Cricket

It would be a major surprise if the Sabina Park and Queen’s Park Oval crowds prove as patient and as tolerant in the face of inclement weather as was the largely Indian Edgbaston crowd yesterday. “England rains,” wrote one Twitter user, “but India reign.” There were jokes aplenty before India sneaked …

Were you, brother and sister international cricket fan, responsible for organising the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy tournament in England, where would you stage the final? I want you to answer honestly, not just to give me the answer you think I want to hear. At Lord’s, right? For me, it …

Having already lost power-hitter Kieron Pollard and mystery spinner Sunil Narine, Trinidad and Tobago continued the haemorrhage in the June 5 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) draft in Montego Bay in Jamaica. That does not seem to bother officials of the local franchise, the Red Steel, who claim not to be …

A white ’ooman name Miss Black, a black ’ooman name Miss White, a red ooman name Miss Green is the funniest ting I’ve seen. A narrow-minded referee name Chris Broad… The calypsonian did not actually sing those lines half-a-century or so ago. But if, like me, he has followed the …

Not for nothing were West Indian teams prior to Kerry Packer’s crucial intervention in the late 1970’s ritually called “Calypso Cricketers.” Sparrow’s “Slave” contains a line that perhaps epitomizes the regional attitude to the game. In that classic tune, the Calypso King of the World as first person narrator describes …

7.45pm, June 14, 2013, The Kennington Oval. It is drizzling steadily but West Indian ODI captain Dwayne Bravo and his immediate predecessor Darren Sammy decline to leave the field. AB de Villiers and his South Africans, who looked hard-pressed to salvage a much-needed win, have long since disappeared into the …

So the reigning T20 champions will miss out on the June 23 Edgbaston Champions Trophy final which, with luck, could feature India and South Africa. But it was neither Mother India nor Mother Africa that did the West Indies in, as the conspiracy theorists might argue. No, say the apologists, …

The conspiracy theorists are having a field day; according to them, India’s easy win on Tuesday was set up by the two-match ban on West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin. I have heard no suggestions about the use to which the sanctioned wicketkeeper’s match fee has been put but I feel …

A still tongue, Denesh Ramdin would have heard over and over after the 2012 Test versus England in Birmingham, keeps a wise head. I confess that, with my “Yea, Denesh, Hush Nah” and “A Right Royal Ramdin Ruckus” articles in the July and August editions of the Trinidad and Tobago …

Two characteristics noticeable in the legendary cricket teams of the post-World War II era were depth and the predominance of one territory in each nation, which usually became the core of their first XI. The first great West Indies team from 1963-68 had a strong Barbadian influence and was captained …

In Charlie’s Angels, an American television series later adapted into a movie, three attractive private investigators work for a boss that they never met and who gives instructions through speaker phone. It is tempting to believe that the West Indies cricket team shares a similar relationship with its selection committee, …

The West Indies cricket team’s 3-0 One-Day International (ODI) triumph against Zimbabwe marks the 16th time that the regional team has swept an opposing nation since a 1976 whitewash away to England under legendary captain Clive Lloyd. There is little similarity between those two emphatic series. Zimbabwe is clearly a minnow …