The good news is that Jimmy Adams, the new director of West Indies cricket, says he believes the eligibility rules governing selection should be changed. The bad news is that he also believes that the change may take some time because it will involve a “process”—somewhat like the “process” that …
Read More »PITT STOP: Politics aside, something else is holding WI back from cricket success
Can anyone explain why the West Indies are playing Pakistan at virtually the same time the Indian Premier League games are being played? One can understand why Pakistan, whose players do not play in the IPL, would be willing to be involved but what is the rationale for the involvement of …
Read More »PITT STOP: Former judge rules on West Indies cricket case of Bravo vs Cameron
It cannot be in the best interests of West Indies cricket to persist in the exclusion of Darren Bravo. The younger Bravo has again been excluded from the West Indian ODI team. There is no reason to doubt that his exclusion is a result of the tweet he made on learning of his demotion, …
Read More »AV ROOM: WI rallying round and round and round; Vidale not so merry as regional cricket goes wrong
On Sunday, when I checked in at the Oval on Facebook. there was a solitary comment on my post. “You have more patience than Job!” it read. And I thought to myself it is hardly about patience. There is a secret, though, to watching West Indies cricket. To paraphrase Dr …
Read More »Who will lead WI away from the abyss? Vidale urges fans to rally for the team we deserve
“It is bad captaincy that is causing us to be scrambled, everybody is whispering and shrugging shoulders. ... In this campaign I shall spare nobody… I hereby give notice; I shall not let this question rest until it is corrected… This fooling with the West Indies captaincy has gone on too …
Read More »Darren and the IPL: Best examines links between Bravo, Pooran, Lara… and the media
It brought Garry Sobers to the verge of public tears in Sri Lanka in 2015. Wherever Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh and Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards are in the world, it is almost certain to bring them to private tears. And it will make cricketing knights Frank Worrell and …
Read More »Letter to the Editor: Why it is hard to care about West Indies cricket
“How has it come to this? A woeful revolving merry-go-around of mediocrity, where an average coach gets to ‘rehabilitate’ a struggling team… “No offence to Stuart Law—the third Aussie to try his hand at the role of head coach—but questionably short stints coaching Sri Lanka and Bangladesh don’t qualify you …
Read More »The CPL and the West Indies Resurgence: What Franchises Can Do for Us
The 2016 CPL T20 started at the end of June and no doubt, no matter who wins, the tournament will be heralded as a success. The recent success of the West Indies in the shorter format of the game has contributed in no small way to the tournament’s growth and …
Read More »… And the media keep right on media-ing: How to bring the WICB to heel
Columnist Earl Best calls on the regional media to sign a hands-off, ‘non-corporation’ pact to bring WICB president Dave Cameron and company to heel: What know they of cricket, CLR James asked almost five and a half decades ago, who only cricket know? What know they of West Indies cricket, …
Read More »The little boy that CLR James forgot: tribute to late cricket scribe Tony Cozier
Columnist Earl Best surveys the many tributes to dearly departed cricket icon Tony Cozier and seeks to make a river of the tributaries: “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.” (African proverb quoted by Chinua Achebe) In a 21st Century colonised by the …
Read More »Bravo: I accept Adidas’ apology; says he felt “fans hurt” but mum on own feelings
West Indies cricket star Dwayne Bravo said he accepted an apology from the artist and creator of a controversial Adidas caricature of the athlete, which was since taken down. However, Adidas has made no further comment on the issue and did not issue a joint statement. Tellingly, Bravo did not give his …
Read More »Ignore the song and dance, West Indies’ professionalism led them to World Cup title
UWI senior economics lecturer and PNM senator Lester Henry explains why the West Indies’ 2016 Twenty20 World Cup success was a triumph of hard work and professionalism over happy-go-lucky cricket; and not the other way around: There is a saying, made popular by Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”, that if you spend …
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