Since taking over the Cricket West Indies reins last March, new boss Ricky Skerritt has added real value to the West Indies brand. So far, he has talked good West Indies talk and walked the West Indies walk. However, the long-hoped-for turnaround remains elusive—and I am not merely talking about …
Read More »BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate: Everyone loves a winner; why calypso shunned the Prince
On his first overseas tour as West Indies captain in 1998-99, Brian Lara took action on behalf of the players and forced the now late Pat Rousseau’s and the WICBC’s hand. Where, pray, were the calypsonians? Beginner and Maestro had already passed on but Sparrow and Kitchie were still with …
Read More »BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate: Sachin statistical score settled, Bradman left a little bit behind?
“In all,” observes Jon Hotten in The Meaning of Cricket, “he faced 19, 753 balls in Test cricket and another 13,086 in one-day internationals before he retired in 2007. Only 483 of those resulted in his dismissal, so 32,356 did not. “Put differently, just 1.47 per cent of the deliveries …
Read More »Calypso cricket; Sparrow, Shadow and Shannon’s Sunday slog
Out of the woodwork they have come in their numbers, rushing to the defence of poor Shannon Gabriel whose unsurprising eleventh hour Sunday evening brain fart handed Pakistan the Third and final Test in Dominica two weekends ago. But what know they of Caribbean cricket, to misquote CLR James, who do …
Read More »Dhoni, Sobers or Warne as World T20 skipper? Best looks at ESPN’s World XI Team
Neither Brian Lara with his multiple batting records nor Curtly Ambrose with his deadly destructive 20.99 ODI bowling average was deemed good enough to make the final ESPN World XI. Joel Garner, whose ODI strike rate is an impressive 50.8 and whose average is even more impressive at an incredible …
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 …
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