Tag Archives: Early Bird

“If India don’t win the Champions Trophy,” Bobby greeted me early on Friday morning, “it won’t be the ICC’s fault.” “After all,” he added before I could respond, “they have certainly done all they can to hand the Indians the trophy.” And Rohit Sharma’s side, always favourites to walk away …

As many as 15 of the 74 players selected to play for West Indies in Tests since 2000 never got a second chance. If you’ve neither researched it nor given it too much thought, you might easily get the wrong impression. Bobby, my fo’daymorning walking pardnah, pretended not to care. …

There can be no doubt that eventual winners India deserved to have the lion’s share of the places on the T20WC24 Team of the Year. With a twelfth man included, India’s six picks represent exactly half of the places. But if we take away the capital letters and reference the …

Bobby did not know that Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka would fall at the first hurdle. But he knew that WI would not go beyond the Super Eight—“if they get that far”. He’s been saying it for weeks. And he knew Nicholas Pooran would not deliver when it mattered; …

Wednesday 12 June, 8.44pm. We are halfway through the disastrous West Indies powerplay. Johnson Charles, inexplicably preferred to Shai Hope as opener, has promptly—entirely predictably—perished. Nicholas Pooran has come in. And departed, not uncharacteristically bidding to smash his 12th ball for six and getting only a top edge. “THEY NOT …

“On a hill far away,” Paul burst into mournful fo’daymorning song as he caught up with us, “stands a new water tank, the emblem of suffering and shame…” Taken completely by surprise, Bobby and I looked blankly at each other. “Who side you on?” Paul asked. Scores of people, mainly …

“What’s really going on with this WASA water tank?” Bobby inquired, in the middle of our walk last Wednesday morning. In the area to the west of the tank, there was heavy machinery, a tractor and a front-end loader. I know that put Bobby’s mind at ease. He is a …

“What shit you talking, bro?” Bobby asked, his jaw literally dropping. “We talking bout the same song?” Even before Calypso Fiesta, I had shared Soul of Calypso with my pardna on WhatsApp. We both agreed then that it was not the “hit calypso” Machel would have us believe it is. …

The story about Kieron Pollard’s recently signed consultancy contract has not got a lot of traction in the media. But if Bobby is right, it could make a big difference to the outcome of this year’s World Cup. Twelve years ago in 2011, Pollard was offered a retainer contract by …

“Assholes!” Bobby shouts after the two half-naked young men as they fly around and past us like a speeding bus on Monday morning. And after one last, long look at the bare disappearing backs of the boy bandits, he resumes our interrupted conversation in his normal voice. “Which is also …

The Peterkin massacre, we’d both agreed last week, was a horror movie, which had moved murder in T&T into a whole new realm. And as I drove down to Bobby’s house early Monday morning, my mood was still more than muted, sombre. “Judgement,” Bobby the Bard greeted me even before …

Calmer than you imagine any Trinbago cricket fan would be, Bobby smirked his way through our entire fo’daymorning Republic Day walk. A smirk is a kind of fleeting oral halo. It is a personal recognition of if not saintliness, at least rightness. Maybe not every time, it concedes-cum-brags, but this …