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The good news is that the West Indies cricket team have finally made a defiant stance at a cricket pitch in Australia. The bad news is it is not against anyone in a “baggy green.”
(Copyright ABC.net.au)
Coach Phil Simmons and his troops won’t be taming any Lyons this month from the looks of it. But, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, “Philo” has identified a target worth bullying.
And it is Trinidad and Tobago journalist and broadcaster Fazeer Mohammed.
“The best performing West Indian this summer hasn’t been on the field but in the commentary box,” claimed the Herald, “with Fazeer Mohammed offering insightful analysis of the game in the Caribbean on the national broadcaster’s radio coverage.
“However, it appears some of the Trinidadian’s robust remarks about the lowly state of affairs have been a little too close to the bone for some.
“Broadcasting in the outfield before play with his ABC colleagues at the MCG, Mohammed was told by a West Indies official that their players would no longer be participating in interviews with him here.
“Phil Simmons, the West Indies head coach, is understood to have made the call, taking exception to questions Mohammed raised about the team’s preparation for the Boxing Day Test in an interview with a Barbados radio station last week.”
(Copyright Phillip Spooner/WICB Media)
Simmons, allegedly, was appalled that “Faz” described the West Indies’ sessions as lacking in intensity and purpose when compared to Australia’s.
So the same West Indies cricket coach who was defended by the regional media while he cowered before WICB president Dave Cameron, after speaking his mind about issues behind the scenes, now wants to victimise a journalist for similarly being forthright.
It is a cycle of abuse and, on this evidence, Simmons is probably more in need of a chat with a psychologist—or maybe Verna St Rose-Greaves—than any cricket journalist.
Mr Live Wire can only express admiration for Mohammed’s commitment to his craft. At a time when most cricket fans can only watch the West Indies play through their fingers, the Trinidadian journalist actually attended their practice sessions.
Mohammed is either the ultimate professional or sadomasochistic.
And, based on his insight, it appears that a cricket team that is consistently bad gets that way by working on it. Or, in other words, bad practice makes a perfectly bad team. Who knew?
After seven days of cricket, West Indies have not gotten Australia out once. During that period, Simmons’ bowlers have taken a combined 10 wickets while losing 40.
If Simmons thinks the answer is to have his players stop talking to Mohammed, then Mr Live Wire is left to wonder what the hell was the question in the first place.
Is the team’s new rallying cry: “At least we don’t take s**t from journalists!”
Shut them down, Caricom! The madness is clearly spreading.
And now, apparently thanks to Simmons, poor Faz won’t get to hear captain Jason Holder and company enthusiastically describe all the corners that the West Indies team are turning—rather than cutting. He should count his blessings.
If only Simmons could also ban West Indies fans from watching that nonsense.
Editor’s Note: The West Indies cricket team’s stance against Fazeer Mohammed apparently lasted for only a few sessions before they relented. It is uncertain if the cricketers were called off by Simmons, simply lost the taste for battle or capitulated out of sheer habit!
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Mr. Live Wire is an avid news reader who translates media reports for persons who can handle the truth. And satire. Unlike Jack Nicholson, he rarely yells.
Lasana Liburd the money we spend on sport, do they not tape training sessions and review games? Commentators, coach and team can offer valuable insight into games hence improve future performance. Do players continue to grow or they just take part in mandatory training. Attitude-and discipline-seems to be a sore point for local athletes. But then again, I am foolishly thinking we will treat sport as a business rather than a charity and that sooner or later we would want a return on our investment. Btw do we have a national sporting hall of fame where we can view the medals of our sporting heroes? Nuff said.
–wait nah you mean Fazeer has been hamstrunged—oops not ham in a jam
Full support for Fazeer. Miss him on TV 6 mornings
Straight Talk is nnot good for Cricket …
I wonder if Phil is gonna ban Aussie journalists too? they have not been light on the West Indies either. Actually, I haven’t seen any journalist who has been. so….
Interesting. Will try to tune in
Hope I won’t be wasting my time.
Stewpssssss Phil Simmonds. Jeez! How stooooopid!
Alert: Phil Simmons will talk to Andre Baptiste from 5.20 pm today on i95.5 live from Australia.
Fazir, or whatever he’s called, is known to be bias! He just took Morning Edition to the cricket field! Enough said…
I’ve always admired Fazeer. He calls a spade a spade. I guess Phil could not handle the truth.
Lol. Well yes. Fazeer boy give them more pressure! WI need to learn how to bat and bowl again.
Fazeer doesn’t know how to speak to people.
He needs a lesson in tongue restraint and good manners.
Backing Fazeer all the way… did Simmons want him to lie???
Phil Simmons probably wanted to hear it from a foreign journalist/commentator?
Yvette Nelson True… but a few months ago there WAS a foreign journalist who “gave it to Windies good”!!!! 🙂
WELL DONE MR FAZEER JAM THEM OUT , THEY ARE ONLY STEALING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY POINTS SIR , BEST THAT TEAM AN BOARD BE DISBANDED .
It is not enough for me to see you as a mere messenger without understanding the hidden agendas of the messages which the Journalists and Commentators are sending.
Overall though, all I’d say is that I’ll wait to hear Simmons side of story
If you punched an old lady, I’m sure you can explain why she properly well annoyed you after the fact.
Still doesn’t take away from the fact that you punched an old lady.
If Simmons wanted understanding, he should have taken in front and explained himself.
We must sit and wait until he feels like explaining himself?! Steups.
Haha we need to talk about this in private boss
Ok
Steupz eh Colin
As what we know now Simmons is in the wrong but need to know his side
Savitri Maharaj haha aunt savitri u know my mouth always big when it comes to these cricket headaches
But just for minor complicated reasons for now I ain’t want to say much more of what I know here just yet publicly – will do soon well all things play out
Well hurrah! and put the flags out and declare a holiday! You mean “the WI cricket team have finally made a DEFIANT stance at a cricket pitch …” : Fazeer is an excellent commentator and calls them as he sees them!
..so Ian Chappell describes Marlon Samuels as being ‘half-asleep’ when he enters the gayelle..don’t think this a make up…I heard it myself as thousands of others …so Fazeer Mohammed calls a spade a spade and Simmons puts a plaster on his mouth..??
Fazeer went there as a commentator to do battle alongside the West Indian team not to ask them de-motivating questions. A true soldier don’t distract his general in the middle of a battle thus causing a distraction. There would be time for Court Martial later on.
Fazeer does hard talk type of journalism best
Not sports
And a lot of them don’t
Saw one went to the olympics and upsetting the athletes a few years back
Very untrained or not accustomed to sports
Sorry but he doesn’t cut it as a sport journalist
If that is true, shame on Coach Simmons
Faz should get called for stoning. #NoMystery #NoSpin
Steups. Don’t know why anyone taking these jokers seriously. We have lost our way and those in charge have no pride in our history.
Razor sharp writing!
Why not wait and get the other side of the story, You are acting like a Coonoomoonoo just like Fazeer Mohammed.
Nope. I can write based on information at hand. And update based on information that surfaces.
As all columnists do. But I’m not surprised to see what side of the fence you are on when you referring to people as coonoomoonoos. Gobrave.
Lasana Liburd This is what West Indies cricket need right now to be successful. INSPIRATION +MOTIVATION +PROGRESS = SUCCESS. It is not Columnists job to motivate players, the players come with that when they are selected. Its the Columnists job not to de- motivate them. Fazeer Mohammed interviews with the players contains only negative thoughts with no inspiration. One small positive thought can change your whole day.
Fazeer Mohammed’s job is to paint an accurate picture of what is happening in Australia to readers and listeners back home. Full stop.
It is up to the WICB to hire the players a motivational speaker if they need one.
Lasana Liburd I am going to leave it right there before I suffer the same faith on Wired868 like what they did to my brother.
You brother got expelled for insisting on posting memes against group policy.
Even by social media standards, I don’t think that makes him a martyr.
You won’t get put out for having a different opinion.
Martyr you say? You acted solely on your own without giving him a hearing. Does that make you a dictator.
If your “brother” cannot understand “No Memes” in the group manifesto, then he doesn’t need a hearing. He needs remedial English.
I am no longer surprised… I don’t think they invent the toilet paper to clean up the shit that is west indies cricket.
Haha i like this one
I always thought it was the Job of the Media or a sports reporter or Commentator to give criticism and their own views ? What can be wrong with that ?
The W.I. team is always looking for someone to blame for their mediocrity…. fire Fi bun all…. but that said, if the head is rotten so will the rest be
Whoever wrote the article for Wired 868 give them a medal, what an adroit piece of writing. It delves into and demonstrates clearly what is wrong with WI cricket and it is not the WICB.
Great article they are doing mess. I support Faz
Great article….. I applaud Faz for being able to watch the WI play, I have long stopped. Phil Simmons disappoints me. Sigh
You should be asking if anyone from the West Indies watched the last two test matches ….
Lol. Fazeer Mohammed should get a national award for watching West Indies train. Few people know what it is like to tour with a losing team and watch defeat and defeat and poor performance after poor performance for weeks or even months.
And Faz is the only West Indies journalist who signed up for this thankless job and is in Australia slogging it out.
Phil best apologise.
Faz on one long all inclusive
Excellent, Lasana Liburd – you keep-on, keeping-on to ridicule these imps…
Lasana Liburd look afro called someone and imps. I hope you and BC Pires scold him or at least call him names like bc did. hahahahaa
I called no names!
lol
Afra, that Phil Simmons would be upset that someone compared West Indies unfavourably to Australia is mind boggling. I have to wonder if he is watching the series at all! Lol.
hahahaaa – just having some fun with bc and lassnna afra. last week i was castigated for calling sunity a clown.
This week lassana defending faz for doing what i do and did…but as i said, it’s all in fun…love to show hypocrisy and irony. lol
If Fazeer had called Phil Simmons a clown for simply doing his job as coach, I would have criticised Fazeer as well as Timothy.
But I’m avoiding going back down that road. BC had more stamina than me with that one.
hahahahahaa. for simply doing his job? Lassana yuh kill meh with that one yes. Yuh fuh real?
Lasana, if I had time for a NEXT marathon with Tim, I’d point out that I never hesitate to call a spade a spade, or to call out any imps, I just don’t label people clowns for being brighter than me; oops, sorry, I mean for disagreeing with me….. Look trouble. The ringmaster looking for he whip : )
hahahahaaa. de man say disagreeing yes. BC Pires yuh win. hahahahahaaa
Where is the Excellence? Did I missed something? If he keep on writing like this, the once well read group Wired 868 will be finish.
Extremely disappointed in Phil. Apparently, some of the vindictiveness and stupidity of the WICB has rubbed off on him. Maybe, it’s just frustration, but this is so un-PhilSimmons.
Simmons vexed that West Indies was compared unfavourably to Australia in practice… Take a minute to ponder that. Did Simmons watch the last two Test matches?
If you can’t beat a team, then the next best thing is to find a journalist to beat up on. Eleven versus one may give them a better chance of at least getting a draw.
You can’t play cricket, then blame the journalist who is telling you that you can’t play. Mind you, they chose Fazeer rather than a ‘foreign’ journalist because they don’t have the testicular fortitude to go against a journalist from Australia, India, Pakistan or England.
And even then it was half-hearted. Lol. Okay. I am glad the stance was apparently short-lived. But Phil should clear the air on that.
If Fazeer did in fact make an error, then Simmo should have just corrected him, not banned his players from talking to him. Also, Faz does not strike me as the type of person that will not admit that he made an error when presented with the facts.
Perhaps after his last incident, Simmo lost some of his testicular fortitude and decided it would be more easier to become a puppet of the WICB and that twat of a president Dave Cameron … which is an unforgivable shame.
Fazeer always speaks his mind regardless of the consequences
https://twitter.com/abcgrandstand/status/681704136266625024
Wow Lasana Liburd. Supporting a person who apparently calls a spade a spade and is not afraid to do so regardless of their hallowed past. Yes I love your take on it. Hahahahahahahaaaa.
I will just allow myself a chuckle at that. Lol.
me too. lol
When you refuse to stand by your conviction by begging for your job back; What do you expect?? Disappointed in Simmo..
WORST THAN A FOOL IS SIMMONS .
Simmons is a bake!!
Haha this was a strange, having been lucky enough to talk to coach a lot this year – something had to get him real mad for him to make such a drastic decision – especially towards Fazeer or all people.
Quick summary talking to AUS media i know was that Fazeer made a factual error on radio for ABC Grandslam stating that Windies only trained for an hour – when they were in nets for an hour and fielding for two
However up to this morning while all was sorted out
https://twitter.com/abcgrandstand/status/681733687621226496
If we all switched off on somebody for an error, nobody would watch West Indies play. 😉
And Colin, it doesn’t change the point of a lack of intensity and purpose. The specifics about the length of time spent in practice was not even mentioned in the story.
Yea ha – will be interested to hear coach side of argument because I can safely in many private discussions Ive had with him when i usually blast players & even his recent public utterance that he is frustrated about T20 stats not being in team – he generally gives impression that he personally agree’s certain players are either not good enough to be in team and indeed lack the required intensity and purpose for test cricket.
After all a few players did tell me while Windies were in Sri Lanka, that the current windies camp vybz is the worse they have experienced in their careers
Those are private conversations Colin. You didn’t publicly criticise his team and his sessions as coach.
Well yea uncle Phil probably took Fazeer’s criticism slightly personal since it attacked his coaching methods
And was public.
Maybe he will apologize ha
Tell Simmo to #llow Fazeer eh.
Thankfully it is the West Indies cricket team we are talking about. So they lost focus in a few hours and forgot instructions! Lol.
Hahahahaha
Either Simmons gone mad or he bazodee from the licks!
Or taking bad cues from WICB..
Or assimilating himself to the new West Indies culture.
I think he just falling into line after his own encounter
If so, too darn quick for my liking..
You think he could go back to Ireland?
I want to believe he can. He did well there. But really I just want him to learn from this and move on. I don’t want him to leave.
lol the West Indies should be ashamed.