shot back, was one to savor over time. Safely caught for the third time by fellow debutant Justin Greaves, Joseph then broke free to celebrate, his limbs moving like pistons as he headed out of the field, his team-mates sprinting and scrambling to catch up.
Joseph’s journey so far on the green grass of the Adelaide Oval is almost unconvincing. Here is a boy from the small remote village of Baracara in deepest Guyana; Its population of about 350 people was isolated from most of the world until five years ago when mobile and internet coverage arrived. As a child, Joseph saw some footage of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh doing their thing on black and white television, and it changed his life.
Not right away, of course, but the game had taken hold of him. Anyone who has tossed an apple at themselves from a fruit bowl and imagined themselves holding a skier at the SCG or flipping a nectarine from one hand to the other, on top of their goal, Shane Warne style, will understand what happens next. . Joseph was bowling with everything he could get his hands on. At first these were lemons, limes and guava, later they became special games with a ball made of tightly wound tape.
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But with the onset of adulthood, real life intervened. A near escape while working for a local logging company led him to move from his hometown.
“The only way to make a living in Baracara was by chopping trees,” Joseph told Cricbuzz’s Bharat Sundaresan before the start of the Adelaide Test. “One day a tree fell and narrowly hit me as I was coming down… It was a very narrow escape. At that moment, as my life flashed before my eyes, I said I couldn’t do this anymore. I had to move.”
A 200km journey down the Canje River took him to the regional capital, New Amsterdam, where Joseph worked as a security guard to support his young family. By sheer coincidence, the house next door belonged to West Indian white-ball specialist Romario Shepherd. He was then introduced to Guyana head coach Esuan Crandon and things started to improve quickly. Joseph met Ambrose at a regional fast bowling clinic and impressed him; Here he got a proper cricket ball for the first time. Just 11 months ago he played his first cricket match (at any level) for Guyana.
More regular wickets followed in eight professional matches before Joseph found himself on the plane to Australia. His Test debut featured not only Smith’s indelible first-ball wicket but also his skilful five-wicket haul and eye-catching innings of 36 with the bat at No.11. He looks confident of starting when the second Test begins in Brisbane today.
“You gotta put yourself on the line,” Smith joked to him after the game. “I’m a fan, I really like you, man,” Joseph replied, the debutant less than respectful — an hour earlier, the rookie had called Smith over to tie his shoelaces, taking offense at being in full batting gear. Smith duly chuckled back.
There is no doubt that Test cricket faces many challenges today and in the near future, just as it has faced and struggled in the past. Who knows where Joseph’s journey in cricket will take him as he takes his first international steps in an uncertain environment. But for now her moment and that’s enough. “I will remember this day for the rest of my life,” he said at the close of the first day.
But the game itself, with its ability to reach the farthest places, its power to tap into something fundamental, its capacity to inspire dreams and allow them to (sometimes) become reality, is sure to endure.