That cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties is, though never irrelevant, a very tired cliché. That Test cricket is the most severe examination a player can get, though not clichéd, is not exactly new. West Indies did learn a new cricketing truth today, however. It is that, even when …
Read More »Best: Will West Indies keel over and die? Holder to the rescue against Root’s rampant England
Conventional wisdom holds that Stuart Broad’s Sunday evening new ball spell killed off the West Indies chances in the Second Test at Old Trafford. The truth, however, is that, had Jason Holder been at the top of his game on Monday morning, he might have found a pulse where the …
Read More »Best: Holder’s West Indies to win the Wisden Trophy? You bet!
I am willing to wager more than a few quid on a West Indies victory. Only a handful of England’s actors (skipper Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad) remain on the 2020 set. But Jason Holder has no fewer than seven of his 2017 West Indians, including …
Read More »Captaincy playbook: ‘Careful captaincy’ made the difference for great West Indies sides
The West Indies has had a phenomenal number of exceptional cricketers in its history. The captains have been mostly middling. I restricted the playbooks to those of Frank Worrell, Richie Benaud and Mike Brearley simply because they were known as thinking men—able in both the technical and ‘man-management’ aspects of …
Read More »Captaincy playbook: Worrell banned cards before Tests but would take players out
It was reported that during the 2019 ICC World Cup, the England team pulled up and did some soul searching. They revisited videos of sessions featuring themselves—not at play—but talking about their feelings. Their feelings. It takes a lot of courage to do that; courage and trust. I’m thinking here …
Read More »The run of a lifetime: the inimitable, ‘non-sixy’ West Indies icon Sir Everton Weekes
Practically all the tributes that have congregated in memory of Sir Everton Weekes have come from cricketers and sports writers. They list his age, his career statistics and his batting style. Some have recounted an encounter. Cricket reporters tend to give the numbers; cricket writers are more interested in telling …
Read More »CWI honours late Sir Everton Weekes: a Founding Father of West Indies Cricket Excellence
“[…] In his career, Sir Everton played 48 Test matches and made 4,455 runs at an average of 58.61 per innings. This included a world record five consecutive centuries in 1948: scores of 141 against England in Jamaica, followed by scores of 128, 194, 162 and 101 in India. “In …
Read More »The Old, the Young, the Unwanted—Pt 2: will CWI find more measured role for Gayle?
The second T20I in St Kitts. Andrew Balbirnie contrives only to send his attempted slog off Romario Shepherd skywards. The sure-handed Dwayne John Bravo settles under it. The overly excited 25-year-old gets in the way. The chance goes a-begging. The Ireland skipper benefits from an early reprieve. Bravo’s bemused expression …
Read More »Best: The Old, the Young, the Unwanted; time for WI to kill the fatted calf
With the wicked stepfather now out of the picture, the prodigal sons are back in the fold. And recent results suggest that the West Indies cricket family is once again not doing too badly, thank you. But Dwayne John Bravo seems not entirely sanguine about the status quo. Bravo’s younger …
Read More »Scalp by scalp, Walsh steadily stakes claim for T20 World Cup selection
Despite being a player on the regional scene since the 2011-12 season, Hayden Walsh jr had never really knocked on the selection door before the middle of the 2019 CPL season. In the third game of his debut regional season, he had impressed with returns of 4 for 47 against …
Read More »Best: Boo not bravo, as ‘DJ’ makes wrong selection in pushing Gayle recall
Let me say it loud and clear, un-e-qui-vo-cal-ly, with no water in my mouth: as far as representative West Indies senior team cricket is concerned, Chris Gayle is not yet quite ancient history. He is nonetheless history! Make no mistake about that. And Dwayne ‘DJ’ Bravo can recommend Gayle’s recall until his …
Read More »Best: Lil pin does chook hard; Walsh jr settles question of WI size
Hayden Walsh jr stands only 5’7” in his socks. But since last October, he has been steadily rising to the challenge of being a West Indian cricketer at last. But no matter how high he climbs, even if he were a 6’4” Alzarri Joseph or a 6’7” Jason Holder or …
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