The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket
West Indies head coach Bennett King is standing by his decision to use the one-day arena to introduce teenage batsman Xavier Marshall to international cricket.
"I believe that the One-Day game is probably the best facility to introduce him into cricket," King insisted. "You haven't seen the best of Xavier Marshall. We're very cognisant of how we are trying to introduce him into the national side."
In recent years, West Indies fans have had the consolation of home victories over all comers, except Australia and South Africa. Then England changed that with a devastating near whitewash, and now Pakistan threatens the same. The ODI whitewash is already in the bag for Pakistan, and a Test series win seems a mere formality.
"How has it come to this?", asks West Indian fans. "Weren't we turning the corner? Our batsmen still bat cavalier style and our fast bowlers still bowl fast ... just like they did under Lloyd. Why then are the results different?"
The future of West Indies cricket would be in good hands, if those hands belonged to Ian Bradshaw. After a promising U-19 career, the left arm Barbadian bowler faded into the background, but he wasn't wasting time.
To the contrary, he was equipping himself with the necessary education and skills that have allowed him to have a decent life financially, something that not many cricketers who don't go on to play for the West Indies can say. He was also getting much needed First Class experience which lead him to more than adequately handle the pressure situation of that now famous Champions Trophy finals.
"You know the sponsorship deal signed with Digicel and the West Indies [Cricket] board and I'm sure you know about the whole brouhaha it created.
Well there are still some things that are still bothering me. So I spoke to the West Indies Cricket Board CEO Roger Brathwaite during the first one-dayer against South Africa here in Jamaica.
The West Indies will go into the upcoming three-match ODI series against Pakistan without Brian Lara because, according to the selectors, the champion batsman needs a "rest" ahead of the Tests.
The strange explanation for the left-hander's omission from the 13-man squad follows intense discussion in the Caribbean that Lara presence overshadows the rest of the team and leads to underwhelming team performances.