West Indies’ rising fast-bowling star Jayden Seales has made it clear that his heart belongs to Test cricket, declaring that no amount of franchise league riches, not even the glitzy Indian Premier League (IPL), could lure him away from the longest format.
Fresh off being named Man of the Series in the One-Day International (ODI) series against Pakistan, the 23-year-old Trinidadian emphasised his unwavering commitment to the West Indies Test side during an interview on iSports, hosted by Andre Errol Baptiste on i95.5 FM on Thursday.
Seales, whose fiery pace and precision have made him a standout in the Caribbean attack, left no room for doubt about his priorities.
“I don’t think anything could get me away from Test cricket, nothing whatsoever,” he says. “It would have to be a doctor saying, ‘Look, you can’t play Test cricket no more because your body can’t handle it.’ But there’s no way I would give up Test cricket to play any prime-time cricket.”
Director of Cricket at Cricket West Indies (CWI), Miles Bascombe, has admitted that the region is not generating enough high-level coaches, and that plans are afoot to restructure its coaching education system.
Speaking during a press conference on Monday following the conclusion of a two-day emergency meeting, Bascombe said CWI had hired a consultant to help address the issue as a short-term fix.
However, he revealed that a complete revamp of the coaching education system was in the works.
“So our coaching education system is probably one of the things from very early. I recognised that we were not producing the level of coaches that we would want to ideally, based on the certification programme.
The reigns of captaincy within the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) have been passed on to one of the world’s leading players, Nicholas Pooran, for the upcoming Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2025.
Pooran takes over the mantle from Kieron Pollard, who has led the side since 2019 and guided them to their most recent and record fourth title in 2020.
In accepting the leadership role via a TKR media release announcing the development on Thursday, Pooran said, “It means a lot, first and foremost, to represent Trinbago Knight Riders. It is a privilege that I’m getting the opportunity to lead this franchise. I want to give it my best shot, and hopefully make as many correct decisions as I can.”
Pooran follows in the footsteps of former captains and personal friends Pollard, who is TKR’s most senior player, and former captain-turned TKR head coach Dwayne Bravo, who led the side from 2013 to 2019.
“For me, the most satisfying thing is that Pollard is still playing, Sunil (Narine) and Andre (Russell) are here too. That’s a lot of experience I can bank on. To lead them on the field—it means a lot to me,” said Pooran.
Six teams. Six venues. 34 matches. Only one eventual winner. The 13th edition of The Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) got underway in Basseterre on Thursday night as the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots defeated Antigua & Barbuda Falcons in the first match, the Patriots running out winners by six wickets with 30 balls remaining.
Patriots skipper Jason Holder won the toss and elected to insert the Falcons, this turned out to be a shrewd move as only Karima Gore made a score of note for the latter. Gore survived a shaky start to post his maiden T20 half century, his 61 off 34 balls helped to stitch the visitor's batting effort together and saw the Falcons post 121 all out.
On a sticky pitch that helped the bowlers the batters found it hard to time all their shots but the Falcons target was below par and hauled in with relative ease by the Patriots.
The experienced hands of Alick Athanaze (37 off 28) and Jason Holder (18 off 14) saw Patriots over the line with five overs to go to cap off a commanding performance to start to this year’s campaign.
DIRECTOR OF Cricket at Cricket West Indies, Miles Bascombe, believes that it is too early to judge West Indies all-format head coach Daren Sammy based on the performance of the regional side in one Test series.
The West Indies were trounced 3-0 by Australia in Sammy’s first series in charge of the Test team in July, which included them being skittled out for a paltry 27 – the second lowest score in Test history – in the second innings of the third Test match.
They were also defeated 5-0 by the same opponents in the following T20I series and 2-1 by Pakistan in the just-concluded T20I series in Florida.
They won the ODI series against Pakistan, 2-1 yesterday, marking the first series win over the Asian team in 34 years.
“The underlying reason in [hiring Sammy] was that we felt Daren had been able to articulate a clear plan and we saw him do that in the white-ball format and we pretty much wanted the same type of approach towards Test cricket.
