Windies star Chris Gayle has continued to give indications that he does not intend to retire anytime soon, this time expressing the desire to score another ten T20 centuries.
The 40-year-old West Indies talisman is already at the top of the list with 117 runs, one clear of second-place Brendon McCallum. Gayle had expressed thoughts about the possibility of retiring after the last World Cup, before picking a series in the West Indies against India as a final swansong.
Barbados Captain Kraigg Braithwaite led from the front with 48 and an unbeaten 84 as his team dethroned five-times defending Champions Guyana Jaguars to capture the 2020 CWI Regional four-day title on Saturday with two rounds remaining after beating the Jaguars in a Day/Night eighth round encounter.
The win was the first time since the 2015 season that the Bajans had beaten Guyana at Providence. Barbados now has 22 Regional titles since Sir Garfield Sobers led them to their first one in the inaugural Shell Shield in 1966 and are the most successful team in Regional First-Class. Barbados won four successive titles from 1977 to 1980 and only Guyana and Jamaica (five) have won more consecutive titles.
The 27-year-old Braithwaite scored the only fifty in a low scoring game and his second innings 84 was the first time a batsman had ‘carried his bat’ at Providence in a Regional First-Class game,
In 2016 in Sharjah, Brathwaite became the first opener in a Test match to ‘carry his bat’ twice when West Indies beat Pakistan.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – West Indies pacer Kemar Roach delivered a decisive spell and Barbados Pride brushed aside five-time defending champions and closest rivals Guyana Jaguars to win by 235 runs in the 2019-20 West Indies Championship on Saturday.
Roach carved up the Jaguars top order and the other Pride pacemen took care of the rest, and the hosts were bowled out for less than 100 for the second time in the match, slumping to their second heaviest defeat in modern era of domestic West Indies first-class matches (1966 onwards) on the third day of eight round matches in the Championship.
In another three-day finish, a career-best spell from Anderson Phillip wrecked the Windward Islands Volcanoes second innings batting and propelled Trinidad & Tobago Red Force to an innings and 84-run victory for their second successive win.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - Cricket West Indies (CWI) acting on the recommendation of its Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) has taken the decision to suspend all CWI Tournaments and face-to-face group meetings, from Monday March 16, for a minimum of 30 days.
CWI Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Israel Dowlat, stated: “the health and safety of our players, officials and staff, are of paramount importance to CWI and we have advised the Board of Directors to take proactive policy steps to decrease the growing risk of contamination and spread of the virus”.
Chairman of the MAC, Dr Donovan Bennett, stated, “We are acting based on medical best practice as well as in an abundance of caution. The ongoing gathering of even small groups of spectators, cricketers and match officials could pose a risk to some persons of contracting the virus and being stranded in quarantine in a non-resident country for a prolonged period. Clearly this pandemic is still evolving, and we will continue to monitor the situation throughout the Caribbean”.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) chairman of selectors Roger Harper has insisted the door remains open for all players ahead of the T20 World Cup, leaving the possibility for the inclusion of the likes of veteran players like Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo.
Recent statements in some quarters had suggested that the team had moved past the veteran Windies batsman, who holds the record for the most career runs in T20 cricket with 13,013.
Gayle has not played a T20I for the Windies since March 2019 but has continued to feature for various T20 leagues around the world. Bravo returned to the West Indies T20I side after over three years out of action, to play against Ireland at home in January and then the Sri Lanka T20Is earlier this month.
