Keacy Carty first made an impression in a West Indian jersey when he was found holding onto an end in an important one dayer against a committed Dutch side during Windies’s maiden tour to the land of the Tulips, Max Verstappen, the Wisselbanck and Morten Kriek.
While that one day series was won 3-0 by the visitors, the West Indies team made what should ideally have been an easy chase a touch tricky.
That series was most remembered for the enterprising bowling efforts of Logan van Beek and Vivian Kingma and for the centuries hit by Hope and Mayers; the Barbadian notching up a maiden ton in fifty over cricket. But a certain Keacy Carty stood out in the second game for showing maturity beyond his years.
At the one end in the second game of the 3-game series was this young man, the first ever from the beautiful tiny island of St Marteen to represent the Windies unit.
He provided hope to the one whose finest current batsman is Hope himself besides providing the necessary fillip to a flash of wickets that the Dutch bowlers had the pleasure of clinching. Chasing a paltry 215 for victory, the Windies middle order exited earlier than desired with Bonner and Brooks departing early. It didn’t help much that Pooran soon became a goner too. But Carty hung in there with an unbeaten 43 off 66 to take the team home.
The bedrock of the middle order in ODIs
After that Keacy Carty was seen- and gladly so- in every single opportunity provided to him by the national team’s selectors, such as the limited overs contests against the visiting Indian side in 2023 and the tour to Australia earlier in 2024.
Earlier this year, Carty, a solid right hander with a compact technique, truly came into his own when he almost miraculously repaired an inning that was going nowhere in Australia. It was the MCG and the opening game of the series where the Windies faltered far too often for their liking.
A great performance Down Under
As ever the case with the Windies where regular partnership forming occurs only in limited overs games’ highlights from the yesteryears, Carty sent in at three stuck onto the middle, then rotated the strike before forging a vital, respect-lending stand in a mighty one day performance against just as mighty hosts Down Under. Roston Chase at the other hand became the resourceful accumulator of runs while Carty was the accelerator.
Source– KnightRidersXtra
Though he came desperately close to a first limited overs international century and should have ideally got there, an ill-timed run out cut short a dream moment.
But then Carty doesn’t seem to be a batter who dwells on lost chances; he believes in moving on.
A dependable young man
And where he moved on from what was three years ago a maiden limited overs assignment against the Netherlands was the most important 50-over series for the West Indies: the 2023-bound World Cup qualifiers. The event would turn out to be truly eventful for the once mighty two time World Cup lifting side, a behemoth from the yesteryears that has receded to being a pale shadow of its former self in Cricket’s contemporary annals. Carty made 116 runs from just outings with the bat including a defiant 87. But the team failed to make it to India.
A thinking cricketer
Karty, a thinking batter, one would argue, was the lender of stability to the middle and the lower middle order and a batsman resolute like a skilled ship builder who develops vessels that last deep sea storms.
In a line-up where Nicholas Pooran provided the fireworks while Shai Hope provided flair and Jason Holder the vast experience, Keacy Carty provided a sense of watchfulness, guarding flimsy errors of his team by providing a sheen of concentration.
Where his current numbers stack up, there isn’t a tremendous scope to gauge much for his is a young and nascent career whose best days, the West Indian fan will hope, belong to the future.
But what one can certainly say about Keacy Carty is that the Caribbean side are fortunate to have discovered an earnest youngster who gladly wears the West Indies shirt with glee, not with the hope of trading it for some random franchise in yet another league that keeps mushrooming nowadays akin to some new virus in the post-Covid era.
However, having said that, what excites one the most about this mild mannered man is his ability to shift gears and stack up runs in the shorter format.
A young hope for the future
His most recent CPL numbers hint to a reason for us all to sport some glee. Keacy Carty made 246 runs at an average of 30 with a highest score of 73 in the recently-concluded Caribbean Premier League.
He struck 16 boundaries and thudded 10 sixes and made a lofty impression in an event that featured much bigger and daunting names than himself. Think Pooran and Hope, Pollard and Russell. There’s reason to believe that the West Indies white ball one day team needs Carty to carry on carry the team on his shoulders even.
In the course of the imminent future where the insecurity of having one talented player drop out of the 50-over squad will likely grow into being an even bigger persistent problem than it already is, someone will need to hang on there and make an impression. And rally around the vision and collective entity called West Indies national cricket team. That man, besides Pooran, Hope, Hetmyer, King, Athanaze and Alzarri, is Keacy Carty.
A trier! A simpleton whose heart- at least as of now- beats for the West Indies!