Former West Indies Captain Jason Holder has expressed his delight at being named among Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.
Holder, who was among the West Indies' best-performing players during the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka, was named alongside Zak Crawley, Mohammed Rizwan, Dominic Sibley and Darren Stevens. Meantime, Holder’s West Indies teammate and white-ball captain Kieron Pollard was named The Leading T20 Cricketer in the World.
Holder said the recognition is the reward for his hard work.
“This award means so much to me. I’m delighted that my efforts to play well and make a contribution have been bearing fruit and I just want to continue and reach higher heights,” he said.
Promising West Indies batsman, Kyle Mayers, has expressed confidence at the prospect of becoming a top international Test cricket all-rounder, on the back of encouraging displays with both the bat and ball in recent months.
The attacking-minded Mayers burst on the scene with a stroke-filled 210 unbeaten in the first Test against Bangladesh, in February of this year. However, against Sri Lanka last month, the player also had a good turn with the ball. Not only extracting movement from a placid pitch but taking four wickets in the process, with just a short spell.
The display prompted some pundits to suggest that the player had the ability to become a dependable all-rounder for the squad if he could improve his overall fitness.
“Preparation is key for me to be up there with Jason. It will take that hard work, but I believe I can do it for sure. Having number one and maybe number two in the world can’t be so bad. If they had two of the world’s best all-rounders the guys would be happy.”
President Wilford “Billy,” Heaven says the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) is committed to adhering to health and safety guidelines after Government recently gave approval for the country to host international matches.
“Last week we received the go-ahead to play international cricket matches and to have the training, though in a limited way,” Heaven told the Jamaica Observer during a telephone interview yesterday.
“I make the point hastily that the JCA will continue to be responsible, and notwithstanding the approval, we will not do anything to compromise the safety of players and that of the nation,” he said.
As part of a busy home schedule, Cricket West Indies (CWI) is expected to host South Africa, Australia and Pakistan this summer. Regardless of the host country, it is likely that all matches will be staged behind closed doors to limit the risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus.
THE West Indies Four-Day Championship, which was tentatively scheduled to bowl off this month, has been canceled because of the covid19 pandemic.
For months Cricket West Indies (CWI) has deliberated whether it was possible to have the annual tournament.
Now Sukesh Maniam, who was a TT Cricket Board shareholder representative, along with Kerwin John at the CWI annual general meeting on Sunday, has said the tournament has been canceled.
Maniam told Newsday, “The four-day tournament is definitely off, due to obvious reasons, of moving teams around with restricted flights in and out of countries especially like TT, then (you have) the quarantine periods and so on.”
“What they are proposing…is that each territory is going to have their own matches – their best versus the rest kind of thing, within their territory.”
The entire South Africa tour of the West Indies is tentatively scheduled to be played in Trinidad.
It will include two Test matches and five T20 matches.
It was initially reported that Trinidad would host matches when Pakistan visits the Caribbean later this year.
The option of playing South Africa in Trinidad was discussed at the Cricket West Indies (CWI) annual general meeting on Sunday.
CWI has tried to limit players' traveling during the covid19 pandemic.
Sri Lanka and West Indies faced off in three T20 Internationals, three One Day Internationals and two Test matches from early March to early April. All those matches were played in Antigua at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and at the Coolidge Cricket Ground.
