BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – West Indies fast bowling legend Sir Curtly Ambrose is coming out of retirement to turn his arm over in support of a very worthy cause.
The icon, who retired from international cricket 15 years ago with 405 Test wickets and 225 in One-Day Internationals, announced his availability for the “Rally Round Dominica” charity match this Saturday.
He will line-up for the University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor’s Celebrity XI against West Indies Cricket Board President’s Celebrity XI, which begins at 7 pm (6 pm Jamaica Time) at the historic Kensington Oval.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that former West Indies captain Richie Richardson has been appointed to the Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees. He will replace Sri Lanka’s Roshan Mahanama, who stepped down last week.
Mr Richardson will take over the match referee’s role after he has finished his current assignment as the West Indies cricket team manager, which will end with the Sydney Test against Australia starting on 3 January 2016.
Following his appointment, Mr Richardson said: “I am excited and honoured to have been selected for one of the most important jobs in cricket.
“Having been on either side of the fence, first as a player and then as an administrator, I think I have the experience and insight to help me contribute positively alongside some of the finest and most experienced match officials. Obviously, I look forward to working and learning from my colleagues as we all continue to strive for excellence."
IT has become increasingly clear that the Caribbean’s two new, high-profile franchise tournaments, the West Indies Cricket Board’s first-class Professional Cricket League (PCL) and the privately financed and organised T20 Caribbean Premier League (CPL), cannot comfortably coexist.
He attributed the PCL’s general failure to attract sponsors principally to competition from the strongly financed, marketed, promoted and staged CPL.
The WICB has set a deadline of four years for the six franchises to become self-sufficient. Until then, it disburses US$45 000 to each to cover fees for players and coaches, general preparation of teams and the like.
WICB president Dave Cameron has warned that franchises must run their operations more efficiently or face the prospect of losing the monthly grant. “The board has taken a decision that if franchises do not comply with the standard, there could be penalties, and the only penalties we could exact is the withholding of funds,” he said.
The West Indies selectors and WICB continue to err even when it is seeking to establish a new course to haul West Indies cricket out of the deepening abyss it has found itself since losing the Frank Worrell Trophy 2-1 to Mark Taylor’s Australian side in 1994/95.
Since that series the West Indies have played 194 matches winning 40, drawing 54 and losing a staggering 100 matches with the last being against Australia in Jamaica, June 2015. The win - lost record is even worst when matches against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are excluded.
For instance the press releases to announce the change of captains for both the men and women’s team were fraught with language and lack of information to court all kinds of conflict-ridden interpretations. These interpretations have not done any good for the desired purposes of the changes and the spirit of good governance for a seemingly disjointed institution.
Judging from noises emanating from media, insular cricketing personnel and representative cricket boards too, West Indies present cricket captaincy came down to being nearly a mano-y-mano affair, at least an imaginary one, featuring Barbados’ young fast bowling all-rounder Jason Holder and Trinidad and Tobago’s seasoned wicket-keeper batsman Denesh Ramdin.
Even in cyberspace that would be a no-contest but that supposition of one versus the other is also far from the truth. This recent captaincy appointment of Holder to lead WI to Sri Lanka and onwards is all about efficiency, complete effort, hopeful and anticipated success, and most importantly, the future of what could positively transpire in WI teams over the next decade or so.
Paraphrasing actor Michael Douglas in the film “The American President” describing attitude, fight and determination needed when acquiring American citizenship, these are also required to be good present WI ODI, Tests and T-20’s captains. You have to want it bad but it is not at all easy!
