Shamar Joseph – His Future In West Indies Cricket

Jan 30, 2024 Sports

---

By Colin E. H. Croft

Kaieteur Sports – Everyone in the cricketing world, especially in Guyana, particularly in Baracara, Upper Canje River, Berbice, more than 250 miles south-south-east of Georgetown, and former West Indies cricketers everywhere, plus the rest of the diaspora of Guyana and the Caribbean, are so excited, celebrating the magnificent cricketing success of Shamar Joseph, the newest fast bowling prodigy of Guyana’s and WI’s cricket firmament.

Long may Shamar Joseph’s efforts, fitness, focus, bravery, understanding and success be present.  Not since Guyanese Reon King, whose Test debut was against South Africa at Centurion, SA in 1999, or Jamaican Franklyn Rose, whose Test debut was against India at Sabina Park, Jamaica in 1997, and, more recently, Alzarri Joseph of Antigua & Barbuda, whose Test debut was against India at Gros Islet, St. Lucia in 2016, has a young fast bowler tantalized the cricketing appetites like Shamar Joseph is doing now.

Shamar Joseph is a naturally loose, electrifying, brilliantly fit, properly fed with real, natural “country” foods, and fabulously focused fast bowler nurtured on hard work.  Like great world heavyweight boxing champions “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali, “Big” George Foreman and “Iron” Mike Tyson, Shamar Joseph’s efforts at regularly felling trees helped his shoulder strength, core elasticity and overall fitness.

While those boxers may have chosen that strength training for their ring welfare, Shamar Joseph used his natural surroundings and efforts to assist his father at logging in order to feed his family and relatives.  Sometimes we do not even know how beneficial what is happening at any time can really be to any of us.

Remember that word “Biomechanics”?  Every “country” boy or girl crossed trenches, wider creeks and even rivers too, balancing on felled coconut trees and floating logs, or swinging on ropes and tree branches, in our youth, in Guyana, in the 1960s and 1970s.  Some of us learned to swim after falling into those trenches, some forty (40) feet wide, some populated with alligators and piranha fish.  Little did we know that our many sojourns would be described by afancy practice called“Biomechanics”!

What a find is Shamar Joseph.  Credit must go to my former WI team-mate, the Most Honorable Desmond Haynes, WI’s Chairman of Selectors.  He did suggest to me, in Antigua & Barbuda for 2023’s regional tournament, that he had been impressed by “your Guyanese boy” Shamar Joseph, when he played for Guyana’s “Harpy Eagles”. Thank you, the Most Honorable Dessie.

Shamar Joseph’s determination, enthusiasm, superb fitness, and unbounded energy shone through in Australia, despite being latterly handicapped by a serious toe injury.  Along with his WI vice-captain, fellow fast bowler, namesake Alzarri Joseph, now a veteran with 32 Tests and 92 Test wickets, these two could galvanize this young West Indies squad to unbelievable, at this time unimaginable, heights.

Mr. Richard “Ricky” Skerritt, former Cricket West Indies President, reminded me, immediately on WI beating Australia for the first time in Australia since 1997, that Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph could be the next Sir Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, almost reincarnated, to become the best fast bowling pair in the world, since the two “Josephs” are the newer leaders of the present WI fast bowling pack.

Mr. Skerritt suggested:  “No-one that I know seriously expected West Indies to win a Test match in Australia any time soon.  I would have been happy with the team just showing some skills and plenty of pride.  That is what makes this 2^ndTest match victory easily the most impressive Test cricket win of the 21^st century.”

I fully agree. I was optimistic but expected nothing like what transpired.  He re-educated me into realizing that Shamar Joseph’s spell of 7 – 68, from 11.5 consecutive overs, was the best WI return since Sir Curtly’s 7 – 25, from 18 overs, in which Sir Curtly actually got those 7 wickets while conceding only one further run, (off 32 deliveries), in 1992/93 at Perth, Western Australia.  Both were brilliant fast bowling spells!

Ironically, Shamar Joseph had replaced the venerable Jason Holder, who was absent from Australia.  If Shamar Joseph listens to the voices of that brilliant servant to WI cricket, Kemar Roach, plus his vice-captain Alzarri Joseph, and, when he returns to the fold, Jason Holder, players that Shamar Joseph should now trust, then he will learn much about fast bowling.

Shamar Joseph has become an instant cricketing superstar in these two Tests versus Australia.  Therefore, many entities, friendly and dangerous too, will come out of the woodwork now, vying for his cricketing and adjunct services.  Only Shamar Joseph himself can decide what he really wants from cricket and how he will go about achieving those goals.  However, if he continues well, without any severe ‘natural’ injuries, calypsos and credits will be written about him for many years to come.

His thirteen (13) wickets, in his first two Tests ever, compares well to my sixteen (16) wickets in my first two Test matches ever, against Pakistan in 1976/77, making Shamar Joseph easily the best, seriously unknown (this guy never played “Youth”/“Under 19” cricket) fast bowling find of the last 25 years anywhere, even on par there with India’s own present fast bowling maestro, Jasprit Bumrah.  Said one observer drolly; “Shamar Joseph is the best thing that has been discovered in Guyana since its oil!”

For Australia v WI 2023/24 series, Shamar Joseph had only five First Class games total, but he has shown, like many in the past, that he is fearless. That too compares well with me, who had six First Class games before my First Test, but his experience is behind the great Michael Holding’s, who had just four First Class games before his first Test, also against Australia 1975/76, and on par with another great former WI fast bowler, Joel Garner, who had five First Class games before his first Test, with me, against Pakistan 1976/77.

I did manage 125 Test wickets in my 27 Tests, but if Shamar Joseph even comes close to being what Michael Holding, who had only four (4) wickets after his first two Tests but ending up with 249 Test wickets from 60 Tests, or what Joel Garner, who had ten (10) wickets in his first two Tests, ending up with 259 wickets from 58 Tests, were as fast bowlers, and cricket thinkers too, then Shamar Joseph will eventually be considered a WI “Great” fast bowler in the future too.

Only time will tell, but what a tremendous talent Shamar Joseph has been so far. He is a real throw-back to those heady days of one of MY best WI and World fast bowlers EVER, that uber-leader and pioneer of WI’s massively successful barrage of fast bowlers over the ages, Sir Wesley Winfield Hall.

I have been very fortunate to witness Test cricket since first seeing Sir Wes, Sir Charlie Griffith, Sir Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai and Lance Gibbs demolish Australia at Bourda, Georgetown, in April 1965.  Since then, I have witnessed, mostly in person, 250 plus Test matches around the world, except for Bangladesh.

Shamar Joseph has unbelievable enthusiasm and determination, as did Sir Wes. Like my BEST WI fast bowler EVER, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Shamar Joseph always looks, as the Japanese suggest, “happy in his work” on the cricket field, even if Sir Curtly always looked more like Clint Eastwood exterminating ‘vermin’, than Sean Connery eliminating the opposition with a disarming smile.  Who knows?  In time, Shamar Joseph could be:”Joseph….   Shamar Joseph” ala “Bond….. James Bond”. Maybe he is already there!!

Shamar Joseph’s efforts in that 2nd innings of Test No 2, with that obvious toe injury, have made him into a brave “Young Legend” in his first Test series. The last time that I saw such a young, raw brilliant, talented fast bowler, was Trinidad & Tobago’s Ian Bishop, whom I first saw bowl in September 1989.  Had he not suffered serious injuries, Bishop would have been the Caribbean’s best fast bowler ever.

That is Shamar Joseph’s greatest worry right now.  With many cricket games around, of all types and lengths, temptations all, and his now obvious visibility, Shamar Joseph will have to understand, appreciate and decide what and where he wants to be in cricket.  Fortunately, with nutritionists, exercise therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, etc., and much technology around, including assistance from Artificial Intelligence (AI), becoming fit and staying fit, while always difficult, are also ‘team’ efforts.

For now, Shamar Joseph deserves all accolades afforded him; “Man of the Match –  Test No 2” and “Player of the Series – Australia v West Indies 2023/24”.    Luckily for him and WI cricket, West Indies does not have another Test series until July 2024, when WI will play Tests versus England at Lord’s, Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, so he will have time to recuperate from his toe injury and to appreciate being appreciated.

If fully fit, Shamar Joseph could be very special for WI cricket for the next ten years.  We all hope that there is much more to come from him. Only time will tell! Enjoy!

---

• Baracara, Colin E. H. Croft, Shamar Joseph, Upper Canje River, West Indies cricket

---