Needing a win to secure a spot in the Nagico Super50 semi-final round, Barbados knocked off previously undefeated Trinidad & Tobago by three wickets on Sunday at Queen's Park Oval. Barbados sent the hosts in and held them to 226 thanks in large part to captain Jason Holder's 4 for 35.
Only three batsmen reached double digits for T&T, but each made an important contribution. Foremost among them was Darren Bravo who top scored with 82 after coming back into the lineup for the first time in the tournament since returning from the Test tour of Australia. He received quality support from Kjorn Ottley, who made 38, but more significantly Denesh Ramdin, whose 57 was part of an 89-run fifth-wicket stand with Bravo.
Though no one reached 50 for Barbados in reply, every member of the top seven contributed a double-figure score. Kraigg Brathwaite was the best of the lot with 48 off 87 balls as he teamed with Shai Hope for a methodical 62-run second-wicket stand to get the chase going in the right direction.
Bridgetown, Barbados, January 16 – (www.bcacricket.org) - On Friday, January 8, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced a list of 15 players, who have been given retainer contracts for the period October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.
As a follow-up, veteran journalist Keith Holder conducted a wide-ranging interview with WICB Chief Executive Officer, Michael Muirhead, on his weekly programme, dubbed “Mid Wicket, The Real Cricket Show”, on the Barbados-based Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation radio station (100.7 FM) on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m.
Muirhead took part in the entire one-and-half-hour programme by way of a telephone link-up from the WICB headquarters in St. John’s, Antigua.
Allen Stanford's interview with the BBC from his cell at the high-security jail in Florida last week revived mixed memories of the Texan billionaire's involvement in West Indies cricket.
It ended in 2009 with his imprisonment for an unlikely 110 years on charges by the United States' Security and Exchange Commission of fraud, conspiracy and obstruction, most of it connected to his multimillion-dollar T20 tournaments in Antigua, one of the bases for his financial empire.
In the interview, he spoke of his "hell" in jail, of the severe beatings by inmates to which he was initially subjected, verified by the widely circulated images of his bloodied face as he was stretchered to hospital. The physical degradation followed the initial shame of being led to his cell handcuffed and wearing the familiar orange garb of American criminals.
Far from sounding a broken man, Stanford was defiant in the interview. "I didn't do anything wrong," he asserted. "Will I apologise? No. Mark my words… I am going to walk out of these doors a free man." He boasted that he had been "one of the wealthiest men on the planet", who needed his six jets to fly between his offices in 14 countries.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – The Selection Panel of the West Indies Cricket Board has announced a 15-member squad for the Tour of South Africa from February 12 to March 10, and the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Tournament from March 15 to April 3 in India.
SQUAD
Stafanie Taylor (Captain), Shakera Selman (Vice Captain), Merissa Aguilleira
Shemaine Campbelle, Shamilia Connell, Britney Cooper
