(The West Indies team arrives in Australia; Digicel squeezes
some free publicity from Brian Lara's batting genius and the
Stabroek News screws up a copy-and-paste job...)
The West Indies cricket team has arrived in Brisbane, via London
and Sydney, ahead of its three Test series against Australia.
Speaking to the media on arrival, coach Bennett King told
Reuters that the major problem faced by his squad is inexperience
rather than inability saying, "Eleven of the players are 25 and
under. There's only two that are over 30 and they're our most
experienced players. They're really dedicated and they work hard
and I've been really happy with the progressions that have been
made to date."
The "Friends of Cricket," led by former West Indies Test
wicket-keeper Deryck Murray, are contesting all positions in the
Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board at the elections schedule for
November 29.
Murray was born on May 20, 1943. He has played for Queen?s Royal
College, Queen?s Park Cricket Club, Cambridge University,
Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and West Indies. In 62 Tests , he has
scored 1993 runs,with a highest score of 91. He had 189 victims
behind the wicket.
West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Roger
Brathwaite has been lying low, avoiding the headlines since the
revelations of the Lucky report were leaked, er, released, but has
broken his apparent public silence by coming out to praise the
Windward Islands Cricket Board for a strategic planning session
held in St Vincent last Sunday.
Why wouldn?t he be all smiles when one of the items on the
meeting?s agenda was the "complex issue of planning and financing
the WICB and its future operations".
An investigation by the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board into
the team's dismal performance in the KFC Cup was launched
last week, according to Naz Yacoob in the Trinidad
Guardian.
National chairman of selectors Dudnath Ramkessoon has
already spoken to team captain Daren Ganga and is expecting
reports from manager Giles Antoine and coach David
Williams. Additionally, a debriefing with the players and
management team will be held at the National Cricket Centre on
Wednesday.
Ken Gordon assumed the presidency of the West Indies Cricket
Board (WICB) with a bold promise to ensure a "new era of
transparency" but, after just two month on the job, the media
magnate is being taken to task for his public response to
legitimate issues.
Trinidadian cricket writer Vaneisa Baksh is among those
unsatisfied with Gordon's public utterances, accusing the board of
mistaking media management with transparency and accountability and
increasing the quantity rather than the quality of its
disclosures.
