Tony Cozier

Joel Garner is surprised there should have been any concern over his relationship with Chris Gayle on the current West Indies tour of Australia.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No one is more painfully aware of the rapid disintegration of West Indies cricket than West Indians themselves.

As their leading fast bowler, Jerome Taylor, headed back to the Caribbean from the West Indies’ tour of Australia for treatment on his damaged hip, the West Indies selectors were yesterday ready to name his replacement, probably fellow Jamaican Andrew Richardson.

It might not be his call but Chris Gayle is adamant that he intends to remain as West Indies captain.

-selectors to make determination about replacement As expected once he injured his hip after nine overs on the first day of the West Indies’ massive defeat in the first Test against Australia, Jerome Taylor is to return to the Caribbean for treatment.

Cozier on Sunday To those in his native Trinidad – Brian Lara most prominent among them – who always regarded Adrian Barath’s advance into the West Indies Test team as a matter of when, rather than if, the solid little opener’s delightful debut hundred in Brisbane yesterday would not have been surprising.

The West Indies begin their latest series against Australia in Brisbane today (last night eastern Caribbean time) to a backdrop of growing concern about the future of Test cricket and their role in it.

Windies’ revival crucial to test cricket’s longevity Against the perpetual backdrop of debate over the future of Test cricket, the West Indies start a series against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane on Thursday that the doomsayers expect will accelerate its demise.

Asks Tony Cozier Chris Gayle’s emergency call last week to return to Kingston to be with his ill mother immediately threw the balance of his West Indies team out of skelter and highlighted a glaring flaw in the otherwise predictable selection of the squad of 15.

-regional four day tournament to be one round affair To accommodate renewed international competition for the West Indies ‘A’ team, the regional first-class tournament is to revert to one round from next season after a year of home-and-away return matches.

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Ernest Hilaire believes that if more cricket was played at Kensington Oval the ground would not have run into the problems that brought a scathing report from International Cricket Council (ICC) pitch consultant Andy Atkinson.

A packed domestic programme has precluded the West Indies from having more than one first-class match outside the Tests on their forthcoming tour of Australia.

Injuries that have already eliminated Fidel Edwards from the imminent West Indies tour of Australia have now cost the fast bowler a retainer contract from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

REPORTS out of Guyana from the opening matches of the President’s Cup (presumably Julian Hunte’s rather than Bharrat Jagdeo’s) have made dismal listening and reading.

Cozier on Sunday IT IS a fitting irony that Daren Ganga should have, in the space of a couple of weeks, suddenly returned as a credible candidate as West Indies skipper through his leadership in the shortest form of the game, even more so since the principal claimant to reclaiming the post is Chris Gayle.