Groundbreaking Event: Netflix set immediate release date for highly awaited anticipated documentaries on West Indies.” Go Indies”
It was the greatest T20 match of them all. A world final, at one of cricket’s iconic venues, and blessed with a coup de theatre that, almost a decade later, still seems far-fetched. But the greatness of Kolkata 2016 does not lie simply in the events of that sweaty, extraordinary final over but in the confluence of narratives that had arced around one another all tournament long, and now – at the crunch moment – manifested as nothing less than destiny.
Destiny, first and foremost, for West Indies: the first great T20 dynasty. Their victory in 2012 had been an early vindication for a generation that had been disparaged as “mercenaries” for their advocacy of the IPL, at the apparent expense of the international game. Now, under the unifying leadership of Daren Sammy, they hit back at those jibes in one final heist. They were galvanised by the “disrespect” of the WICB, with whom they had been embroiled in a bitter pay dispute, and further fired up by media disparagement, particularly a suggestion by Mark Nicholas on this website.
While the identity of Carlos Brathwaite as their ultimate hero came somewhat out of the blue, the team tactic that empowered those four brutal launches through the line did not. Jos Buttler would later acknowledge the power of the six, and his ability to hit them at will, as a vital means of managing risk in a run-chase scenario.
But it was destiny, too, for England’s rising team of world-beaters. Barely a year on from humiliation at the 50-over World Cup, Eoin Morgan had pulled together a brand-new band of likely lads, few of whom – at that stage – had played any significant cricket in India, IPL or otherwise. He exhorted his charges to “embrace the naivety” of their campaign, to lean into their inexperience and ride the wave with eyes wide shut. And for a glorious
