On the 3rd of June, earlier this month, resident red-ball wicketkeeper, Shane Dowrich, marked the five-year anniversary of his Test debut for the West Indies. The, then, 23-year-old received his Test cap in Dominica, against Australia as a specialist batsman, while, then, wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin still led the team. Dowrich was called into the team after a commanding 2014/15 season in the Regional 4-Day competition, scoring six hundred and fifteen (615) runs in ten (10) matches, averaging an impressive 51.25 with the bat. And as the Caribbean side, now in England, continues preparation for their pending part in the historical reintroduction of international cricket, following the devasting COVID-19, we take a look at five times the Barbadian has stood tall for the men in maroon.
On Debut
Dowrich was thrown into the deep end when Australia came a-calling in 2015, being asked to bat at no.4 in his first Test. And if the psychology of taking guard at the fall of the second wicket—for a wicketkeeper-batsman who typically resides further down the order—wasn’t enough, the reality of the West Indies finding themselves 63 for 2, on the day, was sure to get his nerves working. And to that point, he was eventually bowled by Josh Hazlewood for fifteen (15) in a relatively short-lived first innings display. The West Indies were bundled out for one hundred and forty-eight (148), thus trailing in the second innings by one hundred and seventy runs (170). This, following the Aussies’ first innings total of three hundred and eighteen (318).
West Indies batsman Shamarh Brooks insists the team has no need to fear a powerful England bowling attack, ahead of the upcoming series, once they are willing to apply themselves at the crease.
A lot of the talk so far heading into the England versus West Indies match-up has centered on worries about how the regional team’s often inconsistent batting line-up will fend off an explosively quick Jofra Archer and an experienced England bowling line-up.
“Spending time at the crease will be key, as long as we apply ourselves and spend some time out there it will get easier,” he added.
A good number of the West Indies side defending the Wisden Trophy have career-best performances against England and though statistically Kemar Roach’s lie elsewhere there is no doubt in his mind he sits among them.
The six for 48 claimed as a young tearaway quick in his second Test against Bangladesh in 2009 sits top of his figures but his personal favourite? The English evisceration in Barbados last year that set up a memorable 2-1 home series victory.
England, bouncing on from a 3-0 win in Sri Lanka, believed they had kept the hosts to a serviceable first-innings 289 after losing the toss and by most definitions they probably had. Come tea on the second day, however, this notion sat in flames, their batsmen rolled for 77 in 30.2 sorry overs.
Roach, a bowler some feared might never fulfil that early promise owing to a rebellious body, whipped his Kensington Oval home into a nostalgia-filled frenzy that afternoon, his five for four in the space of 27 balls a display of laser-like accuracy during a collectively hostile assault from West Indies’ pace battery.
Now ready to lead the attack alongside Shannon Gabriel once more, the 32-year-old Bajan has shared a desire for a repeat come Wednesday’s first Test in Southampton and stressed how important this tour is to his teammates.
“That day in Barbados is top for me,” says Roach at the team’s training base at Old Trafford. “It was the best I have ever felt; my body was healthy, the ball was coming out perfectly, I was expressing myself. There was no added pressure, just total comfort. That’s how I got the best out of myself.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) is set to nominate outgoing English and Wales Cricket Board chief Colin Graves over former CWI President Dave Cameron for the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairmanship.
The Sunday Gleaner understands that CWI President Ricky Skerritt is well in favour of Grave’s nomination and is keen to back the Englishman for the top ICC post, which has become vacant as India’s Shashank Manohar had announced in December that he would not be seeking a third two-year term.
Manohar stepped down as ICC chairman on Wednesday, one week before the election process for his successor is announced.
Deputy chairman Imran Khwaja, formerly of Singapore Cricket Association, has stepped in as the interim chairman.
In the media release on Wednesday, the ICC said that the board would finalise the nomination process to elect Manohar’s full-time successor “within the next week”.
Joshua Da Silva was just 17-years-old when he turned up at Old WImbledonians CC in Surrey for a stint of club cricket as part of the Kieron Pollard Scholarship programme. He did well in that 2017 season, averaging over 60 with the bat and keeping wicket tidily. Unassuming, polite, a bit shy, the club loved him too. Everything that summer went as well as could be. Except for one match. "I remember that like yesterday," Da Silva laughs. "That one still irks me."
Old Wimbledonians were hosting Staines in a league game. Da Silva was left trying to chase down a total of 204 almost singlehandedly after the rest of the batting line-up had collapsed in a heap. He had just passed 50 when he was joined by the number 11. Da Silva farmed the strike, played a few shots and had somehow managed to get to 115 when, just a few runs short of leading his side to what would have been a remarkable victory, he went for one shot too many.
