You could hear the sigh of relief from Australia here in Joburg this week.
It was the announcement of the West Indian cricket team to tour Down Under later this month.
James Sutherland, who runs cricket in that neck of the woods, was gushing in his relief.
“I’m sure they’ll put up a really good performance.”
“I think they’ll have a renewed spirit.”
“It’s a summer of cricket that we’re really looking forward to.” (Were there others he didn’t look forward to?)
“What we can look forward to now is a fantastic atmosphere at matches.”
The reason for all this relief was that the top players are back. Almost all of them. Daren Ganga is still not there, and neither is Keiron Pollard.
But Sutherland is relieved that it is not the same Windies team that lost to Bangladesh.
Reinstated captain Chris Gayle is among a host of the team’s best players who sat out recent matches over a contract dispute, but have been included in the 15-man squad.
Only four players in the 15 made themselves available during the strike action – allrounder Darren Sammy, batsman Travis Dowlin and fast bowlers Kemar Roach and Gavin Tonge.
Jerome Taylor returns to lead the bowling, with star batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan and allrounder Dwayne Bravo also back after the stand-off.
But Fidel Edwards is still carrying an injury he picked up in the Champion’s League.

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