Tony Cozier

West Indies cricket has long since become a virtual international television newscast.

As the one-time baseball legend and master of malapropisms Yogi Berra might have put it, it is like déjà vu all over again.

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.

Short of proclaiming it in flashing neon lights at the top of Main Street, the intention was clear.

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.

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.

By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In CHENNAI Once again, they could glimpse the beguiling beauty of victory.

By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In CHENNAIThe defining match of the World Cup arrives for the West Indies today (starting 5 am south Caribbean time).

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.

By Tony Cozier At the ICC World Cup In DHAKAThere 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.

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

It hasn’t taken long in the 2011 regional first-class tourmament for cricket’s usual regional bullies to throw their weight around.

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.

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.

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

THERE were all the mixed emotions so typical of such West Indian occasions.

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.

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.

Clyde Butts and his fellow selectors have received an early Christmas present.

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”.