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 »Will Cooke’s England draw a blank against the poor WI?
As Jason Holder and Kemar Roach battled manfully to stave off defeat on Friday evening, a friend of mine sent me a sarcastic text. “No chance of West Indies winning,” it read, “but not a soul has left the stadium. My, my! The excitement of playing for a draw.” Almost …
Read More »Remembering Alloy Lequay: Cricket’s antidote to Jack Warner
As Austin Jack Warner was to Trinidad and Tobago football so was Alloy Remigus Lequay to Trinidad and Tobago cricket. The two men give the lie to the old adage that insists that politics and sport don’t mix. They do, they did—felicitously in the case of Lequay, who devoted his …
Read More »The belly of the WICBeast: Analysing Cameron’s election win
It only defies logic for a moment. As soon as you begin to think about the possible reasons why the West Indies Cricket Board would have re-elected outgoing president Dave Cameron, it makes perfect sense: it’s not cricket because it’s not about cricket. Read Raffique Shah’s column on page 14 …
Read More »Remember 19/11: Gally’s post-Strike Squad torment
Strike Squad coach Everald Cummings talks to Earl Best about what he felt on November 19, 1989, what he feels now and how he has been treated. PART II: Bitterness does not enter the picture when Strike Squad coach Everald “Gally” Cummings discusses the events of November 19, 1989; when …
Read More »Remember 19/11: When Gally mashed Jack’s corns on Road to Italy
Strike Squad coach Everald “Gally” Cummings talks to Earl Best in the first of a two-part interview about the Road to Italy and an explosive fall-out with TTFA general secretary Jack Warner PART I: “The sun,” Michael Maurice said about his failure to stop Paul Caligiuri’s long-range left-footed shot on …
Read More »Can Bangladesh push West Indies in two-Test series?
Earl Best comments on what the fans can expect in the two weeks ahead: To the extent that performances in the three ODIs are a reliable guide to what to expect in the two-Test series which starts tomorrow, Mushfiqur Rahim’s touring Bangladeshis are deep in trouble. Obviously, statistics do not …
Read More »Independents shame Senate in controversial bill debate
Columnist Earl Best watched the end of the Constitution Amendment Bill debate in the Senate on television and was not amused: The government of the day—and of the night, Section 34 has taught us—is sleeping the sleep of the just; confident that a substantial part of the battle for post-election …
Read More »Pollard, Smith abandon Barbados Tridents for IPL teams
The Barbados Tridents, who last weekend won US$250,000 for beating the Guyana Amazons to clinch the Limacol Caribbean Premier League 2014 title, will soon be US$300,000 richer. Or will they? Whatever the answer, one suspects that team management would somehow be happier without the money and with their two major …
Read More »Polly puts the CPL mantle on as WI welcomes Bangladesh
Earl Best looks back at the 2014 Limacol CPL and forward to Bangladesh’s Caribbean tour: Congratulations are in order for Keiron Pollard and his victorious Barbados Tridents. The heavens had to intervene to hand them the 2014 Caribbean Premier League title but it wasn’t quite the miracle I had said …
Read More »Is Lloyd’s appointment a step forward or back for West Indies?
Columnist Earl Best takes an irreverent, even iconoclastic look at the credentials of the new WICB’s selection panel convenor: Clive Lloyd is a tactical genius. Reference the second World Cup of Cricket, staged in England in 1979. Playing against the hosts in the final, Lloyd’s West Indies had posted a …
Read More »Gally talks on 2014 World Cup, Warner and bonus-gate
“Ask me not,” Everald “Gally” Cummings says, “what he did for the game but what the game did for him.” The former Strike Squad coach is responding to a question about disgraced former FIFA vice-president, Austin Jack Warner. Inviting the normally outspoken national player to be “brutally honest,” we had …
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