MEDIA MONITOR: CPL cricket maths matter, mea culpa, ad nausea and missing Machel


People living in glass houses, we have heard over and over, have to careful bout pelting stone.

As a long-time Wired868 contributor, I have made it a major mission of mine to monitor the media’s many mistakes. And my parents, teachers and multiple mentors—God rest all their souls—have made me mindful that when I point an accusing finger at someone, there are usually three fingers pointing back at me. So even if I do not write, for example, ‘X was caught behind of Y’ (as one frequently sees in the Guardian) or do not talk about Footballer A delivering ‘the coup de gra’ in a 7-2 drubbing (as one frequently hears on TV6), that does not mean that there are mistakes which I can myself with impunity make.

Photo: TKR spinner Sunil Narine bowls a delivery during CPL action against the St Lucia Zouks on 8 September 2019.
(Copyright Nicholas Bhajan/CA-Images/Wired868)

That I do not mistake ‘Greaux’ (pronounced ‘grow’) for ‘Giroux’ or ‘Giraud’ (as is consistently the case on i95.5fm) or pronounce ‘Real Madrid’ as if the first of those two words were English (as I have more than once heard on TV6) does not absolve me of the responsibility to get my own stuff right. Every time.

In my column earlier this week, I wrote that, with neither the Trinbago Knight Riders v Barbados Tridents game nor the Guyana Amazon Warriors v TKR game as yet completed, ‘it is entirely conceivable that neither GAW nor TKR make it all the way to the final.’ So far, so good. That remains true. If Pollard’s side fails to get past Shoaib’s side today and finishes in fourth spot, then Carlos Brathwaite’s side, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, and Jason Holder’s side, Barbados Tridents, have a chance of ending up facing each other in the final.


But I did not stop there. ‘It is still mathematically possible that the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots,’ I continued, ‘skippered by former West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite, finish the qualifying round in second position.’

Mathematics has never been my strong point but it’s not the maths that did me in there; it’s the mindlessness. And my anti-Holderism. I’m willing to concede that my conviction that he should not have been the West Indian white ball captain has made me reluctant to accept that he has managed BT’s affairs well in recent games—albeit with more than a little help from his overly cavalier opponents!

My thinking was that, in the unlikely event that TKR lost both of their remaining games, they would end up on nine points, one adrift of STKNP. Mathematically, that’s accurate. But since BT would have earned two points for their ‘unlikely’ win—anti-Holderism?—over TKR, STKNP never had a chance of finishing second.

Embed from Getty Images

There are, indeed, none so blind as those who will not see. But having a glaring mistake appear in black and white is one fool-proof way to open any eyes. Sincere apologies.

Before I leave the cricket aside, let me just add a quick mention of the extremely negative effect of every night seeing the same ad repeated ad infinitum between overs and at the fall of every wicket. The Guardian, Carib, LLB and Omega XL may think they’re making a killing; as far as I am concerned, they are. But what they’re killing is any enthusiasm I might have had for spending any of my hard-earned money on any of those products. Maybe once the CPL is over next week, the negativity will disappear, leaving behind only the memory of the product names, which is how, they say, successful advertising works.

Speaking only for myself, dat jes ent going and happen; I doh tink I would want to hear nutten bout Omega XL fuh a long, long time—even if deh giving it away fuh free!

And before I close for today, I want to raise the issue of the lack of coverage of the IAAF World Championships in Doha. Is it that, with Mr Imbert’s budget presentation looming at the start of October, potential sponsors have been even more reluctant than usual to commit to major expenditure? Were the vision media not interested because the participants were less accoladed—thank you, Richard Thompson—than recent teams have tended to be? Or do the media moguls think that coverage in print and voice is adequate? Who really needs to see ‘live’ performances from a contingent that will most likely return home medal-less?

I feel certain that Machel Cedenio and his 4 X 400m teammates really appreciate the estimate that some people in the country seem to have made of their chances.

But with global warming, who knows when we will get our first hailstorm so I’m off to cover my (gl)ass.

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About Earl Best

Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970's. He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.

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