“Dive, dive nah, boy!” I think I also heard an explosive expletive. The yeller is Dwayne Bravo, the bowler; the yellee is his younger brother Darren, who is at mid-off. The occasion? Tuesday’s first semi-final of CPL 2020 at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba between Kieron Pollard’s TKR and …
Read More »CPL 2020: Tale of two champions—Pt 2; who against TKR to take Tallawahs to the cleaners?
One senses a certain joylessness in the Jamaica Tallawahs camp that perhaps bespeaks deep-seated, seething dissatisfaction. Two bits of circumstantial evidence: well caught low down at slip by Daren Sammy during yesterday’s final league match, Andre Russell walked off with neither scowl nor embarrassed smile. As one would on discovering …
Read More »CPL 2020: Tale of two champions; are Tallawahs troubles a threat to TKR’s triumph?
Where on earth is Chris ‘Universe Boss’ Gayle? More importantly, where has he left the two-time CPL champions, the Jamaica Tallawahs? And why? Not, mind you, why has he left the franchise—that, his version of it at any rate, is already a matter of public record. My why is why …
Read More »CPL 20: Can Zouks deny fans batting fireworks on offer in Thursday’s Tarouba final?
Lightning, we are told, does not often strike in the same place twice. In August 2018, the Jamaican Tallawahs’ Andre Russell blasted an unbeaten 121 off only 40 balls to stun the Queen’s Park Oval home crowd into silence. But weather-wise, this has proven to be an extraordinary year so …
Read More »Media Monitor: Pollard vs Holder: reporters mistake Mind Games Pt 6 for Fast and Furious
Not for nothing has television been dubbed the ‘boob tube’ or ‘idiot box’. And this, long before anyone was able to watch the sports news on TV6! Bad as it is, the CCN channel is not alone. Not just in vision but in the voice and print media as well, …
Read More »CPL: Tridents, Patriots outclassed as Pollard, Pooran provide virtual lessons at QP Oval
It is looking as if Kieron Pollard’s Trinbago Knight Riders will give the nation a belated but welcome Independence gift. As 2020 CPL action shifts back to the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba tomorrow, TKR are firmly in the driver’s seat. For those fans with short memories, that is precisely …
Read More »Media Monitor: Kamla’s choice, Anil’s voice and putting party before country
It’s an ill wind, we have long heard, that blows nobody good. Ditto, I think, Anil Roberts. Which may be why Kamla Persad-Bissessar has seen it fit to return him to the national parliament as a senator. If every current UNC Member of Parliament were somehow able to make a …
Read More »Media Monitor: UNC’s arresting image and Maraj’s masterclass on Kamla’s figures of speech
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, we have heard a million times, bamboozle them with bullshit. Ralph Maraj is the exemplar par excellence of that message. On the post-4pm news segment of the i95.5FM afternoon show early last week, Maraj leapt to the defence of UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. …
Read More »Best: Will resentment ruin redemption time for Holder’s men against ‘relentless’ England?
‘Resentful,’ yes. Try as I might, however, nowhere in the dictionary could I find ‘relentfull’ or ‘relentful.’ But if I were West Indies coach Phillip Simmons, I would have minted one or the other word to use in my post-match comments on the third day of the decisive Third Test …
Read More »Asterisks and parentheses; why we shouldn’t write off WI’s Wisden chances
That cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties is, though never irrelevant, a very tired cliché. That Test cricket is the most severe examination a player can get, though not clichéd, is not exactly new. West Indies did learn a new cricketing truth today, however. It is that, even when …
Read More »Best: Will West Indies keel over and die? Holder to the rescue against Root’s rampant England
Conventional wisdom holds that Stuart Broad’s Sunday evening new ball spell killed off the West Indies chances in the Second Test at Old Trafford. The truth, however, is that, had Jason Holder been at the top of his game on Monday morning, he might have found a pulse where the …
Read More »Best: Holder’s West Indies to win the Wisden Trophy? You bet!
I am willing to wager more than a few quid on a West Indies victory. Only a handful of England’s actors (skipper Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad) remain on the 2020 set. But Jason Holder has no fewer than seven of his 2017 West Indians, including …
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