Columnist Earl Best refuses to shoulder arms as he revisits one of the most controversial periods in Trinidad and Tobago’s history History is replete—littered is more appropriate since the dung heap of history is where we find them—with characters who make no distinction between fame and notoriety. Adolf Hitler, Jack …
Read More »When The Political Tongue Slips
Earl Best recalls some occasions when the public language was not, ahm, parliamentary… Three years ago, Benjai’s monster hit “Trini” mash up the whole place. “And they like to hear Trini talk, talk, talk, talk, talk…,” he told us. There wasn’t one dissenting voice. That “they” includes me because, in …
Read More »Is The Kiwi Defeat a Half-Step Backwards For Ramdin?
Earl Best discusses the new skipper’s support after the five-match New Zealand series And so, it is over. I refer, of course, both to the New Zealand versus the West Indies series which sought in vain to divert our attention from Brazil and to the 2014 World Cup that was …
Read More »Exploring race and class at the 2014 World Cup
Am I my World Cup brother’s (goal)keeper? Earl Best tackles a delicate subject with all the tact and finesse of an elephant in the Serengeti…or a police raid Behind the Bridge: There is a very real resemblance between Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi, the tall, handsome, articulate, intelligent, talented, black, francophone pair of …
Read More »The Four Moments Which Decided World Cup 2014
So the ruthless Germans have won the Cup after all? It wasn’t the outcome Wired868 expert Lasana Liburd foresaw. But he has now decreed that tiki-kaiser shall henceforth succeed tiki-taka as football’s dominant style. Liburd’s opinion dovetails with the post-final view expressed by TV6’s Sweet Samba guru Keith Look Loy. …
Read More »Lara makes no name for himself at Lord’s
“Indian fans declare excitement,” a pre-match tweet announced, “over chance to see Sachin and 21 other guys whose names escape me.” The source does not identify the tweeter but it could have been ESPNcricinfo Assistant Editor Allan Gardner, the writer of an online preview to yesterday’s pompously named Marylebone Cricket …
Read More »Can WI’s T20I form affect Ramdin’s Test captaincy?
On the evidence we have from the just completed three-Test series, new West Indies skipper Denesh Ramdin is going to need a miracle to deliver the turnaround we’re all now looking to him for. So, as a true-true, maroon-blooded WI supporter, I am hoping that, after beating Ramdin’s side 2-1 …
Read More »Will Lara upstage skipper Tendulkar in Lord’s exhibition?
Old prejudices die hard. So, given a choice between missing an England World Cup win and a typical Brian Lara century, Khrystine, a sports-loving second-generation England citizen, born in London and raised there during the Clive Lloyd/Viv Richards era, never hesitated. “England might be in Russia again in 2018,” she …
Read More »Ramdin faces challenge to shed bad image and revitalize West Indies
Eight of the 12 people I asked to share the first thought that came into their heads when they heard the name Denesh Ramdin said, “Yeah Viv, Talk Nah;” only three of the eight remembered without prompting that the “Talk Nah” incident had followed a century made by the West …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘greatest’ debate (Epilogue): Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar?
Reflecting on his conversations with Frank Hernandez, a now 69-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside and who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants, Earl Best arrives at his own conclusions. Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ Debate (Part Two): Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar
Earl Best completes the transcript of his conversations with Frank Hernandez, a 68-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside and who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants. Today is the 10th anniversary of Lara’s world record 400 runs against England, which …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ Debate: Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar?
Earl Best gets an answer, impassioned, predictable and as unbiased as it can be from a 68-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside but who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants. Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the …
Read More »