What if Wednesday | What if Keemo Paul had been suspended for ā€˜mankadingā€™ in 2016 U19 WC

What if Wednesday | What if Keemo Paul had been suspended for ā€˜mankadingā€™ in 2016 U19 WC

no photo

What if Keemo Paul had been suspended for mankading?

|

SportsCafe

On February 2, 2016, a 17-year-old Keemo Paul controversially mankaded Zimbabweā€™s Richard Ngarava to knock the African nation out of the Under-19 World Cup. Eventually, the Windies ended up winning the tournament, but what if CWI had instead suspended Paul for his unsportsmanlike conduct?

Manakading is considered by many to be a ā€˜disgracefulā€™ act and thus, unsurprisingly, a young Keemo Paul got a lot of flack for his actions in the game against Zimbabwe, when he mankaded Richard Ngarava at the non-strikersā€™ end to hand his side the victory. That turned out to be a masterstroke as the Windies, led by Shimron Hetmyer, went on to lift the title after beating India in the final. But what if we go back in time and turn the tables? What if Cricket West Indies (CWI), instead, decided to suspend Keemo Paul for his actions? Letā€™s find out.Ā 

Keemo Paul is ecstatic after mankading Ngarava, realizing that heā€™s sent his side into the quarter-final of the tournament, but what he doesnā€™t know is that there is an inauspicious ban waiting for him on the other side. Irked by Paulā€™s actions, which has now brought the entirety of West Indies into disrepute, Cricket West Indies (CWI) decide to hand the 17-year-old a three-match ban, effectively ruling him out of the rest of the U19 World Cup campaign.Ā 

Paulā€™s absence means that the Windies are now a man short in their squad, and thus, taking the worst-case scenario into account, the team decides to draft in another tearaway quick as a standby. The replacement for Paul comes in the form of Barbados-born right-arm quick Jofra Archer who was, incidentally, months away from signing a long-term deal with Sussex; he was subsequently in England when he received the call from the selectors.Ā 

Archer, however, is a mere standby and thus Paulā€™s place in the team is taken by left-arm seamer Obed McCoy. That doesnā€™t turn out too well for the Windies, as the youngsterā€™s inability to trouble the batsmen on a flat Dhaka wicket sees the Windies crash out in the semi-final at the hands of hosts Bangladesh. The Tigers clash with the Ishan Kishan-led Indian side in the final in their quest to win a first-ever ICC title for Bangladesh, but fifties from skipper Kishan himself and 16-year-old Mahipal Lomror sees the young Blues lift the trophy for the third time in eight years.Ā 

This just turns out to be the start of a wondrous year for both Kishan and Lomror, both of whom score over 850 runs in the subsequent domestic season - across formats - to throw in their names as potential India A candidates. Outshining both these youngsters in red-ball cricket is their teammate Rishabh Pant, who has scored just under 1000 runs in the 2016/17 Ranji campaign, but his inconsistency in white-ball cricket flabbergastingly sees his potential downplayed by fans and selectors.Ā 

The day of reckoning for these three kids comes on February 20, 2017 - the day of the IPL auction. Interestingly, as fate had it, earlier in the year, all three players had come to a mutual agreement with their old clubs to have their contracts terminated, for the good of both themselves and the club.Ā 

Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils engage in a bidding war for U19 skipper Ishan Kishan and after five minutes of raising the paddle continuously, itā€™s Delhi who snap up the youngster for a gargantuan sum of ā‚¹2.9 crore. Pant and Lomror, meanwhile, end up moving to Mumbai and Gujarat Lions, for a sum of ā‚¹1.2 crore and ā‚¹50 lakh respectively. Another Indian wicket-keeper, Dinesh Karthik, who was incidentally released by Gujarat, goes unsold initially but is then picked up in the accelerated auction by Mumbai Indians. DKā€™s purchase, however, spells bad news for Pant, who ends up playing second-fiddle to the veteran throughout IPL 2017, ending the season without making a single appearance.Ā 

Back in Sussex, meanwhile, one manā€™s misfortune turns out to be another manā€™s opportunity, as Jofra Archer pulling out of his stint sees the club elevate 22-year-old Ollie Robinson to the main team. Robinsonā€™s impeccable ability to swing the ball sees him finish the Royal London Cup 2016 as the fourth-highest wicket-taker, behind Kentā€™s Matt Coles, Warwickshireā€™s Jeetan Patel and Nottinghamshireā€™s Harry Gurney, throwing his name right into the England mix thanks to the national sideā€™s Jake Ball experiment going wrong.

But Robinson is not the only one who is benefitting from his Sussex stint, as Archer returning back to West Indies has seen him engrave his name as one of the most feared bowlers in the country. The 21-year-oldā€™s scarcely-believable performance in the 2016 Regional Super 50 for Barbados, where he picked 27 wickets in 10 games to finish as the competitionā€™s highest wicket-taker, sees him earn a contract with the Tridents in the CPL and throw his name into the hat for national selection.Ā 

Eventually, the two menā€™s fate coincides in Windiesā€™ tour of England in 2017 post the Champions Trophy.Ā  An injury to pacer Toby Roland-Jones, who was in the ODI squad due to his immaculate performance in Tests, sees Robinson replace the right-armer, while the Windies field Archer based on the absurdity of his performances in domestic cricket. However, the night turns anti-climactic and ends tragically for both men. Hales and Bairstow going berserk sees Archer end with figures of 0/120, the most expensive in ODI history, but one of Archerā€™s 60 balls - that did not quite reach the boundary - ends up crashing onto Robinsonā€™s right-arm. The injury ends Robinsonā€™s game and subsequently his season, and Archerā€™s calamitous performance sees him drop out of the picture for the national side.Ā 

Back in India, however, a 380-run season with the Gujarat Lions has seen 18-year-old Mahipal Lomror win the ā€˜Emerging Player Awardā€™ for the 2017 season, and him backing the IPL performance with a strong 2017/18 domestic season has now seen him get picked in Indiaā€™s limited-overs squads for the tour of South Africa in early 2018. India having already sealed the series 4-1 sees the side pick Lomror for the sixth and final ODI in Centurion in place of the misfiring Shreyas Iyer and the Rajasthan-born youngster, on debut, shares a 125-run stand with skipper Virat Kohli to guide the side home. Lomror, thanks to his unbeaten fifty, also, in the process, becomes the second youngster Indian, after Sachin Tendulkar, to score a fifty in ODI cricket.

Ollie Robinsonā€™s season-ending injury, meanwhile, has left Sussex with no option but to look outside of the country to draft in an able replacement and ahead of the 2018 season, the club creates a ripple in the county circuit by announcing that they have snapped the services of West Indian pacer Keemo Paul. The Windies all-rounder enjoys a wondrous 2018, not just with Sussex, but also with Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL and Rajshahi Royals in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Paul, with his performances around the world, is now being widely regarded as one of the hottest T20 prospects in the world.Ā 

The date is December 18, 2018, the day of the auction for IPL 2019, and astonishingly, Mumbai Indians decide to snub their long-term servant Lasith Malinga. The club, instead, buy Keemo Paul for a sum of ā‚¹2 crores, fending off bids from Delhi, Kolkata and Punjab to snap the all-rounder.Ā 

Paul proves to be a valuable asset for Mumbai throughout the tournament, delivering quickfire lower-order cameos with the bat and outfoxing batsmen with his slower ball, and, alongside Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah amongst others, ends up propelling the side to the final. Awaiting Mumbai, who beat the Ishan Kishan-led Delhi in the eliminator, in the IPL 2019 final is Chennai Super Kings, who downed a spirited Rajasthan Royals, led by Mahipal Lomror.Ā 

Mumbai score 149 in the first innings, but a spirited fight from Shane Watson sees Chennai bring down the equation to 9 needed off 6 balls to clinch the title, with three wickets in hand. A six from Watson brings the equation down to 3 needed off 5, but a double-strike from Paul means that Chennai require 3 runs off the final 3 balls, with a solitary wicket in hand.

All eyes are on the batsman Imran Tahir and the bowler Keemo Paul, but with tensions soaring inside the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, the West Indian pacer does the unthinkable. Paul steams in to deliver the fourth ball of the over, but seeing non-striker Shardul Thakur out of his crease, the 21-year-old abruptly stops during his run-up and takes the baills off, mankading the CSK man. 55,000 people at the stadium and the entire Chennai Super Kings team are in shock, and, as if to rub salt into their wounds, Paul pulls off the ultimate insult, lifting his jersey to unveil a Mario Balotelli-esque ā€œWhy Always Meā€ T-shirt.

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all