The Lotto, an economics teacher friend of mine has long insisted to me, is nothing but “a regressive tax on black people.” That’s probably also true of Play Whe, Pick Two, Pick Four and Scratch and, indeed, the National Lotteries Control Board’s whole range of online games. And not being …
Read More »Barry, barra and other crap: Best on un-Parliamentary language
Say “Employer” to someone and (s)he expects soon to hear “Employee.” And ditto if you reverse the order. So I wasn’t really surprised when Wired868 stopped talking about “Barra” and started talking about “Barry.” But I stopped reading Monday’s Express story about the MP for Princes Town with the first …
Read More »Jason Holder’s West Indies plan; Best comments on new regional captain
Earl Best comments on the dumping of the relatively recently appointed captain Denesh Ramdin and the very recent selection of his young successor: If there were an election to determine the position of West Indies cricket captain, we might all have been getting e-mails and text messages from the newly …
Read More »Is T&T 400m sprinter Machel Cedenio too young to soca at the Rio Olympics?
Columnist Earl Best shares a suggestion which, he feels, might bring the T&T men’s 4x400m relay team closer to gold in Rio next year: I run my mouth often and I sometimes jump to conclusions. And although, under a PP government, that might well be deemed qualification enough for a …
Read More »Windies continue slide into cricket abyss with Champions Trophy failure
“Running a board with only management skills,” declared former West Indies team manager Rudi Webster in yesterday’s Express, “is like trying to cut a piece of paper with half a pair of scissors.” “We must remember that in general,” he also noted, “when we are dealing with human beings, we …
Read More »Plea to Jack Warner-critic-cum-biographer: Come back home, Tino
Columnist Earl Best pens an open letter to current Guardian Sports Editor Valentino Singh, who initially led the campaign to have Austin Jack Warner brought to book for his November 19,1989 misdeeds and then turned around and tried to make Warner look good by authoring his two self-serving books: My …
Read More »Ask your mudda Goose: Revisiting the fabled Jack Warner in rhyme and verse
If Jack Warner is not crooked, neither is the Lady Young Road. I so declare completely mindful of the presumption of innocence. Let it be very clear that I am not saying he is guilty of any of the crimes with which he has recently been charged. But I am …
Read More »Time to rewrite ‘Rally’? Keeping faith in WI and reactive Ramdin
I am willing to bet that there is a West Indian native or a West Indian supporter in the stats department at espncricinfo. That would explain why somebody tried to take shame outta we face on Sunday after Michel Clarke’s Aussies rolled over Denesh Ramdin’s West Indies with almost five …
Read More »West Indies should replace Chanderpaul with Usain Bolt
If it is true that a cricket match is played in the minds of the opposing captains, then the Second Test between Michael Clarke’s Australians and Denesh Ramdin’s West Indies which begins today in Jamaica is likely to be a mismatch. That conclusion is based not on the tourists’ flattering …
Read More »The Chanderpaul conundrum: Should ‘Tiger’ tail wag WI cricket dog?
Shivnarine Chanderpaul thinks, I am hearing, that West Indies cricket has not given him the send-off he deserved. I agree. 100%. Shivnarine Chanderpaul also thinks, I am hearing, that West Indies cricket has not given him the send-off he deserves. As does Brian Charles Lara. I disagree. 100%. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, …
Read More »Bravo and Blackwood sing WI captain Ramdin’s redemption song
“Now yuh in front de stand, yuh stiffing yuh chest, yuh waving yuh hand, yuh lifting yuh dress. Eh-eh, lady, how yuh have so much zest?” Darren Bravo and Jermaine Blackwood are now giving England’s Joe Root and Mooen Ali thunder at Kensington Oval. Having defied the spearheads of the …
Read More »Simmons to West Indies: To kneel or not two-nil
Columnist Earl Best looks at the chances of Denesh Ramdin’s men drawing level with England in the three-Test series, which the tourists already lead 1-0: Pride, the old saw tells us, goes before a fall but there’s no adage that I know of which tells us when pride comes back. …
Read More »