GROS ISLET, St Lucia – Head coach Phil Simmons has cautioned West Indies not to take South Africa lightly in the upcoming two-Test series, and believes his side will need to step up a gear from recent performances if they are to break their long-running winless streak against the tourists.
West Indies have made a strong start to the new year, drubbing Bangladesh 2-0 away last February before playing competitively to draw both Tests against Sri Lanka when the Asian side toured the Caribbean a month later.
The performances propelled West Indies to sixth in the International Cricket Council rankings – their highest ranking in nearly a decade and one notch higher than South Africa.
GROS ISLET, St Lucia – Top-ranked Test all-rounder Jason Holder said his rest following the Indian Premier League has left him “in a really good place” for the two-Test series against South Africa bowling off on Thursday.
The 29-year-old is the only West Indies player who currently features in all three formats and is therefore expected to face the Proteas in both the longest format and the five-match Twenty20 International series which follows in Grenada.
Holder was rested for the high-performance camp staged here in recent weeks and also missed the inter-squad four-day match last weekend, after only arriving in the island late last month and having to undergo mandatory COVID-19 quarantine.
Barbadian and former international umpire John Holder has dismissed the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) comments claiming he has withdrawn his claim of racial discrimination against them as “disingenuous” and vowed to never work for the organization again.
Holder and Ismail Dawood had launched a legal challenge against the ECB suggesting that their careers as umpires had been adversely affected by institutional racism at the ECB.
But with the law stating that any such claim has to be brought within three months of the termination of employment, Holder and Dawood were always unlikely to prevail. Dawood was last on the ECB’s reserve umpire list in 2014; Holder’s last game was in 2009. They reasoned, however, that by bringing the case they could highlight the issues they had faced and hoped they may win an exemption on the basis of public interest.
The comments from the ECB made to the BBC were: “The ECB has been notified that John Holder and Ismail Dawood have withdrawn their employment claims against the ECB without payment of compensation or costs. The ECB is committed to a world-class diverse and inclusive officiating system, with opportunities for all. The ECB appreciates Mr. Holder and Mr. Dawood’s engagement in addressing these matters, and will now discuss with Mr. Holder his interest in contributing to its ongoing review of officiating.”
He is known to be one of the best Twenty20 bowlers in the world, having taken his talents from the senior West Indies team, to as far as the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
Krishmar Santokie, who to this day possesses some of the best bowling numbers in the Caribbean Premier League, is livid and believes that his homeland franchise, the Jamaica Tallawahs, have shifted their focus from pure cricket to friendship, intertwined with favoritism and business.
They will also be without fast bowler Oshane Thomas, who has joined the Barbados Tridents, while Nepalese spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, who took 12 wickets last season, has been selected by the defending champions, the Trinbago Knight Riders.
“I don’t think it is really about cricket anymore, it is more like a business. People pick some players and they have benefits behind it too,” said Santokie.
“We have players like Andre McCarthy that has done well for the franchise, yet he is not picked, and sometimes when the home-grown talent don’t perform in a couple of games, they crucify them, but when the overseas players have numerous bad games, they are still selected and played,” added Santokie. With that said, the Tallawahs will be banking on their old soldiers Andre Russell along with Rovman Powell and Chadwick Walton to do the bulk of the scoring this season.
Legendary West Indies fast bowler, Andy Roberts, is hopeful developing young pacer Alzarri Joseph has learned a thing or two from his recent stint in English County Cricket.
In his six matches there, Joseph did make some impression, claiming 15 wickets, the second-most in the team and adding 148 runs, with a high score of 61. In addition, he claimed an innings best of 2 for 22 and match best of 4 for 106.
“He spent some time in England which everyone feels like that is the bedrock for development because of the amount of cricket that you play, but gone are the days when you use to play seven days or sometimes, 12 to 14 days in a row, and if you can’t develop from that system then you can’t develop,” Roberts, who represented Hampshire and Leicestershire, told the Antigua Observer.
