Tough Times ahead for WI Cricket
From London to Dubai to Hyderabad and Bangaluru, every characteristic of West Indies cricket was crammed into the past 10 days. It was an ideal opportunity to judge where it stands at present. The answer is no different to what it has been for some time. Yet even more critical examinations follow over the coming [...]
The good, the bad and Chris Gayle
There was the good and the bad during the week for West Indies cricket desperate to show that its present, and future, is not as bleak as it seems. In their first two matches of the T20 Champions League in Hyderbad on Monday and Tuesday, the Caribbean champions, Trinidad and Tobago, displayed the same self-belief,
Rare occasion for jubilation
It was a rare occasion for West Indies cricket to be jubilant. Amidst the glitz of the globally televised annual International Cricket Council (ICC) awards ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel in London and in the presence of greats present and past, Devendra Bishoo was named as the Emerging Player of the Year and Stephanie Taylor [...]
Best in the business
As England have not so much leap-frogged as kangaroo-hopped their way to the No.1 position in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, the inevitable question arises. Just how strong are they? The short answer, without indulging in the futile exercise of comparing them with other Goliaths of recent memory, is “very”. Whether they could [...]
Tit for tat
As one who has written as many words to fill the public library on behalf of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), Dinanath Ramnarine’s comment last week suggested that the penny had finally dropped. “Cricket fans are not hearing much about cricket these days,” WIPA’s long-serving president and chief executive said prior to Monday’s start [...]
Strange happenings!
Something strange happened in Dominica last weekend. For each of the last three days of a Test match the West Indies had absolutely no hope of winning and every chance of losing, Windsor Park, the impressive modern stadium in the capital, Roseau, increasingly filled to near its 10,000 capacity. On the Sunday, queues formed outside [...]
Hostile politicking: Alienating the cricketing public
Kumar Sangakara, that most erudite of modern cricketers, chose as his topic for the annual MCC Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s last week “the spirit of Sri Lanka’s Cricket”. As much as he understandably dealt with the fascinating history of his lovely, but so frequently turbulent homeland, there was much of relevance to West Indies cricket [...]
Battling to re-ignite old flames
While Chris Gayle, not without reason, tries to understand why he still remains basically debarred from selection, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels, two other batsmen of similar vintage who have confronted different troubles of their own, have been battling to re-establish themselves in the Test team. Both have returned this season after lay-offs for separate [...]
Rampaul’s resurrection
West Indies cricket has long since become a virtual international television newscast. The controversies and the chaos, the defeats and the decline dominate the bulletins. With more than enough to fill the reports, they obscure the positives, few as they may be. So, this season, it has all been about the status of Chris Gayle [...]
Man Up!
As the one-time baseball legend and master of malapropisms Yogi Berra might have put it, it is like déjà vu all over again. Rows between board and players have become as much a part of West Indies cricket over the last 10 years or so as diplomatic
Troubled waters
The most implausible aspect of the latest in the age-old, never-ending, self-defeating conflicts between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its most prominent players is that Shivnarine Chanderpaul is at the forefront. In the 17 years since he shuffled to the wicket at Bourda as a frail 19-year-old in his debut Test, Chanderpaul has [...]
Fruitful or flawed?
Short of proclaiming it in flashing neon lights at the top of Main Street, the intention was clear. Ottis Gibson flagged it with his censure of the “senior players” after the quarter-final exit from the World Cup last month. His observation that the results for the previous 10 years had been “pretty much the same [...]
Win cricket battles in field not courts
The perpetual state of discord that has taken over West Indies cricket and is aiding its continuing downfall has, at least, kept some of the region’s sharpest minds active long after they might have looked forward to a relaxed retirement. A retired Barbados Chief Justice, a past Commonwealth Secretary-General, ex-Caricom prime ministers and former High [...]
West Indies frailties were cruelly exposed
By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In Delhi West Indies cricket has endured several horrendous periods over the past decade but none more horrendous than in the last week of their 2011 World Cup campaign. This is the game’s most prestigious tournament. It was an opportunity on a global stage to prove that their [...]
Chokers!
By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In CHENNAI Once again, they could glimpse the beguiling beauty of victory. Once again, they became so petrified the closer they got to actually embracing it that they eventually turned and ran away. It is a defect that has become so embedded in the psyche of West [...]