The following article was written by Lasana Liburd for the Trinidad Express on 8 July 2004, after West Indies defeated England in the NatWest ODI semifinals at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London: Nobel laureate VS Naipaul boasted about going there, legendary West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago spin bowler …
Read More »Brathwaite leads from the front but WI bowling fails to break through against S/Lanka
After Kraigg Brathwaite West Indies’ largely encouraging First Test performance, the selectors surprised many with the XI they announced for the Second Test against Dimuth Karunaratne’s Sri Lanka. But the unchanged side earned an honourable draw, entirely justifying the panel’s faith in them and reinforcing the idea that the best …
Read More »Dear Editor: Malls packed, beaches crowded, new movies in cinema; yet they pick on sports
“[…] Last Saturday, the malls were jam-packed with juveniles and police had to be called in to disperse the crowd. Beaches remain open and quite obviously will be crowded this weekend, just as they were reported to be last weekend, while there are sure to be new movies released in the cinema. …
Read More »Calling Roger Harper; reviewing Blackwood’s 29-ball first innings cameo
Hello? Roger Harper? Please hear me out. If Jermaine Blackwood is a Test batsman, then redwood is a cure for cancer and Covid, Idi Amin is King Henry the Eighth and I am Tiger Woods’ father. And son. Have you watched the shocking videotape of the 29-year-old Jamaican’s knock in …
Read More »Skerritt v Sanasie postponed, as Barbados and Guyana boards fail to attend CWI AGM
The 2021 Cricket West Indies (CWI) annual general meeting, which includes the election of a president and vice-president, was adjourned today due, remarkably, to the body’s failure to reach a quorum in its virtual meeting. The CWI Articles of Association stipulate that nine representatives of full member bodies must be …
Read More »Harper, Hope, Holder, Brathwaite, Blackwood, Bonner, Bravo, the baby and the bathwater
Kraigg Brathwaite’s eighth-ranked West Indies now look more likely to go on to lose the series against seventh-rated Dimuth Karunaratne’s Sri Lanka than to win it. And whether or not they do, some serious questions have to be asked of lead selector Roger Harper and his panel. And answered, one …
Read More »West Indian winning, winners and madness of persistent perversity; Best changes for 2nd Test
A winning team. You could safely describe Clive Lloyd’s late Seventies and early Eighties West Indies team thus. Perhaps the tag is also applicable to Vivian Richards’ 1980/90s team which indisputably had what their skipper called ‘the winning habit’. A team that won. That tag befits Kraigg Brathwaite’s second-string side …
Read More »Vaneisa: What trust can do; the rebuilding of West Indies cricket
I’ve been restraining myself from writing about cricket although I have been following our regional matches closely. There seems to be a gradual shift in the approach that makes me hope that something different is seeping in to the culture which has plagued the game for so long. After the …
Read More »Dear Editor: WI could do with more Hope in ICC Test Chase against Sri Lanka
“[…] The three-member CWI selection panel has been doing a creditable job and the 13-member squad they have chosen to face Sri Lanka will, I think, give a good account of itself. “Even without Shai Hope and Roston Chase. But that does not, in my opinion, justify their exclusion. I …
Read More »Chasing rainbows; wind in WI ODI sails as long trip to India 2023 begins
WI are rounding the corner. But don’t start celebrating just yet. We are heading to Toco; the corner we are just rounding is Icacos Point. Like in the bad old days of the Middle Passage, we are in a row boat. Going east. Against the tide. There is good news, …
Read More »Bravo joins party as WI sweep Sri Lanka in ODI series, Hasaranga heroics for nought
West Indies openers Shai Hope and Evin Lewis put just 24 on the scoreboard today before they were separated. No matter, as Darren Bravo delivered in the middle order with his fourth One Day International century, to help the hosts to a 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka at the Sir …
Read More »The Good, the Bad and the Polly; why Harper chose Kraigg Brathwaite
God alone knows what Roger Harper’s proclivities are as far as religion and politics go. There are, however, enough clues around, I submit, for West Indies fans to reach tentative conclusions about how the CWI lead selector’s cricketing mind works. Faith, says the Good Book, is the substance of things …
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