It didn’t take long, did it? Mouth open and ’tory jump out. Not one mouth, four mouth—not counting Dr Ralph Gonsalves who mouth cyar stay close when is West Indies cricket people talking bout. So first, it was Phil Simmons, who has never felt he wasn’t free to speak his …
Read More »Dhoni, Sobers or Warne as World T20 skipper? Best looks at ESPN’s World XI Team
Neither Brian Lara with his multiple batting records nor Curtly Ambrose with his deadly destructive 20.99 ODI bowling average was deemed good enough to make the final ESPN World XI. Joel Garner, whose ODI strike rate is an impressive 50.8 and whose average is even more impressive at an incredible …
Read More »PITT STOP: ODI numbers don’t lie; WICB must stop running its own cricket team out!
“The supply of cricketers is not nearly as great here in the West Indies as in Pakistan, say, with its almost 195 million or India (1.2 billion) or even England (55 million). “Inexplicably, however, we have found a way to reduce the supply of players available for international cricket by …
Read More »Windies cricketers get legal advice on MOU; Bravo confirms Samuels split
The West Indies cricket team has retained legal counsel in its bid to overturn the contentious Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)/Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed on their behalf by West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Wavel Hinds in September. The agreement was allegedly struck without the approval or knowledge …
Read More »Polly puts the CPL mantle on as WI welcomes Bangladesh
Earl Best looks back at the 2014 Limacol CPL and forward to Bangladesh’s Caribbean tour: Congratulations are in order for Keiron Pollard and his victorious Barbados Tridents. The heavens had to intervene to hand them the 2014 Caribbean Premier League title but it wasn’t quite the miracle I had said …
Read More »Faltering West Indies could miss tri-series final
If the West Indies find themselves mere spectators at Thursday’s Celkon Mobile Tri-Nation Series Cup final, they will have to blame their batsmen, with the exception of Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmonds. Set a revised 230 to get off 41 overs after rain again intervened, Kieron Pollard’s side reached 190 …
Read More »Captain Caribbean: Bravo’s blueprint for brilliance
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 …
Read More »Bravo’s thoughtful Windies captaincy undone by Trini traits
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 …
Read More »The great bungle: The real reason for West Indies’ flop
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, …
Read More »Thanks and goodbye to Sammy and silent WI selectors
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, …
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