Total transformation
The West Indies, overwhelming underdogs before the bell, returned to their corner after the first round in Galle pleased to be ahead of points. They took early command and forced their favoured opponents, on home territory, to defend for survival. But for a few missed chances, they would have shaken the Sri Lankans even more [...]
Unexpected turnaround
COLOMBO– On all available evidence, it was bound to be an embarrassing mismatch. Had it been boxing, the tale of the tape was so conclusively one-sided that even Don King would have been hard-pressed to sell it as a genuine contest. Yet upsets, save those involving shifty bookmakers,
Shillingford reported for suspect action
COLOMBO – It is ironic, if not surprising, that Shane Shillingford should be reported for a suspected illegal bowling action in the home island of Muttiah Muralitheran, the most successful and famous of all bent-elbow bowlers the game has known. Shillingford, the 27-year-old West Indies off-spinner, was cited by on-field umpires Steve Davis of Australia [...]
Against the odds
-Second to last ICC ranked team the West Indies take on number three ranked Sri Lanka from tomorrow very much underprepared and with a new look team and a new captain to boot As the skies opened up in Colombo over the past few days, flooding streets and the outfield at the Sinhalese Sports Club [...]
Insular politics tearing West Indies cricket apart
When he chaired the West Indies selection panel a dozen or so years ago, Wes Hall spoke of the “mental discomfiture” that comes with the post. He referred to the “uninformed and bitter criticism from those who should know better” and the politics that was tearing West Indies cricket apart. Hall was to once more experience [...]
Tough yes, but WICB needs to be fair and balanced
The in-word in West Indies cricket at the moment is “tough”. Brian Lara used it last week, as in “a very tough job”, while assessing Darren Sammy’s elevation to the captaincy that he himself held, not once, not twice but three times. Head coach Otis Gibson applied it twice, to cover the team’s forthcoming assignment, [...]
The Twenty20 dilemma
It was inevitable from the year the first formal domestic Twenty20 tournament in England proved a rousing success that the game’s briefest format would create a dilemma for administrators and players. The recent rejections by Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard of retainer contracts from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) worth between US$80,000 [...]
Cozier on Sunday: A sign of calmer times
Unsurprisingly, the attention on the retainer contracts offered by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for the coming year has focused on the few high-profile players not granted one and the two, possibly soon to be three, who have chosen to go their own way. Of far more significance than the elimination of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome [...]
Power struggle
Here we go again in the interminable battle for control of West Indies cricket. So it has been for much of this century and the latest, very public row between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) is only its latest manifestation. The fallout from the WICB’s decision not [...]
Cozier On Sunday: Fantastic fairytale II?
Not quite a year ago, something remarkable happened on the far-off cricket stadiums of India. A Trinidad and Tobago team with half the players unknown outside of the Caribbean – and some even within – restored the tattered reputation of West Indies cricket with a succession of stirring performances that carried them into the final [...]
Tough action
- The West Indies Cricket Board is once again getting tough about physical fitness in much the same way as the Pat Rousseau administration did several years ago. The question is will they continue with the policy or will it like Rousseau’s did, flop after a few months, asks Tony Cozier It has taken 12 [...]
Scorned effort
The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) have jointly sent an unequivocal proposition to the two organisations responsible for the most critical aspects of West Indies cricket. Concerned by the rancorous, interminable bickering between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) that is [...]
WIPA wins again
A West Indies team is ready for an international engagement. Suddenly, the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) notices something in the players’ contracts not to its liking. It presses its case. An impasse develops with the relevant, unprepared board, leading to frantic, last-minute negotiations, always overshadowed by the threat of strike action. It is a [...]
Value plus
- Hendy Springer recommends that the WICB persist with the A team tours since it serves a “serious purpose” Cozier on Sunday It lasted just a week short of three months, touched four countries spread across the planet and included international matches against five different opponents. Still the West Indies ‘A’ team’s recent globe-trotting venture [...]
End of the line
The theme of despair running through West Indies cricket for a decade and more has never been more blatant than in the current series against South Africa. It was increasingly so as the opposing batsmen gathered complimentary runs in the second Test at Warner Park on Friday and yesterday, three of them hundreds. In the [...]