In The Papers Today (Oct 17, 2005)

Guyana's nailbiting KFC Cup win on Sunday is the big cricket news in most regional papers.

Michael da Silva's piece in the Stabroek News highlights Sewnarine Chattergoon's match-winning century and celebrates Guyana's ninth regional one-day title but the nitty-gritty on Duckworth/Lewis and what caused all confusion in the darkness is buried in the story.

In the Guyana Chronicle, the story makes the front page with a bold "WE WIN" headline and a photo of champagne-soaked players celebrating. Allan La Rose does a better job explaining the D/L scenarios and the bonehead decision by Guyana not to accept the umpires' bad-light offer.

A sidebar interview with Chattergoon who described his knock as "the best innings of my life" rounds out a nice Chronicle package.

In the Barbados Nation, Haydn Gill's tone is understandably less chipper. Gill visits the Barbados dressing room after the game for a chat with captain Courtney Browne but doesn't get much information on what Browne was so upset about.

Browne said on radio after the game that the game was "not fair" but he never offers any details, even to Gill. He, however, lets off a nugget of a quote when asked if he planned to write a report to the West Indies Cricket Board:

"I don't think that anything is done with reports in the Caribbean. It is really a waste of time; it would just be a waste of my time."

The Nation also carried an Ezra Stuart column that is dismissive of those who criticise the Stanford 20/20 initiative.

Stuart accuses the West Indies Cricket Board of trying to tell R Allen Stanford where he should be emptying his extremely deep pockets even as they continue to blunder about their daily business.

Heading Stuart's list of recent WICB blunders is that Shivnarine Chanderpaul was permitted to stay in Guyana to lead his national team in the KFC Cup final.

Stuart argues that the bigger must always take precedence, pointing out that the ICC Super Series was considered a higher priority than the regional competition for Brian Lara and Chris Gayle, but the KFC Cup was more important for Chanderpaul than attending a meeting of international Test captains.

Cricket365.com publishes an interview with West Indies vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan where the right-hander talks about being delighted with his batting form in the KFC Cup.

Sarwan also discusses the upcoming the trip Down Under for the Test series against Australia. "Some people are saying that the Aussies are not as strong because they lost to England, but they beat the rest of the world in the one-dayers and are doing very well against them in the Test match, so they will be very hard to beat. However, we are going to give our best," Sarwan said.

The Jamaica Observer reports that Mervyn Dillon slammed a century in a Trinidad & Tobago practice match last Friday. The match was held at the National Cricket Centre as part of preparations for the Carib Cup competition.

Daren Ganga and Ravi Rampaul were notable absentees, both sitting out with leg injuries sustained in the KFC Cup.

The 'Pakistan Link' Web site reports that Franklyn Rose was one of three West Indian players who turned out for a World XI side to face an Asia XI side in Southern California over the weekend.

The match was organised to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and succeeded with over $10,000 being put into the relief efforts.

Our watch of the WICB's WindiesCricket.com continues and we find yet another spelling mistake alongside a factual error in its press release titled "West Indies depart for Hong Kong sixes."

Chief Cricket Operations Officer Zorol Barthley, whose name is misspelled as "Bartley," said: "All of the players selected, with the exception of Richard Kelly, have played international cricket."

Kelly actually played alongside fellow Hong Kong Sixes team mate Lendl Simmons on the West Indies 'A' Team tour of Sri Lanka in July.