Roger Harper is tall, is built like a broad-shouldered boxer and was a great fieldsman and an off-spinner in his time on the cricket fields of the world. Relevance? At the media conference called to discuss—defend?—the 15-member squad selected by the West Indies lead selector and his panel for the …
Read More »CPL 2021: Best holds his hand on Bravo vs Pollard—but not on Holder
You don’t have to be a film buff with a preference for watching westerns to know the meaning of ‘to holster’. But if you’re not a cricket fan with a preference for watching West Indies matches, you probably do not know the meaning of ‘to holder’. Born about a decade …
Read More »T2021 W/C: With unselective six-seeking, Pollard’s ‘Fab Four’ musketeers can go wrong—Best’s WI dream team
Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan. Remember them? One for all and all for one? French figments of Alexandre Dumas’ fertile 19th Century imagination. How many of us have seen ourselves in these swashbuckling heroes? Sixty thousand Frenchmen cannot be wrong, right? Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell. …
Read More »Media Monitor: Lee’s mysterious hyphen, (h)executed exams and Thompson’s new Herah
In a thought-provoking but amusing piece you can find on the Internet, Christopher Howse complains about the pronunciation ‘haitch for aitch’. “There must be a confused idea that since the letter h- is aspirated, its name should be too,” he continues. “It’s a kind of genteelism, like saying ‘Between you …
Read More »T2021 W/C: A tale of two T20 catches and a jaw-dropping Allen flight
Fabian Allen doesn’t drop catches; everyone knows that. Dwayne Bravo doesn’t either; everyone knew that. Except, it seems, Fabian Allen. In the Third T20I at the Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia on Monday 12 July, those pieces all came together. In spectacular fashion. But that may not be so …
Read More »T2021 W/C: A mad man’s rant on Hurricane Gayle, Harper, Pollard and West Indies hopes
I vex too bad. Since Chris Gayle, looking something like the long-time Gayle, buss real bat on Finch and dem twice last week, I curious like hell. Ah want to find out wha go happen in October when, the news jess break, WI in de same first round group with …
Read More »Best: What Pooran at the helm says about tomorrow’s West Indies
‘A man hit a ball in St Lucia and it end up in Trinidad…’ Superblue’s original reference is to a prince, Brian Charles Lara, the Prince of Port-of-Spain, in Antigua; mine is to a batsman, left-handed like Lara, who, in the 1st T20I between West Indies and Australia at the …
Read More »Media Monitor: The lighter side of a heavy Australia 56-run defeat
Some people say T20 is not cricket, it’s entertainment. It’s not a distinction that my family is wont to make or one I am prepared to spend any energy on challenging either. We watch T20 cricket and have great fun doing so. The Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia. Game …
Read More »Best: The endless experience experiment: on WI’s use of Gayle, Fidel, Russell and DJ Bravo
Old Chris Gayle a fine opener was A destructive run-scorer was he. He wielded a broad bat and if to him you bowled Every ball disappear you could see. Comparison to Old King Cole hardly does justice to long-standing West Indies stalwart, Christopher Henry Gayle. After all, he is a …
Read More »Best: Is Holder’s unbirthday gift enough to take Brathwaite’s WI over the line?
Joshua da Silva had a birthday on Labour Day, Day Two of the Second Test between West Indies and South Africa. His former skipper Jason Holder will turn 30 on November 5 so yesterday would have been his unbirthday. He celebrated it in style, giving the side he once captained …
Read More »Vice-captain Blackwood follows Virat Kohli’s lead and gets his numbers up
Do the math. Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies were only half as good as Dean Elgar’s South Africa in the first innings of the Second Test match in St Lucia. Facing a 149-run deficit, WI will have to bowl out of their skins to avoid having a mountain to climb on …
Read More »Media Monitor: Badjohn big boys beating up on Biles and Osaka is just not cricket
If Paul Pogba had had the temerity to be the first to do what Cristiano Ronaldo did during his media conference, would the UEFA response have been as muted? The question lurked darkly in my mind as I watched the TV news reporting the UEFA warning to the players to …
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