Andre Russell has played only one Test match in his international career so far. In a match remembered for Chris Gayle's 333, against Sri Lanka in Galle, Russell batted at No. 9, made 2 in his only innings, and with the ball had match figures of 1 for 104. His ODI numbers are better: a batting average of nearly 30 at a strike rate of 130, and 64 wickets at a bowling average of 32 and economy rate of 5.8. His 41 T20 internationals have fetched him fair returns as well, but it's really in T20 franchise cricket that Andre Russell has truly made his mark, plying his trade in Australia, India, Bangladesh, England and West Indies. His returns with both bat and ball have been so impressive that Russell is clearly one of the best T20 allrounders going around today.
During the course of the 2016 IPL Russell will turn 28 and play his 200th T20, which means he has both age and experience on his side, to further improve numbers which are already very impressive. In the last three years, especially, he has got his act together with both bat and ball, and his outstanding fielding further adds to the package.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has written to four regional governments, asking for their support in the upcoming four-Test series against India. The series, scheduled for July/August, may see matches being played in T&T, Guyana, St Lucia and Jamaica if the Board gets approval from the governments.
It took good negotiating skill on the part of the West Indies to get approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for their team to tour the Caribbean and resume bi-lateral relations which was severed after the West Indies abandoned a tour of India in 2014.
Coming out of that Indian fiasco, Caricom and the WICB put together a committee to look at the governance of West Indies cricket. They recommended that the WICB be dissolved. Caricom has since been pushing for that although the WICB has been holding strong.
KINGSTON – Jamaica and West Indies batsman, Marlon Samuels, has stated that conditions relating to salary packages are driving senior players away from the Test arena.
“The way how things are right now, it is forcing me to give it (Test cricket) up,” stated Samuels, who was Player of the Final in the just-concluded ICC WorldTwenty20 in India.
“I would like to continue and play as long as possible, however, until things improve, I doubt it,” he said, as this summer’s home series against India in the Caribbean looms large.
He continued: “If you look at the system now, we have more young players playing when we should have more senior players and a couple of young players.
“It means, therefore, that it could be said that we are not going in the right direction when it comes to the longer version.
“For example, a lot of players (are) playing only Twenty20 cricket, who I know have a lot of ability and could do well in the Test side. However, at the end of the day, they are not being encouraged, including financially, and as such, do what they have to do.”
What does it take to get West Indies players together for the big events when some of them do not turn out for the team for years in between? It is the passion of playing for West Indies. They all still want to play for West Indies as much as they can. It is unfortunate how things are, in that they don't play as much, but when they are together, they want to do well for West Indies.
On the eve of the tournament I told them how far we can go in the tournament. I always stress that I am a winner and I want to win, and then I open it up. The captain spoke about his passion to win the tournament for the second time. Bravo spoke. I remember Marlon Samuels saying, "Let's go and take what is ours."
"History does not reveal its alternatives," Columbia Broadcasting System's (CBS) news journalist, Eric Sevareid was fond of saying. But that hasn't stopped the speculation. And so, a whole industry - including books, discussion boards and even youtube channels called 'Alternate or Alternative History' - has arisen to try and cater to those willing to indulge in that kind of conjecture. For those not familiar with this topic, the Collins English Dictionary defines Alternative History as "a genre of fiction in which the author speculates on how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical even had had a different outcome."
What if Germany had won World War II, for example? How different would be the world we now live in? Would The United States have become the superpower that it is today? Would they be speaking German in Russia? It may be that Hitler's ideology was so repugnant that there is no way it could have survived on such a large scale for any length of time. But even so, how much more would he have harmed civilization had he been allowed to prosper for a while longer?
