Rangpur Riders were seemingly dealt a blow ahead of the January 5 start to the 2019 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) after speedster Oshane Thomas failed to secure his No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Cricket West Indies (CWI).
With the Regional 4-Day Championships set to resume on Thursday, January 4, a day prior to the start of the BPL, it was no surprise that the 21-year-old pacer was not given the go-ahead from CWI to play in the franchise league. Jamaica Scorpions have not gotten the strongest of starts with Guyana and Barbados sitting 1 and 2 respectively, more so with Thomas’ direction heading to Bangladesh could mean the Scorpions are without one of their main weapons heading into the most crucial stage of the tournament.
The Riders picked up the Jamaica fast-man during October’s official BPL draft, where he was set to play alongside Windies and T20 batting legend and fellow countryman Chris Gayle. However, with the NOC not approved and Thomas being named in the Scorpions side, it is likely that the regional batters will have to contest with the right-arm pacer as the CWI would unlikely give permission to play in the BPL.
Richard Pybus, West Indies' high performance director, has agreed to take up the role of head coach full-time, replacing the interim coach Nic Pothas. Pybus' contract, ESPNcricinfo understands, will effectively run until the 2019 Test series against India, which follows the ODI World Cup in England.
The position of West Indies head coach had been vacant since Stuart Law resigned from the position less than two years into his job. He left West Indies to take up a four-year contract with the English county team Middlesex. Originally the fielding coach, Pothas was made interim head coach for the recent tour of Bangladesh that followed Law's exit. West Indies lost Test and ODI series 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, and won the T20Is 2-1.
Pybus took over as high performance director in February, his role requiring him to work alongside selectors and coaches across all levels of the game in the Caribbean. He had previously served as West Indies' director of cricket from 2013 to the end of 2016, when he chose not to renew his contract.
Pybus' return to West Indies cricket wasn't welcomed by everyone. The former West Indies opener Desmond Haynes questioned the process of appointing him - "It would be great to ask the [CWI] president [Dave Cameron] about this appointment and when was this position advertised," he wrote in a Facebook post.
EX-West Indies batsman Alvin Isaac Kallicharran was among several sports personalities, who were awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s New Year Honours list for his contribution to the sport.
The Guyanese-born batsman would now be entitled to attach the letters “BEM” to his title, signifying that he has been honoured by the queen.
He joins a list of sports personalities Peter Wynne-Thomas Nottingham Club historian, Anthony Clark, for his services to badminton, New Zealand coach Mary Wright for contributions to gymnastics, Sophia Warner for services to disability sports, race walker Chris Maddocks, for his services to athletics, Paralympic athlete Dr Anthony Griffin for services to sport and Stephen Baxter and Northern Ireland’s Crusaders FC manager, Stephen Baxter, for his contribution to football.
Born on March 21, 1949 in Georgetown, Guyana, Kallicharan played cricket from 1972 to 1981 as a left-handed batsman and a right-arm off spinner. Not only did he play for the West Indies team but he also used his elegant watchful batting style in teams including Guyana, Orange Free State, Queensland, Transvaal and Warwickshire.
West Indies’ 50-run win over Bangladesh in the 3rd T20I on Saturday to give the visitors a 2-1 series win, meant that the men in maroon ran out winners in a T20I series for the first time since 2017. With the feeling that Windies was able to field a near full-strength XI of their current T20I squad, all things considered (with the controversies), comes the realization that the “future” is nearer to being the “present” than it really is to being in the “future”. Where does this then leave the fans? We could continue the relentless lobby for the inclusion of ‘senior players’, or go, “ha! we don’t need them anymore”. Or, the third option—where we just revel in the fact that, either way, we will become similar to other fan bases; knowing that the nature of the pool of players is such that, regardless, we will have high quality players representing us and just have a bit of a debate amongst ourselves when our favourites are left out of squad selection; all in the hope that we will be winning in the meantime, of course. So, we can rest easy as it seems Windies stills has the blueprint to remain competitive, not based solely on this series win, in the shortest format of the game after all.
Following a 16-ball half-century in the first T20I against Bangladesh, which placed him 3rd in the history books in terms of fastest T20I fifties– many were left wondering if Shai Hope was a “one hit wonder”. However, he also had scores of 88 runs from 45 deliveries, 25 from 16, 43 from 35, 42 from 34 and 34 from 24 that put him on track to 8th place in the CPL18 top-scores list. Along with his performances in this series, if one is an incident, two is coincidence and three is a pattern–then what is eight? Ladies and gentlemen, it is safe to say that Shai Hope is not a fluke.
Opener Evin Lewis has gained 11 berths to take fourth position after scoring 108 runs in the recent T20 series against Bangaladesh. Other West Indian batsmen to have made upward movement were Shai Hope, up 82 places to 80th, and Nicholas Pooran up 16 places to a career-best 88th.
Captain Carlos Brathwaite (up eight places to 22nd) and Keemo Paul (up 42 places to 30th) have advanced among bowlers.
Meanwhile, there has been no change of positions in the MRF Tyres ICC T20I Team Rankings with the Windies and Bangladesh retaining their seventh and 10th places, respectively.
