These situations should create openings for young cricketers and others who may have been regularly on the fringe of selection, but never cemented a place in their territories’ teams. The selectors have a tough task on their hands to identify those who are worthy of the opportunity to become international cricketers.
The big problem is that those players with talent and backed by performance are soon snatched up by the world’s super-rich franchises for their own purposes, at enormous fees that the players can’t refuse and with which their native country, which bred them to be the cricketers they have become, cannot compete, and thus eventually lose them.
The franchises should be made to pay a fee for the use of the player, for no one wants to deprive the cricketer of earnings, which are a just reward for his ability and the hard work used to develop it. Nevertheless, his club and coaches should also be recognised.
Actually, when it first began in India around 2008, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, quite fairly, paid fees to Cricket West Indies for the West Indian players who were contracted, and insisted the local club that bred the player should also be rewarded. This is still being done.
If you ask ChatGPT, or its newly ascendant competitor DeepSeek, what the perfect Test series looked like, the responses are lengthy, vague, and non-committal. Perhaps one day, when they learn how to limit them to four words or fewer, "Jomel Warrican in Pakistan" would suffice as the perfectly succinct response.
Warrican's dominance of this series has been uniquely legendary. He's taken the most wickets, of course, more than every other West Indian bowler combined. The best bowling figures in an innings, and in a match, belong to him. No one with more than two wickets could boast a better bowling average this his single-digit 9, none managed an economy rate as miserly as his 2.38. For good measure, he also has the highest batting average on either side across the series, the highest strike rate for anyone over 25 runs, and the fourth-highest run tally.
The smattering of Tests he has played in the subcontinent over the past decade have demonstrated his value on spin tracks. But nothing could quite prepare Warrican for what he found in Multan, where, ahead of the series, his captain Kraigg Brathwaite had said he had never seen cracks appear this early in his 96-match Test career anywhere else. It gave the spinners more opportunities, but also greater responsibility.
Chris Dehring, the highly regarded Jamaican sports administrator, who is about to embark on the job as CEO of Cricket West Indies, has been named to join a panel of experts to advise on the future of the sport of cricket around the world.
Dehring was announced on Thursday as the newest member of the World Cricket Connects Advisory Board. This independent group will shape the annual World Cricket Connects agenda, help facilitate the event’s discussions and in turn maximise the opportunity for genuine impact on the health of the game.
The World Cricket Connects will stage a forum, which proved hugely popular in in the past to bring together influential people from across all aspects of cricket in its inaugural year in 2024. This year’s event will be held at Lord’s on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June 2025, ahead of the ICC World Test Championship Final between South Africa and Australia.
Jomel Warrican and the rest of West Indies' spin cast hoisted Pakistan with their own petard, spinning a web around Pakistan's batters to skittle them out for 133, securing a first win on Pakistan soil since 1990. It took West Indies little over an hour on day three to slice through Pakistan's last six wickets, a 39-run partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Agha the only one that put up any resistance as West Indies secured a 120-run win that levelled the series.
The signs were immediately ominous for Pakistan when, three balls into the day, Saud Shakeel was drawn into playing at one from Kevin Sinclair that ripped away, taking the outside edge to first slip. Nightwatcher Kashif Ali was dispatched the following over, Warrican forcing the ball through his pads as West Indies began to smell blood.
Rizwan and Agha kept the bowlers at bay for a while, hunkering down and trying to ride out this West Indies wave. With Kemar Roach injured, West Indies continued chipping away with their trio of spinners. Rizwan put away the odd delivery when they missed their lines, but this was becoming increasingly rare and Pakistan continued to feel asphyxiated.
Hayley Matthews displayed her exceptional all-round abilities throughout 2024, starting the year in scintillating form against Pakistan in April. She hammered an unbeaten 140* in the opening ODI and followed it up with another brilliant knock of 141 in the third match, while also claiming six wickets across the series.
Matthews featured in just one ODI against Sri Lanka, scoring 38 before missing the remaining games due to illness, though returned strongly in a tour of India.
The West Indies skipper capped off the year with another century in Vadodara, and contributed with the ball, picking up three wickets across the series.
