Scene: Office of the Minister of Satire. The phone rings. Mr Live Wire: Hello? Caller (singing): Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind… Live Wire: I hope you referring to Kamla. Caller: What? No my brother. Auld Lang Syne means to ‘times gone past’. I am calling …
Read More »Straitjacket for Simmons, Fazeer Mohammed identified as WI’s problem
The good news is that the West Indies cricket team have finally made a defiant stance at a cricket pitch in Australia. The bad news is it is not against anyone in a “baggy green.” Coach Phil Simmons and his troops won’t be taming any Lyons this month from the …
Read More »Anatomy of a back-stabbing: Live Wire looks at WICB’s treatment of Simmons
If Phil Simmons didn’t care whether West Indies won or lost cricket matches, he would still be in a job today. But he did. So he isn’t. From the moment Simmons chose to retain the notion that, as West Indies cricket coach, he deserved the best players available to win matches, …
Read More »Jason Holder’s West Indies plan; Best comments on new regional captain
Earl Best comments on the dumping of the relatively recently appointed captain Denesh Ramdin and the very recent selection of his young successor: If there were an election to determine the position of West Indies cricket captain, we might all have been getting e-mails and text messages from the newly …
Read More »Windies continue slide into cricket abyss with Champions Trophy failure
“Running a board with only management skills,” declared former West Indies team manager Rudi Webster in yesterday’s Express, “is like trying to cut a piece of paper with half a pair of scissors.” “We must remember that in general,” he also noted, “when we are dealing with human beings, we …
Read More »Time to rewrite ‘Rally’? Keeping faith in WI and reactive Ramdin
I am willing to bet that there is a West Indian native or a West Indian supporter in the stats department at espncricinfo. That would explain why somebody tried to take shame outta we face on Sunday after Michel Clarke’s Aussies rolled over Denesh Ramdin’s West Indies with almost five …
Read More »Chanderpaul’s axing: Has the WICB tamed a ‘toothless’ Tiger?
They call him Shiv, they call him Chanders, they call him ‘Tiger,’ they call him just plain old Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Whichever name you use for him, you will not see it on the 14-man list of players named by the West Indies selectors for the two-Test series against World Champions …
Read More »The Chanderpaul conundrum: Should ‘Tiger’ tail wag WI cricket dog?
Shivnarine Chanderpaul thinks, I am hearing, that West Indies cricket has not given him the send-off he deserved. I agree. 100%. Shivnarine Chanderpaul also thinks, I am hearing, that West Indies cricket has not given him the send-off he deserves. As does Brian Charles Lara. I disagree. 100%. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, …
Read More »Bravo and Blackwood sing WI captain Ramdin’s redemption song
“Now yuh in front de stand, yuh stiffing yuh chest, yuh waving yuh hand, yuh lifting yuh dress. Eh-eh, lady, how yuh have so much zest?” Darren Bravo and Jermaine Blackwood are now giving England’s Joe Root and Mooen Ali thunder at Kensington Oval. Having defied the spearheads of the …
Read More »Simmons to West Indies: To kneel or not two-nil
Columnist Earl Best looks at the chances of Denesh Ramdin’s men drawing level with England in the three-Test series, which the tourists already lead 1-0: Pride, the old saw tells us, goes before a fall but there’s no adage that I know of which tells us when pride comes back. …
Read More »Will Cooke’s England draw a blank against the poor WI?
As Jason Holder and Kemar Roach battled manfully to stave off defeat on Friday evening, a friend of mine sent me a sarcastic text. “No chance of West Indies winning,” it read, “but not a soul has left the stadium. My, my! The excitement of playing for a draw.” Almost …
Read More »The belly of the WICBeast: Analysing Cameron’s election win
It only defies logic for a moment. As soon as you begin to think about the possible reasons why the West Indies Cricket Board would have re-elected outgoing president Dave Cameron, it makes perfect sense: it’s not cricket because it’s not about cricket. Read Raffique Shah’s column on page 14 …
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