 "Shamar Joseph")
"I'm not putting down this ball until the last wicket falls," is what West Indies' Shamar Joseph told his captain Kraigg Brathwaite when he came on to bowl on Day 4 of the Pink Ball Test at Gabba, Brisbane, against Australia. He certainly did not put that ball down until the last Aussie batter was out as the 24-year-old from Guyana lifted the team from the Caribbean to their first-ever win on Australian soil in the 21st century.
It was in 1997 when the West Indies last won a Test in Australia at the WACA ground in Perth. Everyone talked about Shamar after the Test ended as there were tears in the eyes of West Indian great Brian Lara in the commentary box. Since then, everyone has continued talking about the man from Guyana.
What did Shamar Joseph do to earn such praise?
Fortress Gabba breached again!
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 28, 2024
It was all thanks to the new toast of the cricket world, #ShamarJoseph!
In only his 2nd Test, he delivered his country's most important spell in recent time!
Don't miss #AUSvWI 1st ODI
FRI FEB 2, 9 AM onwards LIVE | Star Sports Network#Cricket pic.twitter.com/ZDRMb5FCcI
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The fortress of Gabba was breached for the second time as West Indies became the only visiting team after India to win a Test at this ground in the last 35 years. More incredible was the fact that this West Indian side, which was written off even before the tour began, became the first team to beat Australia in Australia in a Pink ball Test.
However, that victory could not have come without Shamar, who himself was down and out on the third day's play as a toe-crushing yorker from Mitchell Starc ruled him out from playing further on that day.
However, he came back on Day 4 when Australia were cruising at 113/2 and needed just 103 more runs to win the match. "A patched-up and painkiller-laden Shamar comes on from the Vulture Street End," wrote Espncricinfo about the defining moment that would change the game in Gabba.
He bowled out Cameron Green and then uprooted the timber behind the centurion from the last game, Travis Head. All of a sudden, there was belief in the West Indies camp, and it was all the doing of the man who embodied the fight that the group in maroon caps stood for, which was later revealed by Brathwaite.
From belief to victory
Brathwaite, in the post-match presentation, talked about former Aussie player Rodney Hogg, who termed his team' pathetic and hopeless'. Showing his muscles, Brathwaite said that they wanted to prove to Hogg that they were not what he said they were, "Are these muscles big enough for him?" The skipper asked, pointing to the camera.
However, all that would not have been accomplished without a certain Shamar, who got inspired from everything that he did in life to reach the cricket field and deliver at the most opportune moment in his short career.
Every angle, every call – how the broadcasters celebrated Shamar Joseph and the West Indies' historic Gabba win #AUSvWI pic.twitter.com/zainOcQ79C
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 28, 2024
Shamar removed Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey to boost the West Indian belief further. There was a Mitchell Strac-sized hiccup in the Windies' march to victory. Starc added 35 runs for the seventh wicket alongside Steve Smith, who was firm as cement at the other end. But Shamar worked up the bouncer and got rid of Starc by getting him caught at short-leg. Pat Cummins followed suit and it required the thinnest of nicks for Nathan Lyon to be removed.
Australia were nine down and needed 25 to win. Smith hit a six with a paddle sweep and added 10 more runs and all of a sudden, only nine runs were needed to get over the line.
Shamar came steaming in and cleaned up Hazlewood, and the entire West Indies team was off to catch him as he ran to the boundary ropes in celebration.
From Baracara to Brisbane: A journey to remember
"It was all about believing and making a lot of sacrifices to get here. Remembering what got you here, continuing the same and staying there. I just stick to my basics and take advice from the seniors," Shamar said in his post-match interview as he was named the Player of the Match for his bowling efforts and Player of the Series for picking 13 wickets and scoring 57 runs across the two Tests.
The beliefs and sacrifices that Shamar talked about are not as ordinary or easy as they seem while reading. Baracara, the village that Shamar comes from, got internet just six years ago in 2018 and is accessible to the rest of Guyana only by boat.
Shamar braved the wilderness, and from working as a logger in his village to being a construction worker in the nearest town of New Amsterdam, he moved from one place to another in search of a living.
It was in the city that taped- tennis ball cricket happened to him, and then one thing led to another, and Damion Vantull and Royston Crandon, former Guyanese cricketers, with the latter having represented West Indies in an ODI as well, pulled Shamar out of construction work and into the cricket field.
He would then move to Georgetown, the Guyanese capital and start playing with a leather ball. From finding out that an already established Guyana and West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd was his neighbour to meeting Curtly Ambrose in a fast bowling clinic to making his debut for Guyana in First-Class cricket, everything happened haphazardly in Shamar's career, but not as fastly as he rose to fame in Gabba.
Will Shamar's love for the red ball continue?
Will his love for red-ball cricket be finished once money comes rolling in white-ball T20 leagues? Shamar had an answer for it. "I will always be here to play Test cricket for the West Indies. I am not afraid to say this live. There will be times when T20 might come around, and Test cricket will be there … but I will always be available to play for the West Indies no matter how much money comes towards me," Shamar said in his post-match press conference after the Gabba Test.
