At a critical moment in the final Super Eights game, one of the team coaches left the pavilion and came to the boundary’s edge. Bangladesh looked well on course to get the 115 runs they needed to stop Afghanistan in their semifinal-bound tracks. One point is enough to make the …
Read More »Vaneisa: Questions of legality and integrity still haunt West Indies cricket
A few days ago at Lord’s, Sir Viv Richards and Sir Curtly Ambrose had a conversation with Machel Hewitt of talkSPORT radio in their capacity as ambassadors of the Antiguan Tourism Authority. Naturally, the talk turned to the state of West Indies cricket, and what they thought could be done …
Read More »Best: Berry wide of mark for praising WI style, yet blasting Lara
History, we West Indians are acutely aware, is written for the most part by the victors. So, although the West Indies have only beaten England seven times in the last 11 series since the end of 2000, in mid-April, British cricket writer Scyld Berry brought the late Tony Cozier to …
Read More »Vaneisa: It’s no wonder that citizens feel disrespected and disregarded
Situations can inch up stealthily, creeping up so insidiously that we cannot pinpoint the moment when an aberration became the norm. Allow me to return to the realm of cricket to illustrate what I mean about how a particular kind of leadership can damage the psyche of a people, and …
Read More »Vaneisa: Saluting cricketers in a league of their own
So far, in not writing about cricket for eight columns straight (I am sticking to my story that they are really about Caribbean societies), I have avoided naming any contemporary players. But I want to veer away a bit and talk about some CPL events, and that entails some name-calling. …
Read More »Saluting Sir Garry Sobers: Happy birthday to cricket’s unique ‘six-tool player’
Born 86 years ago today on 28 July 1936, Garfield St Aubrun Sobers became simply, as Sparrow sang, “the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars”. Hyperbole? Calypsonians, we know, are so prone. Still, it isn’t easy to dismiss the claim made by the Calypso King of the World on behalf …
Read More »Vaneisa: The enduring Master Blaster; why West Indies legend Viv Richards is the greatest
Every now and again, I indulge in a binge fest of Viv Richards. It’s therapeutic. Maybe it was triggered by his 70th birthday on 7 March, but it was such an intense submersion that I felt compelled to write about why Viv Richards resides in my mind as the greatest …
Read More »B&B Ep 22: Michael Holding: West Indies cricket icon, ‘Whispering Death’, unplugged
Legendary West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding, nicknamed ‘Whispering Death’, talks to the Burdie and Barney Show about his rise as an elite cricketer and then commentator, epic battles on the pitch and good times off it, decolonisation and how to rescue and revive regional cricket. Subscribe for free to …
Read More »McWatt: WI Women shine again, WI men batted too slowly but credit to CWI for Academy plans
“[…] West Indies cricket fans all over the world should now be overjoyed with the most wonderful news of Cricket West Indies’ announced intentions to create an Antigua Coolidge Cricket Centre-based Emerging Players Annual Academy. “[…] Many will expect that legends such as Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir …
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: Lara’s peculiar choice: is Prince of PoS putting Gayle part before WI whole?
I do NOT know if Mark Nicholas is the racist I believe him to be. It matters not to me today. I do NOT know if Quinton de Kock is the racist I do NOT believe him to be. It matters not to me today. Neither man’s issue matters 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 …
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