And then there were 12. The 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cup champions West Indies will start a 3-match T20I series against Pakistan with a team which sees several different names on the team sheet when compared to the team which represented the region in such eminently forgettable fashion at …
Read More »CPL 2021: ‘Reds’ and McWatt review 2021 edition, suggest new franchises, umpiring reviews and more
“[…] Our suggestion would be for the CPL to explore the possibility of allowing franchises based in Florida and Toronto… The 17 member rosters of the Canada and US franchises could also comprise nine local players, five born in the Caribbean and three internationally based. “In addition to providing much-needed …
Read More »T2021 W/C: In spin-friendly conditions, will WI miss Hosein? Did Ramdin pay for ‘un-West Indian approach’?
It is time, some say, for Romario Shepherd to be on the side. Some suggest that he should have got the nod over Ravi Rampaul, a soon-to-be-37-year-old seamer whose once-blossoming international career nose-dived in the wake of injury and weight issues. That was then. Now he is back, in a …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Jackman sees flawed logic in calls to drop Gayle and add Holder to WI squad
“[…] For years the destroyer of bowling attacks, Chris Gayle is but a shadow of the fearsome figure he once was. His run production rapidly declining in recent years, he has endured a near-barren 2021 for both WI and the Patriots. “[…] If, as the multitude insists, Gayle cannot be …
Read More »T2021 W/C: F Warner muses over CPL stars who forced their way into WI plans—and those who should have
“[…] In a T20 match, four tight overs are worth their weight in gold. In [Sunil] Narine’s two IPL games thus far, after he bowled a tight over during which the batsmen played him cautiously, the bowler at the other end got a wicket. The batsmen were forced to take …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Hidden hazards; will what WI don’t see hurt our chances?
In Group 1 of the Super 12’s, Australia, England and South Africa await. When the 2021 edition of the ICC World Cup eventually bowls off in the UAE and Oman in mid-October, those three will lead the attempt to knock the crown off the head of Kieron Pollard’s defending champions. …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Polls apart? CWI and Wired868 panels agree on Gayle, differ on Bravo, Holder
Allyuh tink dis selection ting easy? Allyuh know who Joshua Bishop is? No? Well, the 21-year-old Barbados Royals’ rookie left-arm spinner’s name somehow ended up on a list of three dozen West Indies players named by the 12 panellists asked to select their WI dream team for the 2021 T20 …
Read More »T2021 W/C: A reflection on selection, concussion and Romario’s extraordinary exhibition
For a selector, concussion is an occupational hazard. All the more, as Ken ‘Jaiks’ Jaikaransingh has already noted above, if you are a West Indian selector. Let me remind you of a truth every Trini sports fan knows: in T&T for certain, probably in the West Indies as a whole, …
Read More »CPL 2021: Evin Lewis spoils Hetmyer’s party; Patriots bid to stop Kings in first title battle
It was not even close. A no-contest. Shimron Hetmyer thumped a hat-trick of sixes in the final over to add substance to what would otherwise have been a very undaunting Guyana Amazon Warriors final score. And although it allowed Nicholas Pooran’s soldiers to troop off Warner Park in St Kitts …
Read More »CPL 2021: Pumped Shepherd, Pollard blast GAW and TKR into perfect semi match-ups
They left it late. But in the end, Kieron Pollard’s Trinbago Knight Riders reversed the result of Saturday evening’s match-up against Dwayne Bravo’s St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and finished on top of the 2021 CPL group stage table. The four-wicket victory they carved out at Warner Park in St …
Read More »T2021 W/C: ‘Reds’ and McWatt slam ‘stupefying and bewildering’ WI picks, offer their alternatives
“[…] We are also in full agreement with Sir Andy Roberts’ expressed disgust at the appalling treatment the selectors have meted out to Jason Holder. Not only has he been omitted from the final 15 but, adding insult to injury, he was named by as one of the four reserves. …
Read More »CPL 2021: Pooran’s Warriors seal double over Pollard’s TKR in Super Over thriller
Akeal Hosein thought he had won it with a magnificent, one-handed catch on the cover boundary in the 18th over of the second innings of regulation play. Shimron Hetmyer thought he had lost it with a fumble on the mid-wicket boundary on the fourth ball of the super over. In …
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