“Indian fans declare excitement,” a pre-match tweet announced, “over chance to see Sachin and 21 other guys whose names escape me.” The source does not identify the tweeter but it could have been ESPNcricinfo Assistant Editor Allan Gardner, the writer of an online preview to yesterday’s pompously named Marylebone Cricket …
Read More »Can WI’s T20I form affect Ramdin’s Test captaincy?
On the evidence we have from the just completed three-Test series, new West Indies skipper Denesh Ramdin is going to need a miracle to deliver the turnaround we’re all now looking to him for. So, as a true-true, maroon-blooded WI supporter, I am hoping that, after beating Ramdin’s side 2-1 …
Read More »Not WI: New Zealand reveals it would never have abandoned Narine
New Zealand cricket team coach Mike Hesson has revealed his team’s alternative viewpoint on cricketers arriving late from the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the “Kiwis” start their Test series against the West Indies today. The West Indies is without star spinner Sunil Narine after the Trinidadian was excluded by …
Read More »Beyond the maroon: Race, identity, history and West Indies cricket
I was, as a young boy, obsessed with cricket. Up until age nine, I was still an only child and had learned to occupy myself for hours on end by imagining entire Test series played out in the backyard of my grandparents’ house. I knew by heart the rosters and …
Read More »Ramdin faces challenge to shed bad image and revitalize West Indies
Eight of the 12 people I asked to share the first thought that came into their heads when they heard the name Denesh Ramdin said, “Yeah Viv, Talk Nah;” only three of the eight remembered without prompting that the “Talk Nah” incident had followed a century made by the West …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘greatest’ debate (Epilogue): Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar?
Reflecting on his conversations with Frank Hernandez, a now 69-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside and who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants, Earl Best arrives at his own conclusions. Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ Debate (Part Two): Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar
Earl Best completes the transcript of his conversations with Frank Hernandez, a 68-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside and who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants. Today is the 10th anniversary of Lara’s world record 400 runs against England, which …
Read More »Cricket’s ‘Greatest’ Debate: Bradman, Lara or Tendulkar?
Earl Best gets an answer, impassioned, predictable and as unbiased as it can be from a 68-year-old Santa Cruz native who keeps cricket’s “Bible” at his bedside but who knew Brian Lara when he was just a boy in short pants. Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the …
Read More »Hail Tendulkar; but praise Lara and Chanderpaul too
As expected, India duly completed their win in the Second Testimonial in Mumbai on Saturday before the end of the third day. But on the occasion of the formal ascension of the latest member to join their pantheon, the gods of cricket were not in generous mood. In the first …
Read More »Kohli forces West Indies’ hand in Celkon Mobile Tri-series
India yesterday breathed new life into the Celkon Mobile Tri-series with a convincing 102-run Duckworth/Lewis victory over the West Indies at the Queen’s Park Oval. Asked to get a challenging revised total of 274 in 39 overs in response to India’s imposing 311 for 7 off 50, Dwayne Bravo’s side …
Read More »T20 Champs West Indies awaits Champions Trophy conquerors
It would be a major surprise if the Sabina Park and Queen’s Park Oval crowds prove as patient and as tolerant in the face of inclement weather as was the largely Indian Edgbaston crowd yesterday. “England rains,” wrote one Twitter user, “but India reign.” There were jokes aplenty before India sneaked …
Read More »Ramdin, Broad and the anti-West Indies agenda
A white ’ooman name Miss Black, a black ’ooman name Miss White, a red ooman name Miss Green is the funniest ting I’ve seen. A narrow-minded referee name Chris Broad… The calypsonian did not actually sing those lines half-a-century or so ago. But if, like me, he has followed the …
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