“Indian fans declare excitement,” a pre-match tweet announced, “over chance to see Sachin and 21 other guys whose names escape me.” The source does not identify the tweeter but it could have been ESPNcricinfo Assistant Editor Allan Gardner, the writer of an online preview to yesterday’s pompously named Marylebone Cricket …
Read More »Can WI’s T20I form affect Ramdin’s Test captaincy?
On the evidence we have from the just completed three-Test series, new West Indies skipper Denesh Ramdin is going to need a miracle to deliver the turnaround we’re all now looking to him for. So, as a true-true, maroon-blooded WI supporter, I am hoping that, after beating Ramdin’s side 2-1 …
Read More »Will Lara upstage skipper Tendulkar in Lord’s exhibition?
Old prejudices die hard. So, given a choice between missing an England World Cup win and a typical Brian Lara century, Khrystine, a sports-loving second-generation England citizen, born in London and raised there during the Clive Lloyd/Viv Richards era, never hesitated. “England might be in Russia again in 2018,” she …
Read More »Not WI: New Zealand reveals it would never have abandoned Narine
New Zealand cricket team coach Mike Hesson has revealed his team’s alternative viewpoint on cricketers arriving late from the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the “Kiwis” start their Test series against the West Indies today. The West Indies is without star spinner Sunil Narine after the Trinidadian was excluded by …
Read More »Beyond the maroon: Race, identity, history and West Indies cricket
I was, as a young boy, obsessed with cricket. Up until age nine, I was still an only child and had learned to occupy myself for hours on end by imagining entire Test series played out in the backyard of my grandparents’ house. I knew by heart the rosters and …
Read More »Ramdin faces challenge to shed bad image and revitalize West Indies
Eight of the 12 people I asked to share the first thought that came into their heads when they heard the name Denesh Ramdin said, “Yeah Viv, Talk Nah;” only three of the eight remembered without prompting that the “Talk Nah” incident had followed a century made by the West …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘greatest’ debate (Epilogue): Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar?
Reflecting on his conversations with Frank Hernandez, a now 69-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside and who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants, Earl Best arrives at his own conclusions. Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ Debate (Part Two): Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar
Earl Best completes the transcript of his conversations with Frank Hernandez, a 68-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside and who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants. Today is the 10th anniversary of Lara’s world record 400 runs against England, which …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ Debate: Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar?
Earl Best gets an answer, impassioned, predictable and as unbiased as it can be from a 68-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside but who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants. Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the …
Read More »Transparency Int’nal slams ICC: Cricket needs comprehensive reforms
Transparency International (TI) chapters from nine cricket-playing countries, including Australia, India and United Kingdom, express serious concern at proposed reform of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and call on the ICC to publish a formal response to the Woolf Report and meanwhile halt any other significant governance reforms. A joint …
Read More »Hail Tendulkar; but praise Lara and Chanderpaul too
As expected, India duly completed their win in the Second Testimonial in Mumbai on Saturday before the end of the third day. But on the occasion of the formal ascension of the latest member to join their pantheon, the gods of cricket were not in generous mood. In the first …
Read More »Open Letter to Bravo: Windies names ODI squad for Pakistan
I don’t know about you, Dwayne, but I got a bit of a surprise when I read the WICB’s media release announcing the squad for the upcoming One-day Internationals against Pakistan. The first thing that struck me was not the absence of Denesh Ramdin’s name. Nor was it the omission …
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