“[…] Who selects our commentators? What prerequisites should potential commentators have before qualifying as commentators, and being unleashed on the helpless listeners? Is a facility with the English language one of these prerequisites?” The following Letter to the Editor on the standard of West Indies cricket commentary was submitted to …
Read More »Champs again! TKR firepower too much for game Zouks; sorry-for-self Sammy to soldier on?
Champions know that the time to be in front is at the end; three-time CPL winners the Trinbago Knight Riders arguably know it better than most. And therefore today went on to become four-time title-holders. The victory means that they did not lose a single one of their 12 games …
Read More »CPL 2020: Will Zouks fire and team spirit suffice to stop speeding Trinbago train?
Rahkeem Cornwall flings, using the term loosely, his 305-lb frame low to his right at gully to grab and smother an Imran Tahir edge. It’s all over—the Guyana Amazon Warriors innings, not the frame!—for a mere 55. For the first time ever, the St Lucia Zouks are into the CPL …
Read More »CPL: Tridents, Patriots outclassed as Pollard, Pooran provide virtual lessons at QP Oval
It is looking as if Kieron Pollard’s Trinbago Knight Riders will give the nation a belated but welcome Independence gift. As 2020 CPL action shifts back to the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba tomorrow, TKR are firmly in the driver’s seat. For those fans with short memories, that is precisely …
Read More »Holder’s men in Tri-Nation final: which WI will turn up, calypso or collapso?
Did you see Monday evening’s World Cup programme or last week’s promo for it? The one in which ex-WI captain Darren Sammy matter-of-factly asserts that ‘West Indies are winning the World Cup’? I mean, really matter-of-factly. As if he were saying ‘The sun rises in the east.’ Promo and programme …
Read More »CPL 17: Shillingford gives T&T fans the shivers; but TKR has last laugh in colourful clash
“We go chase down dem runs in 14 overs,” an eager Carib Stand patron told Wired868, his smile so wide there might have been saliva spilling into his ears. “Fourteen?” another fan within earshot sneered. “Yuh mad or what? We winning in ten!” I was struck by the complete identification …
Read More »CPL 17: Shadab outshines Stars in TKR home win; spin reigns at Oval
There’s a new star in the CPL firmament but he is not from the newly re-named St Lucia franchise. The 18-year-old Shadab Khan was a shining light for the Trinbago Knight Riders in their less-than-convincing four-wicket victory over the St Lucia Stars in Monday night’s CPL 2017 action at the …
Read More »CPL 17: Trinbago Knight Riders look to double up; bid to down Sammy’s Stars again
They’re back! And they’re bidding to do better than they did last year! When Dwayne Bravo’s Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) take on Darren Sammy’s St Lucia Stars (SLS) in an early return match at the Queen’s Park Oval this evening, they will be at almost full strength. Missing from the …
Read More »Who will lead WI away from the abyss? Vidale urges fans to rally for the team we deserve
“It is bad captaincy that is causing us to be scrambled, everybody is whispering and shrugging shoulders. ... In this campaign I shall spare nobody… I hereby give notice; I shall not let this question rest until it is corrected… This fooling with the West Indies captaincy has gone on too …
Read More »Darren and the IPL: Best examines links between Bravo, Pooran, Lara… and the media
It brought Garry Sobers to the verge of public tears in Sri Lanka in 2015. Wherever Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh and Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards are in the world, it is almost certain to bring them to private tears. And it will make cricketing knights Frank Worrell and …
Read More »… And the media keep right on media-ing: How to bring the WICB to heel
Columnist Earl Best calls on the regional media to sign a hands-off, ‘non-corporation’ pact to bring WICB president Dave Cameron and company to heel: What know they of cricket, CLR James asked almost five and a half decades ago, who only cricket know? What know they of West Indies cricket, …
Read More »Radicalising chance for change: how Sammy’s example can help T&T economy
Among the many points to be distilled from the West Indies’ Twenty20 victories is that the solution to any Caribbean problem often lies beyond the boundary of the problem as usually defined. This is as true of our cricket as it is of our economy, politics or, indeed, any other …
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