In a move that would turn the city into a Caribbean kingdom, the Sixers are chasing Carlos Brathwaite, the ice-man who created history last month when he won West Indies the World Cup final by smashing four consecutive sixes in the final over.
Should the Sixers win the race to sign the hulking all-rounder, it would pit Brathwaite directly against Thunder dynamo Andre Russell in a cross-Sydney West Indies rivalry that would light up the BBL.
Currently on an IPL deal with the Delhi Daredevils worth nearly $1 million, Brathwaite is undoubtedly the hottest property in Twenty20 cricket right now – a Windies superstar with all the flair of Chris Gayle, but without the ego.
Organisers of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are disputing statements from top government ministers in Guyana that Trinidad and Tobago has been chosen to host the finals of the CPL.
CPL’s Chief Executive Officer Damien O’ Donohoe says, contrary to public comments from Guyana’s Finance Minister Winston Jordan and Junior Sports Minister, Nicolette Henry, no decision has been made on which country will host the finals.
Media reports from Georgetown have quoted Jordan as saying TT outbid Guyana to host the Caribbean showpiece, weeks after his country expressed an interest in the final matches to bolster golden jubilee year celebrations.
“The CPL made a bid we reviewed it in Cabinet…we were to review it again and then we heard that Trinidad outbid us,” Jordan told reporters on Wednesday.
Test cricket returns to T&T with the fourth and final Test match against India being staged at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, from August 19-24.
The T&T government is among four in the region who have decided not to stand in the way of the staging of matches, despite calling for the dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who has been vocal in his condemnation of the WICB, has said he will not get in the way of cricket being played here and he has stuck to his word.
The first Test which is expected to get underway mid-July will take place in Antigua, with the second in St. Lucia and the third, Jamaica.
Guyana, who traditionally hosts India because of the large population of East Indians there, will miss out. Instead, one of the three legs of the tri-series involving the West Indies, Australia and South Africa will be played there.
Before the Women's World T20 final, Dwayne Bravo had a message for Stafanie Taylor. He complained that Taylor's West Indies Women side were not doing the "champion dance" enough. She vowed to put that right. Jamaica schools cricket is a notoriously macho environment. Fast bowling and fast pitches dominate. The best girl cricketers are often intimidated to join in. "Females are reluctant to get into cricket," says Leon Campbell, a long-time youth coach in Jamaica. Taylor was different. When Campbell spotted her as a nine-year-old, initially it was the easy athleticism of her fielding that attracted him. "I realised that she could catch. I drafted her in the team based on that." She soon showed that she could do much else besides. In her early years Taylor considered herself a fast bowler, but it was her calmness and technique with the bat, allied to her quick learning and an insatiable appetite for self-improvement, that impressed Campbell. "From day one I was telling her, 'You are going to be the No. 1 female cricketer in the world,'" he recalls. Campbell emphasised one thing. "I advised her, 'Do not get out.' In any team if you get out, they will want to blame you." Especially a player who was the only girl in the side. Out of this foundation, Campbell consciously tried to model Taylor upon former West Indies batsman Lawrence Rowe, between whom and Taylor he detects some resemblance. Straight hitting became a particular forte: "I told her that you can't put a fielder behind the bowler."
