Cricket laments Windies' fall from grace

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson said after fighting his last professional bout and losing to Kevin McBride a decade ago: "I don't have the ferocity anymore."

The "baddest" man on the planet retired a wimp that wouldn't return to the ring for the seventh round, conceding a meaningless bout to a fighter that didn't even deserve to be in the company of boxing royalty.

The West Indies that lost to the Proteas by an innings and 220 runs yesterday were not too dissimilar to Tyson, but they do not have the option to quit.

Spectators were still dragging their cooler boxes into SuperSport Park, expecting a full day's tan in picture perfect sunshine, when Dale Steyn took six wickets with the ferocious bowling display for which the Windies were once known.

What used to be an intimidating Windies test team is now just a collection of players who barely manage to rotate their arms and release a cricket ball in the general direction of the stumps. They call it bowling.

Their fall from imperious heights is the most talked about part of their history, surpassing the story of one of the greatest teams sport has ever seen.

The Windies of between the 1970s and 1990s had the "baddest" players in test cricket. Their batsmen had the stardust of Denzel Washington and their bowlers the terror of Tyson.

The scariest bouncer came from giants called Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall, who had charming Caribbean accents and carefree attitudes. Not from a freakishly moustachioed Aussie from Townsville named Mitchell Johnson.

Their run-ups started from the parking lot and they released the ball from somewhere above the clouds. They aimed at the rib cage, the chin and the bridge of the nose, unlike our benevolent visitors, who aimed at the meat of Hashim Amla's bat.

The biggest aberration came when their most physically imposing player was a spinner, Sulieman Benn. He is a towering skyscraper and has pine trees for legs. They are resources grossly ill-spent, considering the rich bowling blood that runs through his veins.

Spare a thought for Holding, who, as punishment for choosing a career in broadcasting, is forced to watch defeats like these after a glittering playing career. Imagine how Alex Ferguson felt when successor David Moyes tore down the Manchester United dynasty and multiply that by a hundred.

To the Proteas' credit, they brought their best to the contest, even if the favour wasn't returned. From the moment captain fabulous Amla crafted his double century to AB de Villiers and Stiaan van Zyl's tons, SA played like the best test team in the world that they are.

If the Proteas batsmen don't get you, the bowlers will, as Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel showed on days three and four. There was nowhere to hide for the West Indies in Centurion.

We are partly to blame for what we saw in the first test. Maybe it is time we stopped holding the Windies to the achievements of their fathers and treat them as what they are now: trust-fund babies who have blown their inheritance.

SA better enjoy these years because when the West Indies find themselves, God help us!