Defining moment!
By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In CHENNAI The defining match of the World Cup arrives for the West Indies today (starting 5 am south Caribbean time). It is not obligatory that they beat England in the burning heat and on an unpredictable pitch at the M.Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai to
Opportune opening!
By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In DELHI The West Indies’ choice of their third substitute player for the current World Cup is as bewildering as that of Cameron Cuffy for Carl Hooper at the 1996 version. Seeking a replacement for Dwayne Bravo, an out-and-out all-rounder injured in the first match against South [...]
A gratifying rehearsal
By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In DHAKA There were always three teams in their group the West Indies needed to beat to be sure of advancing to the quarter-finals of the World Cup. They despatched one, the Netherlands, more convincingly than even they themselves could have imagined at the Feroz Shah Kotla [...]
Almost predictable!
IT was eventually derided for its seemingly infinite duration, its overbearing security, its high ticket prices and much more besides but at least the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean packed more shocks and drama into its first week
Regional bullies!
It hasn’t taken long in the 2011 regional first-class tourmament for cricket’s usual regional bullies to throw their weight around. Most spectacularly, Marlon Samuels took out the frustration of two years suspension for his links to an alleged Indian bookmaker on Guyana with an unbeaten 250 for Jamaica. Also the leading scorer in the preceding [...]
It’s a mystery!
Of all the many mysteries surrounding the Indian Premier League (IPL), the most mystifying, on the face of it, has been Chris Gayle’s inability to attract a bid at the auction for the 2011 edition from the multi-millionaire industrialists and Bollywood stars who own the franchise teams. While three players, all Indians, fetched over US$2 [...]
Cozier on Sunday: Test of the English Lions
When the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) introduced England ‘A’ into its annual first-class tournament in 2001, some of the reaction bordered on paranoia. Scyld Berry, subsequently editor
Only time will tell
Julian Hunte has advanced “one fundamental reason” why the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has spent US$6 million in the two as yet unsponsored Caribbean Twenty20 tournaments, the second of which comes to its climax with the final at
Adieu Joey Carew
THERE were all the mixed emotions so typical of such West Indian occasions. The tearful sadness at the death – unexpected and premature – of the cricketing icon that Joey Carew unquestionably was pervaded the packed congregation at his funeral service at St.Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church in Port-of-Spain on Friday morning. The neat, modest church [...]
Poetic justice
There is a certain, satisfying poetic justice in the fact that Ricky Ponting will not, after all, be able to play in the final Test of the Ashes series that started last night at the Sydney Cricket Ground. International Cricket Council (ICC) referee-in-chief Ranjan
Hinds, Best selections – Xmas gifts or merited?
Asks Tony Cozier Two names leapt off the computer screen last week from the e-mail announcing the preliminary West Indies 30 for the forthcoming World Cup. One was Ryan Hinds, the left-hand batsman and left-arm spinner; the other was Tino Best, the tearaway (in every sense) fast bowler. Hinds last played a One-Day International in [...]
Xmas cheer for Windies selectors
Clyde Butts and his fellow selectors have received an early Christmas present. They already know what’s inside, for they are aware that their two fastest, most experienced and most penetrative bowlers are playing again. But they won’t get overly excited until they can unwrap the gift paper and discover whether the two are back in [...]
The greatest test match ever
Jack Finglton, the Australian batsman of the 1930s and one of the most entertaining writers on the game, devoted a book to it and entitled it “The Greatest Test of All”. It is 50 years ago since the Australian left-arm swinger Alan Davidson delivered the first ball of the first Test to West Indies opener [...]
Rescheduling of ODI series could scupper West Indies’ World Cup preparation camp
COLOMBO– West Indies’ head coach Ottis Gibson isn’t disturbed by Thursday’s eventual decision to defer the scheduled limited-overs series against Sri Lanka to late January. “It hasn’t really hurt us, that’s for sure,” he said as the team prepared to leave for home in the early hours this morning after persistent wet weather that dogged [...]
Hopeful and worrying signs
Otis Gibson and Courtney Browne have spent as much time over the past month in Sri Lanka experiencing the effects of global warming on what should be the end of the annual monsoon season as on what their principal mission was meant to be. At the end of another day abbreviated by the ever present [...]