There’s an immediate challenge in compiling a biography of someone who was a legend during his lifetime. Inevitably, myths spring up—so that even if you can separate fact from fiction, it is almost sacrilege to bring balance to the scrutiny because people prefer to hold on to their folklores. Frank …
Read More »Dear Editor: WI’s struggles against spin are well known; so why isn’t CWI helping?!
“[…] For the last 30 years, we in the Caribbean have been producing pitches that are more suitable to spin bowling for our batsmen to practise on as well as a plethora of slow bowlers for our batsmen to practise against. “Yet, every year, in every series, they just appear …
Read More »Vaneisa: Making a case for mixed-sex cricket
How about mixing it up a bit? Two West Indies cricket T20 encounters last Tuesday. The men played their second match against Sri Lanka, and the women challenged England for a semi-final spot in the World Cup. At the tenth over, the women were 89-0, with openers Hayley Matthews and …
Read More »RBCPL24: How the CPL took wing to become dominant regional sport event
Allen Stanford, remember that name? No? Not a surprise really. When West Indians are focused on the biggest party in sport, who has time to remember a man who was a party to the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on West Indian sport? On Republic Day, a lady who lives on …
Read More »Trapped between ICC and deep blue sea; Lloyd lives to see Rudder’s harder tomorrows
“…a divided world that don’t need islands no more…” Can it be that Sir Clive Lloyd does not know fellow OCC awardee David Rudder’s pithy line from his 1988 Rally? Or is it that he simply wishes to ignore it? Or is the problem that Rudder’s 1996 Legacy prediction has …
Read More »CWI announces replacement for Bassarath as VP; and it’s Bassarath!
Cricket West Indies revealed today that it has only one nomination to replace outgoing vice-president Azim Bassarath—and it is none other than Azim Bassarath. The election for the vacant CWI vice-president position is on 20 September 2024. Bassarath’s position was declared vacant by the Guyana High Court on 5 August, …
Read More »Early Bird: WI last on Test Championship table; is it time for Brathwaite to move on?
After the eminently predictable England whitewash, even the optimists among us expected a miracle turnaround against South Africa. But that Kraigg Brathwaite’s no-hopers contrived to lose the Second Test in Guyana in just nine sessions is hard to take. It is a failure of leadership and raises serious questions about …
Read More »Bassarath is out as VP; CWI bends to Guyana High Court on flawed election
The Cricket West Indies (CWI) has formally declared its vice-president position as “vacant”, two weeks after the Guyana High Court ruled that Azim Bassarath was elected via a flawed process. Bassarath, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) president, was elected unopposed at the CWI’s 24th AGM in Antigua on …
Read More »WI name Warrican and Bryan Charles in Test squad to exploit Trinidad and Guyana pitches
Trinidad and Tobago spinner Bryan Charles, 29, is in line to make his Test debut against South Africa this month, after he was named in a 15-man squad to represent the West Indies today. West Indies face South Africa in the First Test at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad …
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 …
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