30th August, 2022 marks the start of Hero Caribbean Premier League. Trinidad & Tobago has been confirmed as one of the host locations for this season’s CPL. There will be eight matches played in Trinidad during September 12 – 18, with home team Trinbago Knight Riders taking part in four of those games.
The Honourable Shamfa Cudjoe, Minister of Sport and Community Development stated: “The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is excited to partner with the Hero Caribbean Premier League, and welcomes back the Biggest Party in Sport to the home of Carnival, as we host the 2022 edition of the Hero CPL. This opportunity serves as an investment in positioning Trinidad & Tobago as a regional leader in sports tourism, especially in this redefined sphere of sports events in the post-pandemic era. Live spectators are an essential element of sport, so fans are welcomed to return to the stands in support of their teams and favourite players. In T&T we continue to champion safe practices while having fun as all COVID-19 protocols would be adhered to during the games.”
IN A recent article by Jonathan Ramnanansingh, Phil Simmons has explained the limitations of the West Indian white-ball cricket team, hence, a skills camp underway at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.
I’m quite surprised that at the international level, players don’t have the skills to partake in a limited-overs game. According to the article, Simmons believes this camp plays an instrumental role in guiding his players to becoming more all-around and consistent batsmen at the T20 and One-Day International levels.
As far as I could envisage, the batsmen have the skills to bat; what they lack, however, is the Cricket Intelligence (CI) to play an innings. Every innings a batsman — by this I mean anyone going in to bat for a team, whether at one or 11 in the batting order — has to determine what is required. Every innings is distinct according to the flow and situation of the game.
Skill is the ability to bat, to perform as a batsman. However, a batsman could be orthodox and look like a matchwinner in the nets but might be quite useless in a game. This is what I’m getting at, regardless of how long one spends in a camp, it would not give him the ability to bat successfully in a match.
Head coach of the West Indies team, Phil Simmons, says the 16 players who were a part of the white-ball training camp in Antigua showed some improvement as the regional side looks to fine-tune their skills with two assignments on the horizon.
In late May, the West Indies travel to the Netherlands for the first-ever three-match One Day International (ODI) series between the two teams, to be followed by the rescheduled three-match ODI series against Pakistan, which was postponed in December. These fixtures form part of the ICC ODI Super League, where teams will have the opportunity to secure points to claim one of the top seven places (excluding hosts India) to gain automatic qualification for the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
West Indies will then be hosting tours by Bangladesh, India and New Zealand, with all three series featuring white-ball matches.
For Simmons, the camp, which started on March 31, was crucial to the team’s preparations for the upcoming shorter-format assignments.
“It has been successful, as the players worked hard on different skills that we were trying to implement. A lot of them showed improvement throughout the camps,” said Simmons.
MUMBAI, India (CMC) — Nicholas Pooran's matured unbeaten knock saw Sunrisers Hyderabad to their second win of the new Indian Premier League campaign, as they beat Gujarat Titans by eight wickets here Monday.
Asked to chase 163 at the DY Patil Sports Academy, Sunrisers cantered over the line with five balls to spare to put distance between themselves and the two winless bottom-placed sides, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
Pooran finished the match in style, launching fast bowler Darshan Nalkande over square leg for six off the first ball of the final over to finish unbeaten on 34 from 18 deliveries.
All told, he punched two fours and two sixes, dominating an unbroken, 39-run, third-wicket stand with South African Aiden Markram (12 not out).
Captain Kane Williamson top-scored with 57 from 46 balls while Abhishek Sharma hit 42 from 32 balls, the pair posting 64 for the first wicket.
Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum and assistant coach David Hussey have heaped praise on his star man Andre Russell.
When Dre comes off, he wins games. When he’s on, he’s the very best in the world at what he does and we hope to see a little bit more of it,” McCullum said during an interview with ESPNCricinfo.
The 33-year-old Jamaican so far has 106 runs in three matches in the ongoing Indian Premier League including a match-winning 70 not out off just 31 balls in their second match against the Punjab Kings.
