The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket
When the tiny island of Montserrat was overcome with lava flows from the Soufriere volcano's massive eruptions, many Montserratians were forced to take refuge in other countries. A young Lionel Baker was one of those displaced in 1997. Baker joined his mother, two brothers and a sister in England. The new environment proved to be a shock to the young cricketer's system.
Alloy Lequay, chief executive officer of the T&T Cricket Board (T&TCB) has gone on pre-retirement leave from December 31, 2004.
However, he still plans to visit the offices of the local board at the National Cricket Centre in Couva, once per week to attend to unfinished business. Lequay, who celebrated his 80th birthday last October, has been the president of the board for 25 years and its CEO for the past eight years.
A player given the responsibility of leading his national team in the dawn of his career is nothing new, it happens all the time. However, giving that player a team of players the majority of whom are as green or greener than him is another story.
Damodar Daesrath, in his second season of first-class cricket, will be leading the Guyana team onto the field when they take on Trinidad and Tobago in a first round match of the 2005 Carib Cup on January 7 at the Guaracara Park in Point-a-Pierre.
West Indies captain Brian Lara will join teammates Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo in a World XI to raise funds for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.
Lara will headline the World XI squad that includes five Australians. The Rest of the World XI is scheduled to play a one-day match against an Asian XI at the MCG on January 10.
Whenever one thinks of the word disaster, those driven to hyperbole are prone to apply it to the humdrum disappointments in life, a dented fender on the new car, a loss by their favorite sporting team, and for the punters amongst us, any ducats they may have cared to wager thereof.
However, recent events in Asia and stretching as far as Africa put disasters into perspective. Cataclysmic would be a more apt description of the Tsunami that ravaged parts of coastal Asia and Africa, including the cricket playing nations of India, Sri Lanka Bangladesh and Kenya. My sympathies go out to them.