June 29, the T20 World Cup final. David Miller, the finisher who came in at #6, has just given his hand away. Unnecessarily. Kagiso Rabada can win the coveted trophy for South Africa. True, he’s batting at #10. But cometh the hour, cometh the batsman. Even a #10 can get …
Read More »Best: Six-hitting team? Rutherford and Kohli showed how to bat properly in T20
A cricket match, a wise old scribe has written, is played in the minds of the opposing captains. Even in today’s changed world of T20 cricket? Hmmm…. Let’s see… For a full century after Australia’s 45-run victory over England at Melbourne in the first-ever Test match in 1877, the statement …
Read More »Where T20 cricket is going next; and how Sobers and Viv helped shape its course
At a critical moment in the final Super Eights game, one of the team coaches left the pavilion and came to the boundary’s edge. Bangladesh looked well on course to get the 115 runs they needed to stop Afghanistan in their semifinal-bound tracks. One point is enough to make the …
Read More »Is it time for older WI fans to shelve purity preference in cricket formats?
If, in the Lloyd Best definition, limbo is finding space where there is none, the cultural artform had its best ever day on the international stage in Sydney in January of 1993. No matter how many policemen Aussie captain Allan Border placed in the area between point and wide long-off, …
Read More »Pooran not batting properly? Really?! Start watching T20 cricket with 21st Century eyes
Brian Lara says Nicholas Pooran should be playing Test cricket for the West Indies. Not everyone agrees. But no one doubts that the prolific, talented almost-30-year-old left-hander is the West Indies’ best T20 batsman. By far. Pooran, though, is under attack—directly and indirectly. And whether the criticisms constantly levelled at …
Read More »Early Bird: How England plan to use Pollard to get back on white ball track
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 …
Read More »McWatt: Hetmyer keeps WI flag flying in IPL 2022 but Pollard is struggling
The 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) is now well under way with approximately one-third of its scheduled matches having been completed. Now in its 15th season and universally regarded as global cricket’s most prestigious T20 franchise tournament, the 2022 IPL with its roster of ten participating teams commenced on March …
Read More »B&B Ep 22: Michael Holding: West Indies cricket icon, ‘Whispering Death’, unplugged
Legendary West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding, nicknamed ‘Whispering Death’, talks to the Burdie and Barney Show about his rise as an elite cricketer and then commentator, epic battles on the pitch and good times off it, decolonisation and how to rescue and revive regional cricket. Subscribe for free to …
Read More »Media Monitor: What is Akeal Hosein’s best potential pathway into the lucrative IPL?
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 »Orin: How the IPL complements West Indies cricket rather than detracts from it
“[…] For two months’ work in India, Guyanese allrounder Romario Shepherd, in what will be his first IPL tournament, will take home a salary of just over US$1m before taxes and other deductions for local cricketing entities. “Other players are making more—we’ll get to that in a while—but Shepherd had …
Read More »Holder, King power West Indies to 9-wkt win over England in Betway series opener
Man-of-the-Match Jason Holder sent back four batsmen for seven runs to dismiss top-ranked England for a paltry 103 in the first of five ODIs at Kensington Oval in Barbados today. And then Brandon King, continuing the rich vein of form he re-found in Pakistan, hit a confident half-century to push …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Romanticising Carlos Brathwaite; how 2016 torpedoed Pollard’s WI in UAE
History, they say, is written by the victors. For just over a week, we still enjoy the title of defending T20 World Cup champions. Let us, therefore, while we still can, rewrite history. Not, like Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards and all the self-serving colonial powers, with a view to …
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