Tue, Apr 7, '15
MICHAEL HOLDING has written off West Indies’ hopes in the Test series against England as cricket in the Caribbean enters one of its most critical stages off the field. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is likely to discover in the coming months whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will pursue a £28 million compensation claim for their abandoned tour last October.
With reports the BCCI is also weighing up whether to pull out of their scheduled tour of the Caribbean next year the WICB – which last month announced a £1 million loss for the previous 12 months – faces the prospect of two major financial blows that could result in bankruptcy.
The predicament is a culmination of a dysfunctional relationship between the board and players, who initiated the embarrassing India tour walk-out following a protracted payment dispute also involving the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA).
The fall-out has now not only left the WICB waiting nervously under the BCCI’s legal high ground, but also without most of their star names for the three Tests against England.
Tue, Apr 7, '15
England’s tour of the West Indies began with the gentlest possible examination as they dominated day one of their warm-up match at Warner Park yesterday.
They dismissed a compliant St Kitts & Nevis Invitational XI for just 59 in the morning session before captain Alastair Cook and the returning Jonathan Trott helped themselves to scores of 95 not out and 72 respectively.
England finished on 181 for one and will be pleased enough with their efforts - particularly Ben Stokes’ impressive spell of three for 10 and a solid start for their latest opening partnership - but the gulf in class was so dramatic that little of note will have been learned.
The bowlers were underworked in the extreme, with the hosts failing to last 27 overs after deciding to bat first, and only Stokes palpably advanced his claims on a Test spot.
Chris Jordan and Stuart Broad both claimed two wickets, but spinners Adil Rashid and James Tredwell were confined to bit-part cameos.
read more at Trinidad Express
Sun, Apr 5, '15
West Indies mystrey spinner Sunil Narine's bowling action has been cleared by the BCCI after he underwent a biomechanical assessment at the ICC-accredited SRMC centre, Chennai. Narine will now be able to bowl for the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2015.
KKR, the defending champions had earlier threatened to pull out of the eighth editio of the IPL if Narine was not allowed to play.
Sun, Apr 5, '15 by TONY COZIER
The first-class season threw up a number of players who, if harnessed properly, can possibly help arrest West Indies' slide in international cricket
England spent their first day in the West Indies on Friday in their luxury accommodation in St Kitts, an island of 35 square miles in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, populated by 45,000 easy-going inhabitants. There is no more relaxing venue to be found anywhere, ideal perhaps for temporarily blanking the persistent distraction of Kevin Pietersen, if a little too laid-back a place in which to properly get ready for three back-to-back Tests in the space of three weeks.
Captain Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Jimmy Anderson would remember it as the location where they started their 2009 tour with matches against a St Kitts Invitational XI and West Indies A. They moved on to Jamaica for the first Test a few days later, where Jerome Taylor's pace sent them spiraling to 51 all out and defeat by an innings and 23.
Jonny Bairstow, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid and Ben Stokes were there for 12 days at the start of England Lions' tour of seven first-class matches four years ago.
This time, England are restricted to a couple of two-day matches against St Kitts & Nevis, a team without first-class status. Cook and his men can anticipate an effortless workout. They then make the short hop of 65 miles to Antigua for the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, starting Monday, April 13. They could find that their ground work would have been better served by tougher opposition first-up.
Sun, Apr 5, '15
West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor, spinner Nikita Miller and wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton have come together to form a cricket charity organisation called the MTW Cricket Foundation.
The entity is geared towards assisting the growth and the development of the sport islandwide, with special emphasis being placed at the high-school level.
"We want to give back to society in the same way society has given to us, and we thought coming together and forming a cricket foundation would be a good thing," said Walton during the foundation's first activity last weekend at Sabina Park.
The occasion was the handing of cricket gear and equipment to his alma mater, Munro College, the first of three high schools who are set to benefit this year.
The others are two unnamed schools from Kingston.