Wisden 2020 Almanack names Andre Russell 2019's leading T20 cricketer
Thu, Apr 9, '20
In its 2020 Almanack, Wisden has named Andre Russell as their leading Twenty20 cricketer in the world for 2019.
Following an outstanding year in both a franchise and international level, Russell scoring 1,080 runs in total in T20 cricket, at a strike rate of 182, while also taking 46 wickets.
According to Wisden: “His exploits with Kolkata Knight Riders – 510 runs and 11 wickets – won him the Most Valuable Player award. His tally of 52 sixes was 18 clear of the next (Chris Gayle), and not far off Gayle’s IPL record 59, in 2012. Yet it was Russell’s ability to overhaul seemingly impossible targets that set him apart.”
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Michael Holding hints at retirement from commentary in the near future
Wed, Apr 8, '20
Veteran cricket commentator Michael Holding has revealed that he plans to hang up his microphone very soon.
The 66-year-old former West Indies fast bowler was speaking on Mason on Guest from the Cayman Islands on Tuesday when he revealed his plans to retire from what has been a long and illustrious career providing commentary and analysis on Test cricket.
Holding began his commentating career in 1991 in the Caribbean and currently works with Skysports in the United Kingdom and Supersport in South Africa. But, after 29 years in the commentary booth, Holding says the end is drawing near.
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The prime of Richie Richardson
Wed, Apr 8, '20
There’s solace in the old clips, especially of cricket. It’s not that they’re all that comforting, as such – not if you followed England, anyway – more they carry you back to a time when your biggest worries were wondering when Mike Atherton’s back would give in, why the selectors insisted on making Alec Stewart keep wicket and whether Mark Ramprakash would ever make a Test century.
Less the stress, this time around, of fretting. I was watching some the other day and there was Richie Richardson heaving Australia’s attack all around the Bourda. Lord, did anyone ever hit the ball through the off like Richardson? He went for the ball as if he caught it stealing from him. That was in the early 1990s, when he was in his prime. Viv Richards was on the way down, Brian Lara on the way up, and Richardson was the one you wanted to watch. “One of my all-time favourite batsmen,” says Mike Selvey, the Guardian’s former cricket correspondent. “One of the few batsmen worth forking out money to see.”
The hat was part of it. Watching a man bat in a sun hat, the past never looked so much like another country. If you were going to tell the history of cricket in a handful of objects, Richardson’s hat would be one of them, the maroon one, with the broad brim. If you can remember Richardson, you’ll picture him wearing it. So it’s almost surprising to find he ever went without it. But he did. For the first few years of his career he batted in a cap, just like his captain Richards. It was in the late 1980s, during a one-day tournament in India, that one of the sponsors sent the team a box of maroon sun hats they’d made.
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Better grassroots development needed for Windies cricket to rise from the Ashes
Tue, Apr 7, '20
When the West Indies were knocked off their perch by Australia at Sabina Park in 1995, the team’s performances, at first, gradually declined and then from about 2000, it plummeted to the point where the Windies have been wallowing in a quagmire of mediocrity.
Since 2010, the West Indies have won nine Test series. They lost 20 over the same period. Counting the ODI losses would make the numbers even worse, so I won’t even get into that.
What we have seen during that period are batsmen who lack the required technique to last an hour at the crease and toothless bowling because the bowlers are incapable of maintaining the required line and length and in many cases, seem to be bowling in the absence of a clear strategy.
What I see are fundamental weaknesses in batting, bowling and fielding technique that leads me to believe that grassroots programmes are woefully inadequate.
When I watch local U15 cricket in Jamaica’s high schools, I see kids wafting their bats as if hoping to make a connection with a ball that is more often than not, off-target.
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Sarwan likes what he sees from CWI boss
Tue, Apr 7, '20
Former West Indies middle-order batsman, Ramnaresh Sarwan, has lauded Cricket West Indies President Ricky Skerritt for the work he has done since coming to the post a year ago.
According to Sarwan, Skerritt has had to make ‘hard decisions’ and he has made them.
Skerritt’s tenure as CWI president has been under scrutiny because of the stunning manner in which he ousted three-term incumbent Dave Cameron in March of 2019. “He has been doing a good job and has had to make hard decisions, and it’s good to see when you have to make harsh decisions, you make them in the right way,” said Sarwan in an interview with Kaieteur News.
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