The spirit of George Orwell lay heavy over Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday evening after favourites Australia got past underdogs Afghanistan in the 50-over World Cup match. Over the entrance to the losers’ dressing room, my mind’s eye saw, adapted, the legend from his Animal Farm: ‘Two legs good, no …
Read More »Best: Will West Indies batsmen get IPL Easter resurrection lessons from mind coach Brian Lara?
Mid-April, the 53rd anniversary of the declaration by Dr Eric Williams’ embattled government of T&T’s first state of emergency, and two voices are in my head. One is real, the other imagined. Neither will go away. “Power alone will never make us strong. The heart must also sing the human …
Read More »‘He changed the landscape of contemporary cricket’; world cricket pays tribute to Shane Warne
Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt and head coach Phil Simmons have joined iconic cricketers like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and the rest of the world in paying tribute to legendary former Australia cricket leg-spinner Shane Warne, who passed away from a suspected heart attack in Thailand today. Thai Police …
Read More »Best: One short! Why Hosein joins Brathwaite and Lara on the long-lasting WI memories list
I think I ought to apologise to Hayden Walsh Jr. But I know I owe Akeal Hosein an apology. Romario Shepherd, the allrounder who shared the spotlight with Hosein in Game Two of the Betway five-match T20 series in Barbados on Sunday, had an essential message for the West Indians …
Read More »T2021 W/C PM: Why Carlos Brathwaite puts the peerless Prince in 2nd place
We does win, dem does lorse. Mathematically, defending champions West Indies were knocked out of the 2021 T20 World Cup when they failed to beat Sri Lanka on Thursday 4 November. In fact, Kieron Pollard’s side were effectively out of the World Cup after they could only muster 55 in …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Romanticising Carlos Brathwaite; how 2016 torpedoed Pollard’s WI in UAE
History, they say, is written by the victors. For just over a week, we still enjoy the title of defending T20 World Cup champions. Let us, therefore, while we still can, rewrite history. Not, like Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards and all the self-serving colonial powers, with a view to …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Are Pollard’s men finally ready to change the tune, after ‘collapso’ mess?
At 25 for 1 in the fourth over of England’s pursuit of 55 in the West Indies’ opening match of the 2021 T20 World Cup campaign, Win Predictor gave Kieron Pollard’s side a 1% chance of victory. On commentary on television at the time, former England captain Michael Atherton questioned …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Hidden hazards; will what WI don’t see hurt our chances?
In Group 1 of the Super 12’s, Australia, England and South Africa await. When the 2021 edition of the ICC World Cup eventually bowls off in the UAE and Oman in mid-October, those three will lead the attempt to knock the crown off the head of Kieron Pollard’s defending champions. …
Read More »CPL 2021: Anatomy of a cricketing coup; an insider details how the Patriots became kings
“[…] In these smaller islands, the level of insularity in cricket and other sports means that opportunities for our players and athletes are inherently less than those of our more endowed larger island nations of the archipelago. “I was always one to support the underdog against all odds so now …
Read More »CPL 2021: Ali Khan, Pollard in spotlight as TKR thump back-pedalling Tallawahs
The official record will show Ali Khan as the Man-of-the-Match in the hugely important Match 19 at Warner Park in St Kitts on Tuesday. The 30-year-old Khan, returning to the Trinbago Knight Riders’ line-up after missing half the season, claimed four wickets for six runs to completely undermine the Jamaica …
Read More »CPL 2021: Simmons’ 70 sees TKR to safety, sinks Tallawahs into the cellar
A catastrophic early collapse when they batted and a steady, level-headed second-wicket partnership when they fielded left the Jamaica Tallawahs’ ship taking water as they fell to the Trinbago Knights Riders in 2021 CPL action at Warner Park in St Kitts today. On a day when they needed their A-game, …
Read More »CPL 2021: Allen, Sherfane set St Kitts alight as Bravo’s Patriots thump Tallawahs
The Patriots being the home team, after Wednesday evening’s events at Warner Park in St Kitts, the Caribbean Premier League may well find itself accused of condoning domestic violence. Led by Sherfane Rutherford’s third half-century and with a late 12-ball 30 from Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo’s high-flying troops beat the …
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