Seventeen West Indies players will play in the 2022 Indian Premier League. Yet the Caribbean’s most dependable limited-overs bowler of recent years will not be among them. In spite of all he has done over the last year, Akeal Hosein went unsold at the IPL auction. That opening paragraph is …
Read More »Pooran hits half-century in vain as India hand West Indies 6-wkt defeat in opening T20I
Many hands, they say, make light work. India needed only six pairs of hands to chase down Kieron Pollard’s West Indies’ modest target of 157, getting to 162 with six wickets and seven balls in hand in the First T20 in Eden Gardens in Kolkata yesterday. After West Indies vice-captain …
Read More »Best: Pooran, Ambrose, big-money IPL contracts and WI; what sweet in goat mouth…
Toute vérité, we’ve been told, n’est pas bonne à dire. Even if is true, yuh doh have to say it… But 26-year-old would-be West Indies white ball captain Nicholas Pooran wouldn’t hesitate to tell you that it’s really sweet when your dreams come true. And 58-year-old former WI pacer Curtly …
Read More »Best: Niggling doubts about Pollard’s future as captain; is he considering calling it a day?
It’s beginning to look a lot like, not Christmas, but ciao for West Indies white ball captain Kieron Pollard. I have a niggling suspicion that the 34-year-old globetrotting allrounder has had it with the sniping and the pot-shot-taking that never ends in the Caribbean. And with having to repeat, you …
Read More »India clinch ODI series as West Indies top-order batsmen collapse around Brooks
With India unsteady on 43 for 3 in the 11th over, the Nicholas Pooran-led West Indies looked to have a sniff in the second ODI in the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad today. But after that, the visitors smelled only leather as Rohit Sharma’s batsmen powered their way to 237 …
Read More »Skerritt’s ‘introselection’ explained; why CWI presidents want no West Indies sole selector
Sick! Toxic! CWI president Ricky Skerritt has not actually uttered those words in public. Not yet. But two recent references to ‘mischief-makers’ tell us that this quiet, even-tempered Kittitian gentleman has had it up to here with what goes on behind closed doors in CWI. And in plain sight in …
Read More »Best: CWI cramping Haynes’ style; shouldn’t he be given full control of WI selection?
Unlike his departed predecessor, I’ll bet my hat that Desmond Leo Haynes won’t be announcing that he has to see Nicholas Pooran—or anyone else—play red ball cricket before he considers him for a place on the Test team. Already, he has announced he’ll be doing things his way; his panel …
Read More »Best: A selection reflection; if Haynes’ knowledge is ‘second to none’, why does he need a partner?
Recently retired former West Indies ODI captain Dwayne Bravo is not happy with the way CWI does business. “From top level, he explained to SportsMax in a post-World Cup interview, “the politics is so strong. It doesn’t matter who is the president or who is the CEO, they have the …
Read More »Media Monitor: Unamusing musings the morning after Holder’s WI miracle the night before
Although they may not admit it, people do not like to be wrong; certainly, nobody likes to be seen to be wrong. Sometimes, however, you rejoice that you did not get it right. And you are overjoyed that you resisted the temptation to rush into print to share the view …
Read More »Best: Regional rumblings rock CWI; mea culpa: me, mischief-makers and my big mouth
It was, I swear, a completely innocent comment. But the cricket coaches at Queen’s Royal College in the 1960s must take some of the blame. They taught us to try to see any cricket match through the eyes of the opposing captains. On 22 January in Wired868, this paragraph appeared …
Read More »Ali and Adil double-act puts brakes on West Indies, as Betway Series still alive for game five
Mooen Ali came to the party today, bringing his fastest half-century in T20Is and a couple of wickets to get England to 193 for 6 and restrict West Indies to 159 for 5. His 63 off 28 balls and 2/28 Man-of-the-Match performance helped his team beat Kieron Pollard’s West Indies …
Read More »Sparkling Nandu century takes WIU19 into Plate semis; England trounce South Africa
A rapid, Man-of-the-Match century by stand-in West Indies U19 captain Matthew Nandu was enough to leave a hapless Papua New Guinea floundering in the plate quarterfinals of the ICC U19 World Cup in Diego Martin today. And not content to have taken the opposition bowlers for 128 off only 134 …
Read More »