We’d love nine wins! But six wins and three losses would be enough; with that round robin tally, Jason Holder and his 14 acolytes can feed the millions of West Indian mouths which have long hungered for World Cup cricketing success. That would be a miracle, you say? And so? …
Read More »Confessions of a World Cup addict: who against England?
“Often the bridesmaid,” a television commentator summed up England’s performance in the 11 World Cups so far contested, “never the bride.” The comment put a broad smile on my lips. And immediately afterwards, a disturbing thought in my mind. It wiped the smile completely off. Although the evidence, in my …
Read More »Holder in a monkey pants: West Indies is gouti, lappe or cockroach in fowl party?
When Jason Holder abandons the beaten track, it is to get back on to the main road. Conservative rather than adventurous, the West Indies all-formats captain opts for an oviparous style of captaincy, putting a premium on small gains and largely eschewing the daring that often yields success in shorter-format …
Read More »WI retooling? Holder finds only Allen key in bid to put spanner in Bangladesh works
“A man who took a wicket,” Richie asked, as West Indies captain Jason Holder summoned Fabian Allen to bowl over number 20 in Friday’s Tri-Nation Series final against Bangladesh, “to give himself a bowling average of 168 could be the key to Windies winning this?” “Crazy!!” he responded to his …
Read More »Holder’s men in Tri-Nation final: which WI will turn up, calypso or collapso?
Did you see Monday evening’s World Cup programme or last week’s promo for it? The one in which ex-WI captain Darren Sammy matter-of-factly asserts that ‘West Indies are winning the World Cup’? I mean, really matter-of-factly. As if he were saying ‘The sun rises in the east.’ Promo and programme …
Read More »BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate—Epilogue: priceless national treasures and the eye of the beholder
Brian Lara on song, cricket connoisseurs the world over agree, is an arresting, cathartic spectacle; it belongs, in the words of CLR James, who does not only cricket know, ‘with the theatre, ballet, opera and dance.’ A Brian Lara pull, right knee lifted high and torso swivelling rapidly but gracefully …
Read More »BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate: The Prince at 50—Pt 2: looking back, forward, down and up
Columnist Earl Best concludes his series on legendary West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago batsman Brian Lara with an imagined interview with the Prince of Port-of-Spain: Earl Best (EB): Shane Warne calls some of Sachin Tendulkar innings “pretty amazing” and calls some of yours “unbelievable.” “I think if you wanted …
Read More »BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate: Superblue’s slapdash Signal to Prince of POS; calypso let WI cricket down
“A man hit a ball in Antigua,” we all remember Superblue singing in 1995, “and it end up in Trinidad on the Promenade, Lara Promenade.” “The ball cross over rivers and seas,” he adds, “in the sky of the West Indies; the ball whistling through the trees like a joyful …
Read More »BC Lara’s great GOAT debate: Lara’s Magnificent Seven Innings revisited—Pt 2
Edgbaston, 501, June 1994: ‘Rambo’ Brian batters Durham “Cricket is a visual art,” CLR James assures us in Beyond a Boundary. “(…) [F]irst and foremost a dramatic spectacle, [i]t belongs with the theatre, ballet, opera and dance.” Extrapolating, one can see a major Brian Lara innings as akin to a …
Read More »BC Lara’s great GOAT debate: St John’s(x)2, sobering up Sydney and stunning Edgbaston
Antigua, 375, April 1994 & 400, April 2004: Scaling Everest… because it is there “Awesome.” For Geoffrey Boycott, the former England opener, a single word suffices. “Amazing,” Ian Botham concurs. “One helluva innings.” “[I]ncredible physical stamina,” gushes David “Bumble” Lloyd, “a beautiful technical innings. Memorable. Magnificent.” It is April 2004, …
Read More »BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate: Sachin statistical score settled, Bradman left a little bit behind?
“In all,” observes Jon Hotten in The Meaning of Cricket, “he faced 19, 753 balls in Test cricket and another 13,086 in one-day internationals before he retired in 2007. Only 483 of those resulted in his dismissal, so 32,356 did not. “Put differently, just 1.47 per cent of the deliveries …
Read More »Best revisits BC Lara’s Great GOAT Debate: The Don, Sachin T or me?
“A man of genius,” CLR James says, in writing of Garry Sobers, “is what he is, he cannot be something else and remain what he is.” There is another West Indian left-hander, born a generation after Sobers on May 2, 1969, to whom James’ encomium applies unadjusted. Superlatives abound in …
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