And The Readers Shoot Back...
Sat, Sep 14, '02
Last week, we brainstormed the West Indies team that was picked
for the India tour and published an article entitled "The Obvious,
The Chosen, The Unlucky...". Ever since the publication of that
viewpoint, many readers shot back their own thoughts on the
team.
Our readers also wrote to have a say in our tribute to Nizam Hafiz,
the former Guyana and USA cricket who lost his life on September 11
while at work at the World Trade Center. Here is a sampling of the
letters we received:
Dear Editor,
Your comments on the team to India were pretty good. However,
why is there no mention of Adam Sanford? I am one of those who
thought he was picked prematurely. However, after he was picked he
performed adequately. His main problem was that he was
experimenting too much (inexperience) and he was trying to change
action in mid stream.
However Cuffy will probably give way to Sanford shortly. Cuffy
needs to rest for the World Cup. Even before he was injured he
looked really poor in the one day matches this year.
Jonathan Graham
Hello Editors,
Yes, what do we have to do to get some "fair treatment" for our
young brother Devon Smith? They are finding every which reason to
IGNORE him. Very soon we are going to start to wonder if he were
Bajan or Jamaican or Trini if he would still suffer the same fate.
Eh?
Haydn W. Hood
Dear Editors,
There is no way Darren Ganga, Reon King and Kerry Jeremy can
consider themselves UN-lucky -- They are simple not Test material,
period. Breeze is a surprise and a hard-to-believe pick but he has
performed creditably in the domestic competitions/seasons. This may
have justified his pick on the tour. But does he belong?
Jeremy is slow and on the slower wickets in India he will get
massacred! King has lost it after such a promising start to his
career. Unfortunate indeed. My understanding is that Devon Smith is
injured. This guy is the real deal. With Smith, Hinds, Garrick and
Pagon, fortunately Ganga will not see a West Indies team again.
Sarwan, Hooper and Chanders will do well because of the
unpenetrable Indian attack. However, Chanders is the real deal - he
does not need any help. But Sarwan cannot play against the faster
stuff while Hooper does well against India from eversince. We need
inspired leadership to do well. Can Hooper provide that? He has not
in the past.
Isaac Buds
Dear Sirs,
Its interesting to note no reserve wicketkeeper has been named in
the tour squad to India. It's old man Jacobs all alone for the
umpteenth time. He is moving on in age, he is no Alec Stewart and
he his batting form has been choppy at best. Does the name Parthiv
Patel, the youngest wicket keeper in Test history at 17 years 152
days, ring a bell in the ears of messers Richards, Greenidge and
Carew? Even India, who we recently beat 2-1, have the foresight to
carry a reserve keeper in their squad.
As a boy visiting Bourda in the 1970s, I listened to the wisdom of
several old timers and over and over, like a recurring decimal,
they would extol on the virtues of a tried and tested formula:
three openers, five batsmen, two keepers and six bowlers. Somewhere
in the 1990s, this formula has been discarded by the West Indian
selectors. Even when Mike Findlay was the chairman, he himself a
previous Test keeper, there were no reserve keepers.
It remains one of the reasons why I wonder that some diehard West
Indians even bother to lament over our decline from the world
stage. Quite frankly, the selectors just don't get it. Given their
actions, along with others at the Board level and the lack of
professionalism amongst some of the players, we must painfully
accept the realities of our reduced status on the world stage: that
of an also ran. As they say, "My, my, how the mighty has fallen."
Nevertheless, here's hoping against hope for the boys in India.
Vijay Kumar
(Author of Cricket Lovely Cricket)
Hello,
You guys continue to knock Pedro Collins. Why? Collins has nothing
to prove to the likes of you. Methinks your problem is that he
outperforms your favourites, Reon King, Merv Dillon and the
anonymous Jamaican speedsters who are in and out of the West Indies
team faster than a speeding bullet in Tivoli Gardens or even the
Demerara East Coast.
Barbados cricket is at a low ebb currently but our pedigree and
talent allowed us to get up and win the Red Stripe Bowl with
relative ease, drubbing overrated Guyana easily in the process. The
Guyanese and their overrated but under-acheiving captain were
outplayed and outfoxed by talented Bajans who do not get their just
rewards in the current West Indies scheme of things because of
people like you.
And what about Ian Bradshaw? You did not mention him even in the
unlucky ones. Bradshaw is one of the few thinking cricketers in
regional criket.There is no way that Breese, Nagamootoo, Jeremy,
Reon King, Lawson and the like should be ahead of Bradshaw. He can
bat and bowl ten times better than any of them. Ask another of your
favourites Gayle about Bradshaw. Poor Gayle was made to look like
an idiot by Bradshaw and Drakes.
Drakes is another cricketer you and your Guyanese nuisance pals
attack. No fast bowler in the recent Red Stripe Bowl looked the
quality of Drakes. Again ask "top batsman" Gayle who could not find
either a run or a way to keep his wicket against the superb
thirty-something Bajan all-rounder.
The Barbados outfit in the Red Stripe Bowl would cut the ass of a
rest of WI team led by Mr Overrated Hooper. I have grouses too
about no mention of Floyd Reifer and Kurt Wilkinson. They performed
outstandingly for the world to see. But Breese and Nagamootoo got
the call.
And Courtney Browne the best wicketkeeper batsman in the Caribbean
who has been hounded by the likes of you and that
"dont-know-a-damm-thing-about-cricket" Mark Neita for dropping
Steve Waugh in 1995. If Browne had caught Steve, his brother Mark
may have gone on to break Lara's record. We have no way of knowing
so why penalise Browne nearly ten years later while drowsy Jacobs
contines to fail behind and in front the stumps?
Not to mention getting suspended for bringing the game into
disrepute. Overrated Hooper and Lara and Jacobs have dropped
several catches in recent times where batsmen have gone on to help
beat West Indies. Are you going to blame them the rest of their
careers? The game is not played that way. Hibbert dropped Reifer in
the Final. Everyone remembers that. But do they remember that
Wallace dropped Wavell Hinds and Benn dropped overrated Hooper in
the semi-final? If those catches had been taken neither Guyana nor
Jamaica would have made a hundred.
Brimstone
(Real name provided)
100% Bajan, Holding was right, Just the facts, please.
Reader feedback this week also included comments on the tribute
to Nizam Hafiz, who lost his life on September 11 while working at
the World Trade Center in New York City:
Mr Editor,
I also knew Nizam and I think your tribute is fitting to a
distinguished person and cricketer. His demise was premature and
very tragic and I hope that his family will now find some closure.
Keep up the good work.
Karan Rajkumar
Dear Sir,
Please conven my sympathies to the family of Nizam Hafiz. May our
brother rest in peace. And, here's a silent prayer for a winning
start to the Indian Tour.
George Gibson
Mr Editor,
Nizam Hafiz was called a "warrior" by our legendary cricketer Rohan
Kanhai who witnessed a defiant century in the face of some hostile
pace bowling from Jamaica in a match against Guyana, an innings of
sheer technique, flamboyance, grace and determination, which must
have brought back memories of his own conquests from the Baboolal.
It was traumatically sad, but perhaps fitting that he died as a
soldier. He had the heart of a lion, and would have played for the
West Indies had he chosen to remain in Guyana. Fittingly, he will
also be eulogized and celebrated as an American hero. May his soul
rest in eternal peace. I have never met a more pleasant person.
Albert Baldeo
Mr Editor,
I wish more people would think the way you do and show their
appreciation for a man like Nizam who played the game hard but had
a gentle personality off the field. I wore the shirt they sold last
year at the memorial game to remember Nizam. Glad you took the time
to remind the cricketing public about one that will be missed
forever.
Best of wishes to the CaribbeanCricket.com website.
Sunesh Wazid
Dear Ryan,
I say amen to all you have written in tribute to Nizam.
Ronald Austin
Dear Editor,
I must say how pleased I was when I saw the dedication to the
memory of Nizam Hafiz. It was very thoughtful and appropiate as we
all know what he did for his country. Very nice touch.
Sean Ward
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Please mark clearly if your letter is not for publication.