“[…] As the governing body of WI cricket, CWI has to shoulder the blame for the nonsense arrangement whereby players collect a monthly salary from the board and, when selection time comes around, turn up and fail a fitness test. “[…] Is it not fair to conclude that they are …
Read More »Early Bird: Caribbean cricket’s reality check; today’s WI can’t afford to change a team that didn’t lose
Its impact on the Third Apex Test against England starting on Thursday in Grenada isn’t guaranteed to be significant. Nor is its impact guaranteed to be obvious when the West Indies next take the field in the Netherlands in May. But there appears to be a shift in selectoral policy …
Read More »Early Bird: Monty who? Blackwood brings WI batting coach into sharp focus
It’s not cricket that is my editor’s forte; it’s football. So it’s mainly the beautiful game we’d discuss if, instead of walking by himself on evenings, he decided to walk on mornings with Bobby and me. But today he called about the game of glorious uncertainties. “I just sent you …
Read More »Early Bird: Root’s record plus weak West Indies bowling put Lara’s record under threat
Sonny Ramadhin’s recent death reminded us that more than once MCC tinkered with the rules. The changes may have helped England in 1957 but they certainly haven’t really helped them do all that well in the Caribbean at any time. Their last away series win in the 20th Century came …
Read More »McWatt and ‘Reds’: Shake up WI white ball team, and Campbell over Solozano is a gamble
“[…] Taken altogether the overall series results as well as the unsatisfactory player performances [against India] must now surely raise further questions about the efficiency of the Phil Simmons-led West Indies coaching staff. “[…] As to the actual squad chosen for the first Test, we have absolutely no issues with …
Read More »Haynes names Phillip and Campbell in WI Test squad to face England, Solozano, Chase miss out
Twenty-five year old Trinidad and Tobago pacer Anderson Phillip is in line for his West Indies debut after being included in the 13-man squad to face England in the first game of the three-match Apex Test series beginning on 8 March. Phillip leads all bowlers in the 2022 West Indies …
Read More »India win final T20I by 17 runs to hand West Indies second successive whitewash
After winning the toss against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata today, West Indies white ball captain Kieron Pollard lamented that ‘the way we fielded in the second game is where we faltered—and bowling in the back end’. Today in the third and final T20 match, Pollard’s Maroon Men ‘faltered …
Read More »Phillip shines, ‘Hetty’ struggles; McWatt and ‘Reds’ use form to name preferred WI Test squad
“[…] There would have been at least two major disappointments for West Indies selectors Desmond Haynes and Ramnaresh Sarwan. For starters, the prodigiously talented Shimron Hetmyer has now not played a Test match for the West Indies since November 2019. “[…] Hetmyer endured a most miserable time [in the four-day …
Read More »India hold off Powell and Pooran to take unassailable lead in T20I series
“We are a six-hitting team,” West Indies white ball vice-captain Nicholas Pooran repeated time and time again in the run-up to the 2021 World Cup. In the UAE, we saw none of it. But today, needing a Carlos Brathwaite imitation in the second T20I at the same Eden Gardens in …
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 »‘A sad day for West Indies cricket’; Ireland down WI by two wkts for historic overseas series win
A third batting collapse in as many games saw Kieron Pollard’s West Indies go under to stand-in skipper Paul Stirling’s Ireland by two wickets at a sun-drenched Sabina Park in Jamaica yesterday. The historic 2-1 win in the three-match ODI series catapulted the busy Irish, who have now played 18 …
Read More »Battling Covid-19 and Azam in Karachi; things look brown for Pooran’s green Maroon Men
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 …
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