In the Papers Today (Sep 21, 05)

CMC reports that Justin Raymond-Guillen, the Trinidad & Tobago youth player kidnapped on September 7, has been released by his abductors. Raymond-Guillen was held blindfolded for almost two weeks, but told police his captors treated him well.

In the Trinidad Express, Fazeer Mohammed appears at once excited and relieved to hear that the majority of West Indies cricketers are willing to put aside the ongoing contract dispute because they simply want to play cricket.

He believes that, as far as most players are concerned, the honour of representing the West Indies outweighs the perks and prestige. Mohammed even concedes ground to Dinanath Ramnarine, acknowledging that the West Indies Players' Association's argument holds merit based on the findings of the Lucky Report.

The Barbados Nation is bustling with stories about West Indies cricket today. We'll start off with a commentary by C. Malcolm Grant headlines "The Many Plagues of West Indies Cricket" where the writer tries to dig deep into Caribbean society to find the root cause of the game's current ills.

Grant takes the viewpoint that West Indies cricket is suffering so because young males are trapped at the centre of a variety of societal misdoings. To bolster his proposition, he analyses issues including illegal drugs, questioning authority, HIV/AIDS, co-education, the Americanisation (shouldn't that be Americanization?) of Caribbean society and, last but definitely not least, the liberalisation of West Indian women!

Grant provides a statistic on the ratio of female to male students enrolled in tertiary education within the region in an attempt to support his claims.

The article is due to be continued in this weekend's Sunday Sun. Until then we will have to wait with bated breath to see if his plans to restore West Indies to the top of the cricketing ladder include single-sex schooling and the return of women to their rightful place by the kitchen sink.

Andi Thornhill is sure to prickle the skin of many a WICB servant in his latest offering of A Thorny Issue. He asks the familiar question of who is the Board accountable to, and rips into the WICB for acting so defensively in response to the Lucky Report and allowing itself to be distracted from the real task at hand which is governing the sport in a positive manner.

"It makes no sense taking a stiffnecked approach at this juncture when we need in principle to speed up the recovery of West Indies cricket. All of the stakeholders need to humble themselves and start to pick up the pieces in the rebuilding process," Thornhill argues.

As Barbados gears up for Cricket World Cup 2007, local organising committee chief executive Stephen Alleyne has announced that an advisory team will be established to work with people required to vacate the vicinity of Kensington Oval before the big event.

Alleyne also announced that work on the redevelopment of the ground is on schedule.

Haydn Gill reveals that Barbados wants to position itself as the events capital of the Caribbean< and as such a legacy plan, where knowledge gained from hosting major event like CWC will be utilised, has been introduced.

World Cup Barbados Legacy Committee Chairman Peter Boos spoke of the concept yesterday saying, "That is going to be a tremendously powerful thing going for many, many years. There will be various types of events – you name it, we can do it."

The Guardian Sports Arena has republished Michelle McDonald's interview with Tony Becca, without giving any credit to either the reporter or CaribbeanCricket.com.

Everard Gordon, in his Nightwatchman column, looks at the approach the West Indies must take heading into the tour of Australia. Gordon recognises that whilst the Aussies came out of the Ashes contest empty handed, West Indies must go into the series unburdened of all the off-field drama they have encountered over the past ten months if they are to take advantage of their opponents' newfound fragility.

According to Sean Devers in Guyana's Kaiteur News, leg spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo is looking for a recall to the Guyana squad for the President's Cup despite not having been selected to play in the El Dorado Inter-County championship.

Nagamootoo recently returned to Guyana after a county stint in England, and once harboured aspirations of playing grade cricket in Australia as well. He tells Devers that his priorities have changed, and is critical of the GCB's new rule that a player must represent play in the the El Dorado tournament to be considered for national selection. Nagamootoo spoke to Berbice selectors over the weekend, hoping to earn a spot on the team for future El Dorado fixtures.

Allan La Rose of the Guyana Chronicle reports that Demerara have made it to the final of the El Dorado competition after whipping Essequibo at Bourda yesterday. Start of play was delayed by an hour because the pitch was not adequately prepared, but when proceedings commenced Demerara captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul sent Essequibo in to bat.

Essequibo were skittled out for 124. In reply, Ryan Ramdass made 56 and Ramnaresh Sarwan 52, steering Demerara to a nine-wicket win.

The Chronicle, with the appropriate credits, republished Ryan Patrick's piece on the WICB sending out wrong contracts which was first published on this Web site.

The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reports that CMC has labelled the award of Cricket World Cup 2007 broadcasting rights to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as "unfair."

CMC's Commercial and New Business Development Manager Michael Whyte has responded to the news by saying he is concerned that international rights have been awarded externally.

Rights for the regional coverage have not been awarded yet but Whyte feels priority should have been given to media within the Caribbean. He went on to say that CMC applied for the rights several years ago but are still waiting on a decision.

On the WICB's WindiesCricket.com, Leskroy Skepple, manager of the Antigua & Barbuda team, praises his charges for picking up both titles in the 2005 Leeward Islands Cricket Association sseason.

He recognises the achievement as particularly significant given that many of his regular players were participating in a tour of England and reserves bolstered the side for much of the competition.

The Toronto Star follows Courtney Walsh on his visit of the Canadian city, and Norman Da Costa provides some snippets from the former Test wicket record holder.

Speaking on the misfortunes of West Indies cricket, Walsh says, "There was definitely a lack of foresight and planning. There was also a lack of professionalism and the desire to win by the team" and "As you know, when cricket suffers the entire West Indies suffers. We have the talent and there is no reason for how poorly the team has performed in recent years."

Walsh also spoke of his recent appointment to the Sir Garfield Sobers-headed committee founded by WICB President Ken Gordon as part of his plan to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup.