Australia's T20 series against the West Indies in early October has officially been postponed, the latest cricketing casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic that has created chaos with the international schedule.
The Windies had been scheduled to play matches in Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast on October 4, 6 and 9 respectively, with the series to act as a warm-up for the Men's T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to start on October 18.
But with World Cup postponed last month due to the pandemic, and with both Australia and the Windies wanting the series to coincide with a rescheduled World Cup in Australia in 2021 or 2022, the short T20 campaign has also been put on hold.
The leading T20 players from both countries are instead set to play in the rescheduled Indian Premier League, which will run from September 19 to November 10.
Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt says he has not made a decision on who to support for International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman just yet despite stories suggesting he would, at the very least, not be supporting the bid of his predecessor, Dave Cameron
Speaking on Antigua Observer Radio show, ‘Good Morning Jojo’, Skerritt said he had not responded positively or negatively to a letter from Cameron because it did not seek a response.
“[…] we received a letter from my predecessor which, in effect, he said the letter speaks for itself and he said, looking forward to your support. Nowhere did the letter ask for anything,” said Skerritt.
Skerritt was referring to claims from Cameron that he sent a letter requesting that the CWI support him in his bid for chairman of the ICC, in effect offering him as a candidate the organization nominates.
est Indies white-ball captain Kieron Pollard will continue to lead Trinbago Knight Riders for the upcoming CPL season.
Pollard had been named Knight Riders' replacement captain after regular captain Dwayne Bravo was sidelined from the entire CPL 2019 with an injury. After captaining Knight Riders to the playoffs - they were beaten by eventual champions Barbados Tridents in the second qualifier - Pollard took over as the captain of West Indies' ODI and T20I sides.
It was Bravo who had led Knight Riders to back-to-back title victories in 2017 and 2018, but, according to Venky Mysore, the CEO of the team as well as Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, Bravo wasn't keen to lead the side earlier too, and instead wanted to focus on his career as a player.
"We are happy that Kieron who is the West Indies captain is our leader at TKR," Mysore was quoted as saying by Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. "The champion DJ Bravo has been coming to me year after year and asking me to give someone else the captaincy because he wants to just concentrate on playing and enjoying the game. I always told him not until I am ready and that time has come and he is very happy to play under Pollard."
South Africa men's tours of the West Indies and Sri Lanka have been postponed indefinitely, CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith has confirmed. The tour of the Caribbean was originally slated for July-August comprising two Tests and five T20Is, and one of Sri Lanka had three ODIs and as many T20Is scheduled for June, but both were postponed earlier because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"West Indies has been postponed indefinitely. We are struggling to find a time with the IPL being fitted in," Smith said. "It looks like our players are going to be needed from the beginning of September, government-permitting, and travel permitting. Sri Lanka also [postponed]. I expect that once things get up and running, our team, on the men's side, I would say from November onwards, if all goes well, it will be a really busy period for South African cricket, probably playing in times that we haven't played before and trying to cram in a lot of the missed tours."
Former West Indies batting coach, Toby Radford, has come to the defense of under-fire WINDIES opener, John Campbell. Speaking on the Jamaican radio show, Sports Grill, he said, "John Campbell is a good player. He played last winter in the Caribbean and looked a really good player. He was getting to 30s and 40s [but] he was getting himself out.
"What John would have to do, I think, is spend more time in England to realize what we talked about, playing late and knowing where your off-stump is."
He continued, "Again, you’ve just got to be a bit more selective. I think what was happening at times [is], he was going for big cover drives, but in England, it swings late. And what might be a cover drive in the Caribbean, [where] it doesn’t swing late [and] it goes to the boundary, in England, you can suddenly be nicking it to second slip. And you’re walking off."
