Where, pray, is Monty Desai? And what, pray, does the current West Indies batting coach contribute to regional cricket? I think those are two questions that need urgent answers. But I really don’t know whether—should we decide to direct them to CWI media officer Dario Barthley or through him—they will …
Read More »CWI axes selectors Harper, Bascombe; head coach Simmons to lead pro-tem panel
Appointed as lead selector for two years in mid-October 2019, Roger Harper got a two-month extension until the end of the current year. But that’s it! Cricket West Indies today announced that neither the former off-spinner nor Miles Bascombe, the second member of the three-member panel, will have his contract …
Read More »Media Monitor: Cricket coverage in the time of Covid; is the CWI media officer friend or foe?
Covid-19 has forced the postponement of the ODI half of the West Indies’ 2021 six-match Pakistan tour, six players and three team officials being required to withdraw into quarantine. We know eight names: Roston Chase, Sheldon Cottrell, Kyle Mayers, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Justin Greaves, assistant coach Roddy Estwick and …
Read More »Write Start: Allen-Agostini calls on young essay writers to develop writing muscle
The following is the full text of the brief address delivered by Lisa Allen-Agostini, chief judge for the 11-15 panel in the Write Start National Essay Writing Contest, at the prize-giving ceremony, held at the bMobile box at the Queen’s Park Oval on Thursday 16 December 2021. Also in attendance …
Read More »Media Monitor: Simmons to blame for pathetic WI? Howzat for ‘responsible’ journalism?!
Current West Indies coach Phil Simmons is a lucky man. Replying to Sri Lanka’s 386 all out in the First Test in Galle last month, Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies reached a precarious 100 for 6 in their first innings. And then, chasing 348 for victory, they found themselves at a …
Read More »‘Reds’ and McWatt: ‘Pure, unadulterated rubbish?’ We beg to differ, Mr Best!
The following is a response from veteran West Indies cricket commentator ‘Reds’ Perreira and Toronto-based Canadian Cricket’s media relations manager Tony McWatt to columnist Earl Best’s criticism of their 2021 T20 Cricket World Cup post-mortem: Wired868’s renowned writer Earl Best has recently, publicly, described the suggestions contained in our Tony-Reds …
Read More »Media Monitor: Two Tonys and a ‘Reds’; would Cozier have condoned that crazy WI analysis?
Asked to name a West Indies all-time best squad, Lloyd Best, a serious and respected commentator on all things West Indian, selected him first. The role played by the doyen of West Indian cricket writers in the promotion of regional cricket, Best was making the point, was more important than …
Read More »Chris Gayle ain’t leaving? As Pollard’s sorry side takes stock, will opener make WI a laughing stock?
There was a time when I would have laughed it off. But the moment the story of Chris Gayle’s latest ‘I ain’t leaving’ tweet came up in my feed, I went to YouTube to listen to Andre Tanker. Smokey Joe play a big-time mas./Purple velvet and shining brass./He went to …
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 PM: Six! The exhi-LARA-ting story of the peerless Prince of Port-of-Spain
Arithmetic and algebra are not two sides of the same coin. You can be great at one, a complete dud at the other. Take, for example, Roger Harper. In defending the selection of tearaway pacer Oshane Thomas, the West Indies lead selector identified him as ‘an X factor’. But in …
Read More »T2021 W/C Post-mortem: Solace for sad WI souls sunk by Pollard’s side’s six-seeking
When your World Cup ends prematurely, you’re in more hell than Brown. You looked at the West Indies line-up, boasting in excess of 1500 T20 matches, more than 20,000 thousand T20 runs and over a 1,000 T20 wickets. “If deh beat we,” you told yourself confidently, “deh eat we!” So …
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 …
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