Fri, Sep 9, '16
FORMER PRESIDENTS and officials of the West Indies Cricket Board have urged CARICOM to conduct a forensic audit of the board in order to save West Indies cricket from “absolute and total downfall”.
Six former officials — Ken Gordon, pat Rousseau, Anthony Deyal, Charles Wilkin, Bruce Aanensen and Imran Khan — have claimed that the current WICB administration under Dave Cameron has seemingly become “untouchable”, and not doing anything would lead to the “inevitable demise” of cricket in the Caribbean.
“We must reinforce the message that West Indies cricket belongs to the people of the West Indies, not to the WICB,” Gordon, WICB president from 2006 to 2008, said. “It may be timely to call for a forensic audit of the organisation. We need to lift the clouded veil which now surrounds that body. Answers are required and this can be a first step to return to the transparency required of a body which is a major beneficiary of regional resources and private sponsorship. “Many lovers of the game have said to me, ‘What can we do that would make a difference?’ the WICB seems to be untouchable. I say to them and to all cricket lovers who are concerned, let the call for a forensic audit be loud and clear. We need to save our cricket and this has to begin with getting the WICB right. It would be entirely legitimate for CArICoM to fund such an exercise and I urge that they consider doing so.”
read more at Trinidad Newsday
Fri, Sep 9, '16
The ICC has handed official warnings under its pitch and outfield monitoring process to Kingsmead in Durban and the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.
Kingsmead hosted the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand from August 19 to 23, and the Queen's Park Oval the fourth Test between West Indies and India from August 18 to 22. Both matches were heavily curtailed because of outfield conditions.
Andy Pycroft and Ranjan Madugalle, the match referees for the two Tests, both rated the outfields “poor” in their official reports. Madugalle and Geoff Allardice, the ICC's general manager, reviewed CSA's response to the “poor” rating, while Allardice and match referee David Boon reviewed WICB's response.
Since this was the first occasion either ground had received a “poor” rating, the grounds stood to receive either a warning or a fine not exceeding USD 15,000, along with “a directive for appropriate corrective action”.
Thu, Sep 8, '16
West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle says the inability to concentrate for long periods is the bugbear of the region’s Test players.
Gayle, who has enjoyed a successful Test career since his debut as a 20-year-old in 2000, spoke on the subject to the Indian media yesterday in Chennai where he has travelled to support the Tamil Nadu Premier League.
The big Jamaican left-hander who has 7 214 Test runs at an average of 42.18 with 15 centuries, inclusive of two triple tons, and 37 fifties, said during the interview that patience and batting for long periods were not the forte of the players of recent vintage.
“When I look at both formats of the game, I feel we fail to concentrate for longer periods of time [in Tests]. This has been the case since the time I made my debut under Brian Lara. We only play [quality] cricket for short sessions and we win a session here or there. And then, we switch off and that’s why we tend to lose a lot of Test matches.
Wed, Sep 7, '16
The proposal for a two-tier structure in Test cricket has been withdrawn by the ICC, at the meeting of its chief executives committee (CEC) in Dubai on Wednesday, despite six Full Members reportedly being in favour of it. There was no vote at the meeting but the consensus was to take the proposal "off the table" for the moment.
"There was a significant compromise and it was subsequently decided to withdraw the two-tier proposal," a chief executive who attended the meeting told ESPNcricinfo. He said the BCCI, Sri Lanka Cricket, the BCB and Zimbabwe Cricket had opposed the proposal, which had found support from the boards of Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies.
"We are delighted we could convince other members of the negative impact it would have on Bangladesh cricket," BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. "I thank them for understanding our situation. I also want to thank the ICC management for organising this workshop. The two-tier system is off the table, and we will now discuss the future structure of cricket in the coming days."
Tue, Sep 6, '16
St John’s, ANTIGUA – The Selection Panel of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has announced two 15-man squads for the Twenty20 and One-Day-International series against Pakistan.
The series will consist of three international matches in both formats from September 20 to October 9. Additionally, there will be a three-match Test series will run from October 13 to November 3. That squad will be named shortly.
Twenty20 Squad
Samuel Badree,Carlos Brathwaite - Captain, Dwayne Bravo
Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Jason Holder
Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard
Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Andre Russell
Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton
Chris Gayle has advised he is unavailable; while Lendl Simmons is out for medical reasons.
ODI Squad
Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Kraigg Brathwaite
Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles
Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder - Captain, Alzarri Joseph
Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse
Keiron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels