The tale of a major global cultural phenomenon: Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle describes the spectacular arrival of fast-paced 20-20 cricket as it parallels the rise of modern India. He traces the game from its sleepy English roots to the current world of celebrity owners and million-dollar player contracts.

Listen carefully to this audio clip (mp3) where Caricom-appointed mediator Sir Shridath Ramphal pins the blame squarely on the WICB for killing any attempts at an agreement.

* Audio from Powen001 in Barbados.

Former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams: “Chris isn’t saying anything that a lot of international cricketers aren’t thinking.”

The notion of Julian Hunte asking for anyone’s resignation is just laughable.

Fazeer Mohammed thinks Chris Gayle should resign the West Indies captaincy immediately:

Take nothing away from the fact that, on the field, he has made a definite positive difference since, ironically, the one-day series on the last tour of England two years ago. But if that’s how he feels, Gayle should do West Indies cricket a favour and step down now. Yes, right now, and let someone else represent the tourists at this morning’s media conference ahead of the second and final Test starting tomorrow in Chester-le-Street.

In the Guardian interview, Gayle just sounded tired and burnt out. I think he needs a long, real vacation.

West Indies head coach John Dyson is clearly unhappy with Chris Gayle’s decision to delay his arrival in England while playing one more IPL game:

“I just have to work with that,” he said. “We thought the original NOC was the barest minimum but you just have to work with what happens. Our board considered that an extra day or two didn’t matter so that’s that. It’s one of the things these days that you have to work with.

“We all knew the IPL was on and we knew the players would be arriving when they have. Ideally you would have your full squad here, but you have to work with how it is. Medical guys say you need time to recover from flights, coaches say you need practice and then you get players saying they can handle not doing that. I suppose time will tell.”

In a rare interview, Shivnarine Chanderpaul opens up about a lot of things in his life, including his reaction of Kevin Pietersen’s criticism:

There are few subjects that will shake Chanderpaul out of his private world, but Kevin Pietersen is one of them. The two batsmen are polar opposites – ­Pietersen loves the limelight, Chanderpaul detests “glamour”; Pietersen loves to take risks, Chanderpaul would rather stay at the crease. They meet again at Lord’s on Wednesday as England take on West Indies. At the mention of KP, ­Chanderpaul’s face grows very dark. On the recent West Indies tour Pietersen took a swipe at him, accusing him of “playing for himself”. It was a comment that Chanderpaul did not take lightly.

“You can’t assume or think someone’s just playing for themselves. I don’t know where he gets his stories from … I can’t be playing for myself when I’m in Trinidad trying to save a match. Scoring 140 and I’m playing for myself?” Chanderpaul’s expression is one of utter disgust.

Did Pietersen’s comment make him angry? “What he said just motivated me more. It definitely made me better at what I was doing. If people come at me I just want to make sure that I can be out there even longer. You get angry and you just want to grind somebody out there longer, that’s how I do my job.” ­Chanderpaul folds his arms, his outburst a rare moment of expression.

Tino Best: “I don’t want to disrespect Daren Powell, but he is looking a bit tired and that is my spot. It would be great to run in with Fidel [Edwards] again.”

Tony Cozier, in his Sunday column yesterday called for the WICB President Julian Hunte and CEO Donald Peters to resign. We all agree but I note, again, how light Cozier is going on his Bajan homeys Tony Howard and Roland Holder. Their positions are ALL untenable. They ALL need to go. Every single one of them. No other option is acceptable. This is a renewed call for a complete removal of all responsible parties. Howard and Holder screwed up big time and there was no oversight from Peters and Hunte.

Tony Cozier on commentary while nigthwatchman Daren Powell was batting: “Good intelligent cricket by Daren Powell”.

Has that ever been said before?

With regard to the Sir Viv Richards Stadium debacle Chris Gayle, at the toss in this new Test match at the ARG said “these things happen”.

I suspect that it is not that Gayle is excusing the WICB but he does not expect any better from them. They have degenerated into such a pathetic lot that Gayle thinks they are capable of no better.

That is how far we have fallen. And yet, the beat goes on…

Are you embarrassed and disgusted by the sand pit fiasco? Express yourself:

Tony Howard, WICB cricket operations officer: thoward@windiescricket.com

Donald Peters, WICB chief executive officer: dpeters@windiescricket.com

Julian Hunte, president of WICB: jhunte@windiescricket.com

Write early, write often!

TONY HOWARD, Chief Cricket Operations Manager, WICB:

JULIAN HUNTE, President, West Indies Cricket Board:

DONALD PETERS, Chief Executive Officer, WICB:

The WICB president speaks but, as expected, he isn’t about to resign for yesterday’s fiasco:

WICB president Julian Hunte described yesterday’s events as an “embarrassment” and apologised to “everyone on behalf of the board”.

He said the “West Indies Cricket Board takes full responsibility for the fiasco”.

What he refused to say, however, was that there was reason for him to step down. Asked if he would consider his position given what had occurred under his watch he said: “I would not have thought so.”

* And the beat goes on…