The new age of calypso

Their era of domination is long gone but the mere presence of any West Indies cricket team still draws reverence in this part of the world. Past generations of Bangladeshi cricketers and the general public grew up admiring their infectious calypso style, and the likes of Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Malcolm Marshall all enjoyed more powerful idol status than the superstars of the subcontinent. To this day the Caribbean aura is something that sells without fail.

Their traditional daredevil strokeplay, their unpredictability and that happy-go-lucky spirit are irresistible attributes that continue to attract neutral followers of the game the world over. Even so, the crowd at the Bangabandhu National Stadium was nothing like as excitable as that which had flocked to watch what one of the newspapers headlined "Battle Asia", between India and Pakistan on Sunday. Tuesday's audience was more there in anticipation of a West Indian waltz against Captain Cook's Englishmen.

However, this generation was a very different West Indies side - not only in age but also in character. Six of the 11 names for the second semi-final were all of Indian descent. Normally people associate West Indies with tall, imposing dark athletes but here was a squad half of which could actually vanish into the Dhaka crowd without anyone noticing, because of their slender built and unmistakable subcontinental appearance.

West Indies and fast bowlers remain synonymous, although the quickest of this lot was the recent international debutant Ravi Rampaul; the rest were more in the decent seamer's mould, the kind you find in every English county side.

But it was certainly an West Indian in character, playing with traditional Caribbean flair mixed with a new-found maturity. It was also a game where Captain Cook's ship finally came unstuck in spectacular fashion after a smooth sail - the skipper was outwitted and outperformed by his opposite number Denesh Ramdin.

Cook has been one of the top batsmen of the World Cup. He was coming off two hundreds and an 87 in consecutive games of the Super League. Confidence-wise he should have been on cloud nine. Instead, he panicked and his apparent unflappable demeanor cracked under pressure from Ramdin, who had passed 50 only once in six previous innings, and whose average was hovering around the 20 mark.

West Indies opted to bat first, so England knew that they needed to bowl them out for something under 220 to have a realistic chance of chasing under lights, which most teams found a none-too-gratifying experience. And they certainly had their chances.

At 69 for 3, the Windies were in deep trouble but Ramdin and the bearded Assad Fudadin, who apparently hasn't shaved since reaching Bangladesh, fought back bravely. And then on 146 for 5, with 14 overs to go, Ramdin and Zamal Khan go berserk. Over 100 more runs were scored as Cook manned the inner circle when his fielders should have been marshalling the boundary.

When they came out to field, West Indians were on a roll. The crowd got behind them and Lendl Mark Platter Simmons, the gifted nephew of the former West Indies batsman Phil Simmons, reminded us why you can never get your eyes off him when he's on the field.

Simmons may have failed with the bat, but he more than made up for that. He made two crucial breakthroughs with his brisk medium pace, but saved his best antics for last. England had been running themselves out for fun in the closing overs, but it took something special to seal the match. A tip-and-run from Lawson, Simmons gathered at midwicket, fell backwards as he did so, but still offloaded the perfect shy at the non-striker's end. A perfect West Indian finish to a rollicking 94-run win.

So West Indies are into the final. Very few will support them against Pakistan on Friday as subcontinental kinship will take over from neutrality. But if they do go on to win the World Cup, not a soul would begrudge the success of this new generation of Caribbean charmers.