 Yeah, it is a cricket-loaded week on the Sports Mag Zone and it continues in this segment. We reached deep into the archives to relive the last time before Sunday that West Indies won a test in Australia. 27 years ago, the Windies playing at the WACA managed a 10 wicket win to end the series on a high. Brian Lara hit a first innings 132, while there were five wicket holes for both Sir Kurt LeAmbros with 5-4-4-3 in the first innings, and Courtney Walshu grabbed 5-4-7-4 in the second. Fosier Mohamed, who celebrated his 10th year as a cricket commentator when the Windies last won a test in Australia before the weekend, of course, joins us on our trip down memory lane. Of course, that 1996-97 series ending 3-2 in favour of Australia, Australia winning games 1, 2, and 4, West Indies winning games 3 and 5. Fosier Mohamed, what do you remember from that entire series and the final test in terms of the context that it was played in? You're right, Ricardo, a very different context, because then the West Indies were just beginning to decline kings because it was a five-test series. It was actually the first test series the West Indies had lost in Australia since 1975-76. And it was automatic that the West Indies, when going to Australia, would play five test matches. So very different now, the context of that famous victory just a couple of days ago. But yes, at the WACA, which is the ground no longer used for test match cricket, at least men's test match cricket. But it's sort of like a spiritual home for the West Indies. Because when the West Indies, when they're in 1976, they won by an innings. When they're again in 1984-85 and 88-89, they won again 1992-93. They also won this time to clinch the series about in 1996-97, even though when the series already settled, Australia unbeatable at 3-1 ahead, there was still the expectation that the West Indies, Farsmullers, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop would have led the charge. And as it turned out, they really steamrolled Australia to a 10-wicket win. You speak about the 1996-1997 series. Can you give us a bit of the storylines that would have been leading up to that match? Because I remember, of course, I was not around. But I read, well, I was born, but not functional. Let me just say that. I was like a little kid, right? Because Ricardo is already laughing when I say I was not around. I was a kid. So Fars, the storylines leading into the match. Because just like this one that we had recently, where, you know, we'll tell the story about seven debut tons, of course, a lot of players like Shamar Joseph and that too, I remember watching a documentary and Kurt Lee Ambrose, I think, had an injury. So maybe you can tell us a bit about the storylines leading into that. Yes. He picked up that injury during the Tri-Nation series. Now, again, that was an era when the visiting team would play five test matches in dispersed with a Tri-Nation limited over series. You'd play a test match, maybe two back-to-back. Then you'd play about four or five one-dington half-dolls. And it was a triangular series. This time around, Pakistan were the other visitors to Australia for that 1996-97 campaign. And it was a situation where the West Indies and Pakistan played the best of three finals. Australia didn't make it to the final. But the cost for the West Indies was an injury to Kurt Lee Ambrose in the decisive third and final match. Sorry, the second match because Pakistan won two in a row. The second match and he got an injury in Melbourne. And because of that, it ruled him out of the subsequent test match in Adelaide. And that was a major setback for the West Indies. The concern then was, is it going to be a situation where Ambrose would also miss the final test match to know that he was fitting up? Because every fast baller wants to be fit Mariah for the Waka. The Waka is a fast baller's paradise. Because again, just to give it some context, one of the other talking points was huge cracks appearing on the pitch. Even on day one, because it was a bit of a heat wave going through that part of Australia, Western Australia. And as much as the ground staff tried their best, there were massive cracks which opened up on that surface. And it made it even more treacherous for the teams, for the batsmen, especially of course, having to concentrate, watching these wide cracks knowing that at any instant, one of those deliveries could pitch there and do absolutely anything, even do harm to the batsmen. Right, and the beauty of Brian Lara's century, because in the same documentary that I was watching, I remember somebody talking about a lot of chatter and banter on the field between the Aussies and the West Indians. And I think that added to the beauty of the match. But talk to me about that century. Well, Brian Lara at the start of the series, remember he had already had that phenomenal year of 1994, World Record 375, World First World Record 501, not out, a lot of centuries in a row at the start of his England Community career with Warwickshire. But in 1995, he didn't have the series that many had hoped for. The West Indians surrendered the Franco-European trophy, losing that series in the Caribbean by two matches to one, famously losing by innings at Savannah Park in Kingston, Jamaica. Then came 1996-97 with Lara as vice-captain to Courtney Walsh. And Lara really struggled against Glenn McGrath. He struggled so badly in the first couple of test matches that he surrendered the number three position to Shiv Narayan Chandrapur. Chandrapur took on that challenge and really played with great gusto in many ways. But still, the talk was, would this series finish without Brian Lara getting a test hundred? Well, as it turned out, at the wacker, at the fastest pitch against some quality bowling, he was finally able to get on top of the Australian bowling, the fast bowlers, McGrath, Gillespie, and of course, the outstanding spinner, Shane Warn, to get to that hundred. Yeah, and as you speak there, Farz, we see the huge cracks on the pitch there as Brian Lara faced up with his majestic batting. Can you talk to us briefly, Farz, about the coverage? Because cricket coverage now is much different from what it was then. And certainly, radio coverage was huge during that period, not so much now. Reds, Pereira, the late Tony Cosier, yourself would have been a part of that period of coverage. And Australia Tours were Tours that, as commentators, you had looked forward to. Absolutely. Well, that was my first tour and that fulfilled a dream for me, because I wanted to fulfill two dreams in life, one, spiritually making the pilgrimage to Makhan, Medina and Saudi Arabia. I did that. And to go to Australia, not just to Australia, but to the wacker for a test match, because I remember 75-76, for a French 169, Clyde Lloyd-149, and Roberts, seven wickets in the second innings, Westerlies, winning by innings in four days. And I was entranced by it. And I always wanted to fulfill that dream, which, thank God, I did. But yeah, the coverage was Channel 9, because they were the dominant television medium at the time in Australia. Radio, you had, of course, Tony Cosier, Reds, Pereira. I would have been not considered good enough at that time to be part of the radio commentary team, because who could be better than Cosier and Pereira, in that sense? But you did some work for us at the Caribbean News Agency, didn't you, on that tour? For which I was eternally grateful, because in that picture, we had some massive debt from that campaign. And indeed, the support of Kana Radio, as it was at the time, was significant, because it allowed me to get that opportunity. But more importantly, rather than be preoccupied with myself, it really was a series where many people were saying, look, maybe the West Indies are coming up towards the end of that great era, but maybe the Franco-Warrior trophy carries greater status than the ashes. I remember my call, even having that discussion with him, the noted Australian journalist and broadcaster, saying that, yes, there's all this automatic preoccupation with the ashes, but the interest in Australia beating the West Indies with Mark Taylor as captain in the Caribbean in 1995, and defending it successfully in Australia in 1996-97, it was dominated. Everything about that series should watch have been captain. Was Lara the leader in waiting? There were so many subplots and stories that kept the media at all levels before the age of social media and the full growth of the internet, they were really preoccupied and obsessed with what was going on. Yes, Farz, and I was just going there because Walsh had been captain for the series, but he would be replaced as the captain soon after that by the Prince. Indeed, and again, just taking it a bit further, because Walsh remained captain for another year. He went to Pakistan in 1997 and the West Indies lost all three test matches, two by any means, one by ten, because Lara's best score was probably about 37, and there was a lot of feeling at that time, a lot of ill feeling. When we talk about Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the insularity, that there was something going on there. There was a famous occasion when Trinidad and Tobago were playing Jamaica in a 50-over-a-side match in Jamaica, and at the time, comments were being made and things were being said on behalf of both parties, and it resulted in the toss being taken with Walsh opting not to take the field for the toss. But then we saw famously, what we were showing, what a magnanimous individual he was, after Lara replaced him as captain in 1998, the year after after the debacle of the South African tour, coming onto the field at Sabina Park to a hail of booze from everyone in the ground, Walsh put his arm over the shoulder of Lara to send a message that, look, we will all be disappointed that I'm not captain anymore, but this is my captain. So he was man enough, big enough to put aside whatever individual disappointments for the sake of West Indies cricket. Yeah, and following 1996-1997 fires up to the 1999-2000 tour of New Zealand, the West Indies were still ranked in the top three in the world in test cricket, in fact, up to that New Zealand tour in the number three position, and that's despite the loss to Pakistan that you spoke about, the debacle in South Africa of that 5-0 defeat. I want to get a clearer understanding, though, about coming out of that 1996-1997 series against Australia, what the general feeling was about the trajectory of West Indies cricket? It's an interesting one, because famously, West Hall, the manager at the time, referred to the Sabina Park defeat to Australia in 1995 as an aberration. It was, of course, because at that time, West Indies were dominant. They'd gone 15 years without losing a series, but there seemed to be a refusal, a steadfast refusal, to accept that that decline was happening, not just because of 1995, but even before the West Indies escaped against Pakistan in 1988, one all, where they could possibly have been 3-0 for Pakistan. Two, they could have been 2-0 for England, where the West Indies wasting time in Trinidad and Tobago to avoid defeat in the second test match. So the signs were there. So after 1996-1997, there was a feeling of unease, what is going to happen next? And one of the interesting points, which many people don't look at, Robert Samuels, his last test match for the West Indies, was at the Waka, that match we are talking about. His score was 76 and 35, not out, and he never played for the West Indies again. Stuart Williams was brought in to open the batting with Sherwin Campbell. So you got that feeling that, look, something is happening that is really not in the best interest of West Indies cricket, whether it was a case of player power, whether it was a case of pulling and tugging between important individuals, whether it was the selectors themselves. But that series that followed against India, which the West Indies won 1-0, with that famous low-sporing match in Barbados with Lara deputizing as captain in place of Walsh, the way that series went seemed to suggest that the West Indies were going to find it very, very hard to recapture anything like the glory it is, and so it proved. Yeah, Faiz, I just want you in 30 seconds because you spoke about Robert Samuels, he hit the winning runs in that fifth test, and the commentator, I did not understand the context of it when I watched it, but the commentator said, as part of his commentary, well, he's proven that he's not a loser or something like that, and I just couldn't understand the context of where that comment was coming from. Around that time, the discussion was about Robert Samuels, is he the right man for the job because you had Adrian Griffith, showing Campbell Robert Samuels. There seemed to be a reluctance, even in the West Indies camp, to identify him as having that personality because Robert is that laid-back, sort of easygoing post, when you watch him, his movements on the field very languid and so on. For whatever reason, it just didn't seem to strike a responsive chord with the decision-makers in West Indies cricket, and again, notwithstanding his contribution in that final test, when he was at last given an opportunity to open the batting, he didn't play again for the West Indies, so yeah, you would hear lots of comments about, is he really the man with the right stuff to open the batting for the West Indies, but unfortunately, he was never given another chance. Yeah, very much. And West Indies kept changing openers, as you pointed out. Adrian Griffith, Stuart Williams, then came the likes of Wavelhines and Chris Gale, and yeah, the list goes on. Fazz, it's been a pleasure, as usual, chatting with you. Who knew that that fifth test victory in 1997 would be the last for the West Indies in Australia for 27 years, and that it would take a 24-year-old who had played limited first-class cricket to bowl the West Indies the victory down under. Fazz, it's been a pleasure. We'll chat again soon. Take care. That's reminding me of how old I am. Break time!