“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 …
Read More »An open letter to ex-CWI president: Thanks but no thanks, Mr Cameron; forget I’ll-be-back talk
“You may not think there is anything wrong with all of that,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff repeatedly told the Republican members of his committee earlier this week, “but I do.” “All of that” is a longish, itemised list of some of the most egregious actions—not to say ‘crimes’—already …
Read More »Strongman Cameron leaves Herculean challenge: how soon can Skerritt and Shallow clean CWI’s stink stables?
“We have already delivered the impossible. For miracles, feel free to check back later.” Were I in the shoes of new CWI President Ricky Skerritt, that is what I would have tweeted on Monday afternoon for the benefit of the West Indies fans, new, old and returning. I confidently affirm, …
Read More »Cricket elections: Cameron dictates CWI pace, says Skerritt, but he’s no dictator
Cricket West Indies President Whycliffe Dave Cameron is not a dictator. He would arguably like to be a dictator and probably even sees himself as a dictator. But, according to former West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt, Cameron is NOT a dictator. That is what the CWI presidential hopeful told …
Read More »Dr Webster: West Indies cricket will not unleash its potential without new president
“Albert Einstein highlighted the importance of those two factors in human performance when he said: ‘The world that we have created as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems that we cannot solve at the same level as they were created’. “[…] Taking these …
Read More »Root of the matter: Shannon Gabriel apologises, reveals what he told England captain
“The pressure was on and England’s captain Joe Root was looking at me intensely as I prepared to bowl, which may have been the usual psychological strategy with which all Test cricketers are familiar. “I recognise now that I was attempting to break through my own tension when I said …
Read More »Gabriel, Belfon and homophobia: why T&T must improve, but international media can stuff their condescension
The West Indies Cricket Team’s Test series win over England, secured earlier this month, was their first triumph over any team above Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in seven years. The West Indies had not defeated England since 2009 while, to find a similar margin of victory over our former ‘colonial masters’, …
Read More »Walk like a champion? DJ Bravo announces retirement from West Indies cricket
Trinidad and Tobago international cricket star Dwayne “DJ” Bravo has called time on his West Indies career, after 14 years with the regional team. Bravo announced his retirement from all formats of the international game tonight, via a press statement. One of the world’s most sought after T20 all-rounders, the …
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