Once the shining stars, Man-U, West Indies and the spot they used to rule
There was a time when Manchester United were English football, and West Indies were the biggest team in cricket.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Agencies
There was a time when Manchester United were English football. Now Manchester United are not even Manchester football. They are Manchester’s other club. West Indies were the biggest team in cricket. Now they are slightly better than Lagaan XI in Tests.
This is how low both have sunk. United are number seven in the Premier League table at the time of writing. There still are many games to be played. And Anthony Martial has triggered hopes of a revival. Even then, seventh is unbecoming for the home of Bobby Charlton and George Best, of Busby’s Babes and Sir Alex and the Class of 92. And what completes the misery is the team on top of the table. They are the boys from across town - Manchester City – water turned into wine since a booster shot of sponsorship from the UAE. After Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi became the club’s owner in 2008, the club splashed on talent and infrastructure and won the league thrice, including last year.
This year too, City are frontrunners, along with Liverpool, according to former England striker Alan Shearer. He has ruled out Manchester United. Shearer feels top four is best case scenario for them.
In the Test cricket rankings, West Indies are at number eight. Once the intimidating Rocky Marcianos of the game, who did not lose a single Test series for 15 years, they folded up in under three days against India in Rajkot, to give one example. During this capitulation, they resembled a club side more than the elite level firing squad they used to be.
West Indies bowler Oshane Thomas celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Team India batsman Shikhar Dhawan(unseen) during 1st T20 match against India at Eden Garden in Kolkata. The reasons for United’s form this year have been well discussed. There is friction between Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba (the team’s Hardik Pandya, in personality terms). The defence is porous. After eleven games the team has conceded almost as many goals (18) as it has scored (19). City, on the other hand, have allowed only four to slip in. Then there is the gripe against the owners – they did not allow Mourinho the money to buy certain players for the club.
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More surprising is United’s long trophy drought in the two priority competitions – the Champions League and the Premier League. They last won the former in 2008, when Cristiano Ronaldo still had pimples. The league hasn’t been to Old Trafford since 2013. They did make a fight of it last year and finished second. And the prayer fans have is that the wait for a comeback victory is not as long as Arsenal’s, another great club which forgot how to win.
As for the West Indies, they have done well in Twenty20, irrespective of their defeat against India in the first T20 of the current series. They are twice winners of the World T20 (remember ‘Champion’?). The format is the game’s most popular variant. In that sense, they are still one of cricket’s big teams. United, on the other hand, do not have recent results to make that claim, unless the next few months produce a turnaround.
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