Brian Lara, the early days - before the legend

PRESIDENT RICKY SKERRITT CALLS FOR A UNITED FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

BRIAN LARA: AN UNFORGETTABLE WEST INDIAN INNINGS

March 30, 1999, will go down in cricket history as one of the greatest days for the West Indies. On that day, at the historic Kensington Oval in Barbados, a hero performed one of the game’s most amazing feats.

Brian Lara scored his epic 153 not out – rated by many observers as the best fourth innings knock in the game’s history. With the Windies needing a near impossible 310 for victory on a deteriorating fifth day pitch, Lara went where no man had gone before.

His score was just under half the team’s total, the Windies reached the improbable target with nine wickets down – Lara did what Lara did best – and the home fans left rejoicing with a victory by the narrow margin of one wicket.

Lara’s team found their mojo and their voice, and the entire region was caught up in rapturous merriment and celebration. The Aussies were stunned into silence.

It was 20 years ago, but Jimmy Adams, remembered the day like it was yesterday.

Read more at WINDIES Cricket 

Opinion: CWI First-Class title to Barbados untidy but not contentious

he Cricket West Indies (CWI) decision to award the Regional first-class title to runaway leaders Barbados Pride in its aborted season is untidy, although widely accepted.

The Pride were dominant all season and I am quite sure they would have emerged champions in a completed 2019-20 campaign but the fact is their lead was not impregnable with two rounds remaining.

To declare the season annulled must have been a huge consideration, primarily because the championship was incomplete and an outcome contrary to the current standings was still possible, even if unlikely.

These unforeseen circumstances should now force the CWI’s competition organisers to include a section in the conditions covering an incomplete season.

With 134.8 points, the Pride were a massive 40.2 points ahead of nearest rivals T&T Red Force (94.6) after eight completed rounds with the dethroned champions Guyana Jaguars and the Jamaica Scorpions joint third on 91.8 points. 

Read more at SportsMax

'Andre Russell now is our Chris Gayle, our Brian Lara' - Dwayne Bravo

Andre Russell is one of the most value players in T20 cricket, and now his West Indies team-mate Dwayne Bravo has likened the Jamaican to "our Chris Gayle our Brian Lara" in T20Is. Bravo's praise came in the wake of Russell's impactful return during the two-match T20I series in Sri Lanka, which was also the first series he played for West Indies since being ruled out of the 2019 World Cup due to an injury.

West Indies won the series 2-0 with Russell playing a big hand, scoring 35 off 14 balls in teh first T20I and 40 off 14 in the second. The latter was, in particular, a whirlwind knock as Russell packed six sixes to add to the four he hit in the first match, enough to fetch the Player-of-the-Series award.

"He's the best in the world," Bravo, who was part of the West Indies side, said in praise of Russell in a chat with Trinidad-based radio station I955 FM on Friday. "It's the same I used to say of Chris Gayle when Chris Gayle was in his prime - we are happy to have him representing us, we didn't have to come up and bowl against him in an international match. It's the same with Andre Russell. Andre Russell now is our Chris Gayle, is our Brian Lara, in the T20 format. He is the superstar."

Read more at ESPNcricinfo