In the last year, Brian Lara has been demeaned and demonized in
a destructive conflict that all but destroyed everything that West
Indies cricket stood for during the last sixty-five years. Locked
in a bitter dispute, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the
West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) traded punches with their
bare knuckles and at times forgot the rules of decency and
professionalism.
Unanswered questions about the targeting of Lara are still on
the lips of many West Indians. Some people claim that he was
regarded as an obstacle to change and that the numerous attacks on
him were designed to get him out of the way in order to speed up
the implementation of the new cricket agenda.
(In The Papers Today: Brian Lara's dominating double,
which puts him on the brink of another elite batting record, is the
talk of the town; Also, the 2005 Carib Beer Cup starts
today...)
It's Brian Lara's world, we're all just observing it.
A day after journalists around the world
openly questioned whether the left-hander could provide one
last hurrah in what could be his final Test appearance on Aussie
soil, Lara answered like only he can; with a dominating double
century that puts him just 11 runs short of another elite batting
record.
(In The Papers Today: All eyes are on Brian Lara as West
Indies head into the third and final Test Down Under; Pedro Collins
planning return; World Cup Barbados borrowing money, all in today's
news round-up...)
For the umpteenth time, the West Indies will go into the final
test of a series with one thing in mind: avoid an embarrassing
whitewash.
However, the focus of all the match previews in newspapers
around the word is on one man and his struggle for runs. Can
Brian Lara snap out of the funk and deliver a lasting memory
in what is most certainly his last Test in Australia?
Despite the outstanding performances of Dwayne Bravo and Denesh
Ramdin, the West Indies lost the Second Test against Australia at
Hobart on the weekend. One wonders when the losing will end and
what is needed to halt the continuous decline.
This is running parallel with the return of the Soca Warriors
from a heroic performance in Bahrain, before a hostile audience in
what appeared to be a less-than-welcoming country.
More than 800,000 tickets -- ranging from US$10 for a single
match ticket to US$300 for the best seats at the final -- for the
World Cup 2007 cricket tournament will go on sale from January,
officials announced Wednesday.
World Cup organisers say a phased roll-out of ticketing for the
one-day tournament will give cricket fans "a fair and equitable
distribution of tickets" for the 51 matches to be played over 47
days in March and April 2007.
