Gifted adolescents
Amidst a cluster of depressingly paltry totals in the regional first-class tournament, moaning from predictable quarters about the pink ball and the never-ending sniping between Dinanath Ramnarine and his latest counterpart on the WICB, events half a world away brought a little more welcome cheer to West Indies cricket these past few weeks. In less [...]
The specialist
-Keiron Pollard has not yet played a test match but he is the first West Indian superstar to have a megarich bank account solely by being a Twenty20 special talent He hasn’t played a single Test match. His batting average in 15 One-Day Internationals is 11.30, in 10 Twenty20 Internationals 17.20. His top score in [...]
Edwards could be out for a year
West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards faces the prospect of another year out of the game following spinal surgery in Jamaica three weeks ago to remove a herniated disc. West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director Conde Riley, vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), reported yesterday that Edwards, who turns 28 on February 6, had [...]
Windies in desperate search for players
West Indies cricket selectors are desperately trawling through a worryingly short list of potential candidates to replace injured key players who have been ruled out of the forthcoming series of five One-Day and two Twenty20 Internationals in Australia. Chairman of the panel, Clyde Butts, yesterday named seven players who will be unavailable for the February [...]
WIPA not sharing WICB’s new year vibes
Pink balls, playing at nights under lights and, according to chief executive, Ernest Hilaire, “a cricket festival atmosphere.” The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is seemingly intent on extending the festive season well into the new year in its annual first-class tournament. Some don’t share the vibes. Dudnath Ramkeesoon, Trinidad and Tobago’s chief selector, is [...]
The resurgence of respect
Chris Gayle summed it up neatly. “I think people look at us now and think a bit differently, based on how we went about this series, even though we lost 2-0,” the captain said after the final Test against Australia on Sunday. Of that, there can be no doubt. The West Indies might have been [...]
Pink balls coming to West Indies cricket
In a radical move aimed at regenerating interest in regional cricket, four matches in next season’s first-class tournament will be played under floodlights using a pink ball, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced yesterday. “Spectator interest in regional matches has been declining in recent years and we are looking at different ways to organise [...]
All eyes on the WACA
The pitch at the WACA ground in Perth is, in every way, the centre of attention for the third and final Test between Australia and the West Indies, starting tomorrow (10.30 pm tonight east Caribbean time). Head curator Cameron Sutherland has worked to produce a surface with the pace and bounce for which the WACA [...]
Garner downplay ‘issues with Gayle’ newspaper report
Joel Garner is surprised there should have been any concern over his relationship with Chris Gayle on the current West Indies tour of Australia. One newspaper headline termed the partnership between Garner, the new manager, and Gayle, the reinstated captain, “a recipe for disaster”. There were other concerns of a potential clash between the two, [...]
Maintaining the consistency
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going” is one of sport’s oldest maxims – and the going could not have been tougher for the West Indies and, more especially, for captain Chris Gayle entering the second Test against Australia in Adelaide 10 days ago. Tough is not a word readily applied either to [...]
Ponting target for Roach fury at Perth
Chris Gayle has warned Ricky Ponting to expect “some fury” from Kemar Roach in next week’s third Test in Perth – but the Australian captain is already prepared for the threat from the West Indies newest “pace like fire” tearaway. “He’ll be a handful in Perth,” Ponting acknowledged after the drawn second Test in Adelaide. [...]
Garner wants UDRS gimmick out of test cricket
Joel Garner believes the Umpire’s Decision Review System (UDRS) is “a gimmick that everyone’s been experimenting with” and should be taken out of cricket. The system was “not working as it was expected to,” Garner, veteran of 58 Tests between 1977 and 1985 and currently director of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), charged yesterday [...]
Edward Beharry and Company – sport sponsorship is money well spent when teams excel
Edward Beharry and Company has been in business in Guyana for the past 79 years and their support for sport in the country started way back then. Recently, company Chairman Edward Anand Beharry sat down with Stabroek Sport and spoke at length about their contributions and satisfaction as it relates to sport in Guyana. According [...]
UDRS not working
Cozier on Sunday It seemed a good idea at the time but, like the Federation, daylight saving time and the West Indies Cricket Board website, Test cricket’s “Umpires’ Decision Review System” – the UDRS, in the modern way of text-speak – simply isn’t working in practice. According to Dave Richardson, the former South African wicket-keeper, [...]
Silence the detractors
No one is more painfully aware of the rapid disintegration of West Indies cricket than West Indians themselves. The proof has been before our eyes for at least a decade now, at our once-filled grounds, on our television screens, in our newspapers. Once the most powerful force in the game, it has become so weak [...]