Sun, Jun 21, '15 by TONY COZIER
AFTER Australia’s lop-sided victories over the West Indies in the two Tests in Dominica and Jamaica earlier this month, a foreboding headline appeared in the Melbourne Age over a piece by its chief sports columnist, Greg Baum.
‘Test cricket: Gone with the Windies’, it read. It reflected doubts in Australia over whether the West Indies would be able to meaningfully compete in their three Tests there in December and January. The concern concentrated on the traditional, back-to-back matches at Australia’s two most iconic grounds.
“All at Cricket Australia are increasingly twitchy about the fact that next summer’s show-piece Boxing Day and New Year’s Test matches are due to be played against the West Indies ,” Baum reported.
“It will be a most painful return to the scene of past glories for support staff such as (head coach Phil) Simmons, (manager) Richie Richardson and (bowling consultant) Curtly Ambrose, and more pointedly an event where history and nostalgia will be expected to draw crowds to grounds and television sets when the cricket itself now looks incapable of doing so,” he added.
Read the full article at Trinidad Express
Sun, Jun 21, '15
Former West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman, Devon Thomas, has asked to be removed as one of 10 players contracted by the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) ahead of the WICB 2015 Professional Cricket League (PCL).
This was confirmed by coach of the Leeward Islands Franchise, Antiguan Reginald Benjamin, who said Thomas, wrote to the Board, asking that contract not be considered for renewal.
“I so wanted Devon to be a part of us because when you come and take a job you look at what it entails and stuff and when we picked the 10 (protected players) he was part of it. I know that players have a lot of grief going with the Board in the past so I promised all the players I’ll resolve their issues and he had an administrative issue. I told him I was going to resolve it,” he said.
Sat, Jun 20, '15
“If you love cricket then this is the kind of brand of cricket that you want Winnersto go out and support and go and watch. There’s a good standard of player that are going to go out to the Caribbean so why not come out, enjoy and party with us and have some fun.”
The words of Kevin Pietersen, as the 2015 Hero Caribbean Premier League gets ready to explode into life this weekend in Barbados and St Lucia. Fun is the recurring theme of the tournament, dubbed ‘The Biggest Party in Sport’, with an array of Twenty20 superstars, such as Pietersen, Shahid Afridi and Jacques Kallis joining home-grown heroes like Chris ‘World Boss’ Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo in the 33-game extravaganza.
read more at Kaietuer News
Fri, Jun 19, '15
Mustafizur Rahman’s five-wicket haul on debut helped the Tigers outplay the two-time world champions by 79 runs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Thursday.
The hosts made an impressive 307 after electing to bat first before their bowlers bundled out India for 228 to take a 1-0 lead in the series in style.
The win took Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s side to 91 points, to go past West Indies in the ODI team ranking.
more at bdnews24
Thu, Jun 18, '15
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The ongoing work of the West Indies Retired Players Foundation (WIRPF) is set to get a major boost as it stages the inaugural charity golf day in Barbados.
The WIRPF – a joint initiative of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and (WIPA) – will host the event at the prestigious Sandy Lane Country Club. The event is supported by CPL and Digicel, on Sunday, June 21.
Several former West Indies players including Desmond Haynes and Sir Richie Richardson, as well as current players will take part in the day’s competition – to raise funds for the programmes of the WIRPF.
Several senior officials of the International Cricket Council as well as participants in the Caribbean Premier League tournament are also scheduled to participate.
The West Indies Retired Players Foundation was formed 18 months ago and part of its mandate is development of programmes and assisting with the welfare of former players who represented the Caribbean team at the international level. Proceeds from the Golf Day will go towards projects of the Foundation.