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went on a Facebook rant to explain how the Trinidad Red Force Champion T 20 team was dismantled by IPL owners in collaboration with CWI.
I am surprised that Trini posters have not posted about it on this forum.It is indeed compelling and hopefully it is fully ventilated on this forum.

In reply to Dukes


It is compelling only and until you get to know who that character is. Perhaps it is why those Trini posters stayed very far.

In reply to Emir

Why don't you tell us why it is false!!!!

In reply to Dukes
Who,
Deading wid laff

In reply to Chrissy

NOBODY pays attention to Anil Roberts

Except Dukes it seems

In reply to Dukes

Anil Robert is irrelevant.

In reply to Dukes

Anil and his brother Shastri were champion swimmers in their youth days.
Now he is politician...and he is usually loud

He will be disliked by many because he was a member of Kamla's PPP government at one time....and now an opposition UNC senator

I could understand people disliking the man BUT he made quite serious allegations and at the time he was the SPORTS MINISTER and nobody is willing to say that his statements are categorically FALSE,instead just saying he is an idiot.
What I should hear instead is that Pollard,Bravo and Narine's IPL teams did not make the Champions tournament because their teams did not win the IPL or that they did represent T&T Red Force in the initial Champion's Tournament and were beaten Finalist but that the next year Guyana was the T 20 Champions in the region so those guys could not represent T&T Red Force since they were not in the tournament.

In reply to Narper

Anil still coaches swimming.He was the Coach for 2004 Olympic Swimming Bronze medallist George Bovell 111 as Sports Minister.Anil's father was a prominent Lawyer in T&T and owned some prime properties in Port Of Spain, even today, the family still owns a few.The family were affluent.
A picture showed someone resembling Anil smoking a joint with some questionable ladies.

My grandfather , Anil's father , Sir Hugh Wooding, Egerton Horton, Lawyer Dolsingh etc were on the Board of the YMCA at 17 Victoria avenue, with Dr Gordon Cressy ( Fmr VP University of Toronto, VP of Ryerson University and now VP George Brown University). Cressy was president of the YMCA in T&T at such time 18 years old.Henry Paine,Eric Williams and Manning didn't like Gordon..lol
Funny story if told.

Duksie

Some on this forum do not belong to such sites as facebook, twitter , instagram , tik tok etc
I have never been on such sites and never will. So news posted may not appear here.

In reply to Dukes

No.

That is what YOU and other of your ilk WANT TO HEAR.

If you want to take what he and members of the lunatic fringe have to say as gospel is entirely up to you.

We don’t have to respond.

In reply to imusic

Ouch , dems fighting words
Be careful Duksie noted on a thread he is knowledgeable in 4 areas
and dont venture outside such on a thread.
He could be sneaky here.

In reply to Dukes

Anil Roberts is like some posters here from Canada…

Oh by the way you know the player and the politician have very personal briefs right?

just goes to show that even if u had a affluent and diversified upbringing, you still can turn out to be an idiot

In reply to jacksparrow

Go to T&T and ask about him, you will be amazed at the information you can gather.
His father was an upright citizen lawyer, worked very hard for the Port of Spain YMCA and its first pool on Wrightson Road. ..his children..?????

Dr Cressy and his wife Joanne( canadians)were the couple that made the Tobago YMCA pool come to fruition , without his help as Sports Minister.Look at the swimming results in Tobago ..amazing.
A criminal broke into Dr Cressy home when he was entertaining The Rogers family ( Blue Jay/Maple Leafs) held a cutlass to Dr Cressy throat and robbed them all.In a Tobago gated Community....

In reply to jacksparrow

Isn't Anil an Analyst on Sportsmax?

In reply to Brerzerk

Naw , not the T&T politician..

[b]In reply to sgtdjones[/

Oh thanks, thought he was one n same

In reply to Dukes

The CLT20 was a private business arrangement between three boards, BCCI, CA and CSA. The reason the red force had its best players in the 2009 CLT20 was because only bravo had an IPL contract at that time and CSK did not qualify for the tournament by virtue of not placing high enough in that year’s IPL. By the time 2011 came around, Ravi, pollard, DJ all had IPL contracts but Ravi was with RCB who did not qualify for the CLT20 2011. Again in 2013 when we reached the semifinals of the tournament, we again did not have the services of DJ, pollard and this time Narine, who was with KKR. It would have been nice to have the full strength side, but we didn’t have the money to buy them off and it’s doubtful the IPL owners would have even allowed it.

In reply to Jumpstart

Henceforth….



Man you guys make it too easy for Dukes to win an argument lol

In reply to WIfan26

One can not ever win an argument in these times because FACTS DO NOT MATTER.

In reply to Dukes

Indeed, very true!!!

In reply to WIfan26

i wasn't arguing homie. he's right in this case. Actually, when TT won the CT20, the last edition in 2013 before the advent of the CPL, the TTCB had to ask permission of CPL to send the red force to the tournament because the Champions League took place after Tallawahs were crowned the first CPL champs. We could have won that semifinal as well if dwayne smith didn't score 59. honestly i doh now how we couldn't get him out in that game because we never had any trouble dismissing him prior to that. But we did very well reaching the semis without two of our best an most influential players. We should have beaten Sunrisers(the root beer side; check their old uniforms) but as usual, they got overconfident when they got into the tail, without sunrisers being close to the target and lost discipline, allowing parrera and karn sharma to win the game. Ironically, i think we played better in 2011, when we failed to reach the semis. Only in one game did we bat very poorly, which was the mmbai indians match, which we nearly won despite only scoring 99.

Personally, i feel some of the IPL owners felt uneasy about TT in the tournament, and the fact that we were genuine contenders for the trophy. Despite being finalists and having the best t20 players in the world, we were asked to enter a qualifying tournament three times(2011,2012 and 2013) which made no sense at all.

I just checked the scorecard......narine was part of the team because KKR didn't qualify for the tournament. Kevon Cooper couldn't play for us because Rajasthan Royals had qualified and actually reached the final

On CWI's participation in the dismantling of the side, I'm not exactly sure about that but I do know some of them were very uncomfortable with TT's success in the format. When the cpl started in 2013, and TT realized how much players we'd be missing, the country was up in arms. One radio host had the CWI president on before the tournament, and he asked him about it. That president's response was we had to spread i around. On a surface level, that was true because the CT20 had become uncompetitive Trinidad was very good and the other teams weren't good at all or were inconsistent, like JA and Guyana. People knew TT would have won the tournament before it started with only JA troubling us in the first game which was rained out after the first innings. But the dealings with the t20 stars not only from TT but the others in JA subsequently was more than telling

In reply to Brerzerk

he was an analyst for sportmax's coverage of the 2021 olympics.

In reply to Jumpstart
That's what I thought, thanks

In reply to Dukes

Here is one fact you missing: TKR is not the national Trinidad & Tobago Cricket team.

Here's another, once the CWI governing body decided to make T20 a franchise model, all the nationals team had to be dissolved and players then became free agents of sorts and given advance, way advance state of TT t-20 cricket at that moment on history, it was always a case of many of their many top players snatched up by other corporations (teams) to ply their trade, as they had the richest of talent in the world at that time.

That Anil, a trouble maker can take some truths of that era, package it at this moment in time and without context, tinged it was some hate and misplaced nationalism, and for you to find this worthy of posting it, tells me your are not in the know.

In reply to Jumpstart

True, but the lead poster is taking Anil's crap and without context and knowledge, giving it credence- as if there was a boardroom conspiracy to dismantle TT t20 team and not the fact that the franchise model was becoming de force and TT was bound to have their riches of talents scattered across the world and region.

He doesn't know Anil is a a proven fraud.

In reply to Emir

you couldn't tell by looking on social media

In reply to Emir

I never said that TKR is the National T&T cricket team..

Anil said that T&T Red Force which WAS the National T&T cricket team had first dibs on T&T players in the Champion's Trophy and the T&T players were pressured to play for their IPL teams. and that CWI colluded in that effort.You and others have not attempted to dispute that but instead vilify me for daring to bring this up and justify that position by pointing out that Anil Roberts is a fraud.
I am not interested in whether he is a fraud but whether there is substance to what he claimed.His being a fraud does not exclude the possibility that what he is saying in this instance is accurate.
Even if I stipulate that he is a fraud, it still leaves open as to whether what he is saying is true.

In reply to Dukes

is there a distinction between a fraud and a liar?

In reply to sudden

I have no time for intellectual masturbation or indeed any type of that activity.

In reply to Dukes

Therein lies your misunderstanding

usually when a person says another is a fraud, the fact that the said person is a liar or is untrustworthy or that statements published by said person should be treated with scant disregard, is implicit therein.

yet you seem to hold that there is a distinction between a fraud and a liar. explain that please

In reply to sudden

When a person widely regarded as a fraud says something that is actually true and that something is uncomfortable to some people, what many people do is to ignore the truth of the particular matter and trumpet the fact that the person is a fraud.That way they do not have to deal with an uncomfortable truth.

In reply to Dukes

how would you know when said person is telling the truth?

In reply to Dukes

honestly though.....what is the sudden interest in TT cricket? Guyana went to the clt20 once and didn't do well at all after TT had totally thrilled the crowds in india and changed how t20s are played globally

In reply to sudden

Many people know the truth wrt what took place surrounding the Champions Trophy.

In reply to Jumpstart

Guyana played in South Africa did Trinidad have to play there not to mention conditions in India are similar to Trinidad & Guyana but alas I guess we’ll never know which team would’ve fared better where lol

Yes I know T&T had a powerhouse team!!!

In reply to doosra

When T&T first went to the T20 Champions League and started playing, the commentators remarked how surprised they were that the players on the T&T team were so adept in batting, bowling, fielding, and that Ganga’s captaincy was outstanding.

They were really and truly surprised and repeatedly commented, on air, along the lines that “how come the Trinidad team could perform so competently in various disciplines of the game, yet the West Indies team can’t seem to perform the basics”. With each T&T appearance, the gist of that question was posed repeatedly during the tournament, much to the embarassment and chagrin of the then WICBC administration, regional media, and many regional cricket fans including some on this message board at the time.

The approach to the game by that T&T was revolutionary not only in the way they played, but also how they approached the game. The management of Omar Khan aligned with the captaincy o Daren Ganga opened eyes with their tactical approach, man management skills, with specific roles being assigned to various individuals in the team being one example.

This approach by that T&T team was subsequently offered by Deryck Murray to the WICBC to adopt as a model for the WI team and he was essentially run out of town.

My own belief is that embarrassment that was felt by WICBC, regional media, regional territories and some fans when foreign commentators were publicly asking why T&T were so good but the West Indies wasn’t , was at least in part responsible for the WICBC’s decision to sell the then regional T20 tournament to CPL and in the process, break up that T&T team.

In reply to imusic

T&T should have “gone it alone” at that point…

In reply to imusic

In the opening game, I recall Sunil Gavaskar exclaiming in astonishment, "They open with spin bowling, which is unheard of, plus they have the alligator roll and the shoe phone."Unusual behaviours include a player who skids the ball and enigmatic spinners.

Sunil remarked in the second match that these Trinidadian players are introducing the world to a new form of cricket that is characterized by extraordinary personalities and skill. While playing calypso cricket, India will revere them.

Gavaskar noted in the finals that these competitors were unknown in India prior to this match, win or lose.They have inspired astonishment throughout India today.

In reply to mikelegend

T&T would have failed Murray develop such players during his tenure. Dinas wanted Bassarath and campaigned for him. Murray lost in that election.We have failed in Caribbean competing as T&T under Bassarath.I am positive Dinas and Ganga regrets that decision.

Murray wanted to introduce such cricket at the WICB and decided to run for President , Big Bird made a commitment to support Murray then defaulted when the opportunity arose.
Caribbean cricket has never been the same...

In reply to imusic

I agree. At one point, the CT20, the qualifying tournament for the Champions League became so uncompetitive that Hampshirite, the visiting side, made the final of the 2011 tournament. And this was all being broadcasted globally by ESPN

In reply to imusic

You are essentially repeating what Anil Roberts said and making my point exactly!!!!!!



To paraphrase URKEL in Family Matters "DID I DO THAT???"

In reply to Dukes

it looks like you brought out the patriotic folks?

good on you

In reply to sudden

It is not a question of patriotism because after the above comment, he then makes in effect the same statement that Anil makes which whether it is accurate or not is not the point but buttresses my point.


In fairness to the music man, he is not alone although nobody actually disagrees or contradicts what Anil is saying, they just attack me for asking if what Anil is saying is the truth.

It goes to show how people think and how they are prisoners of their own prejudices.If you do not like somebody it seems difficult to accept that it does not mean they are always wrong.

In reply to Dukes

if you so believe and are able to discern when a fraudster is telling the truth, please post 4 times when you believe Trump was telling the truth about a substantive matter

In reply to sudden

What the respected Dukes is missing, and shockingly so, is that Anil wants to show there was a well planned and orchestrated boardroom conspiracy involving CWI and others to make Trinidad T20 TEAM weaker, and not the fact Trinidad T20 team of that magnificent golden era, showed the world how to play this new format and as a result of that success, the cricket semen of its players and think tank were needed to impregnate other teams so as the spread it superior DNA across the globe.

Which they did and thus is Trinidad's and by extension WI legacy to this new and most popular format.

In reply to Emir

Anyone with any intelligence would find that your altruistic motive of IPL owners and CWI making decisions for the betterment of the game globally by sprinkling superior players amongst as many teams as possible LAUGHABLE AND RIDICULOUS.

I do not believe that you really think so either and you are twisting yourself into a pretzel trying to discredit Anil in this case whilst at the same time reaching the same conclusion that in effect the T&T team was weakened.
The obvious is ignored. The IPL owners wanted their teams to win and CWI wanted to stay in good graces with the IPL owners in order to get some of their money.

In reply to Emir

i also worry about those who take a grain of truth and turn it into feed for the multitude

In reply to doosra

In reply to imusic

Was the T&T team playing the national team of Aussie or India or against Club teams.

In reply to tc1

You should have asked Gavaskar and the other commentators that were making the comments

In reply to imusic
you are posting the statement, not the comms.

In reply to Dukes

You are either playing d fool, or you sincerely just don't get it, so let me say it one more time,

Anil is saying there was a planned boardroom conspiracy to weaken TT- t20n team by some, that is his contention. To support his arguments, he took facts that no one disputed: namely that our legendary players were offered contract to entice them to other teams.

Now, if you believe this was a global conspiracy to weaken TT team, so that they will not have success, then I have a big bridge to sell you in Queens NY

In reply to doosra

Well another poster recently posted a research article by CRICINFO, that pretty much said the same point I made about our players greatness.

Don't take my word for it

In reply to tc1

Club teams, not national teams had strongest squad back then, not national teams, heck some countries did not even embrace it.

Sad you want to argue but don't have your facts together

In reply to Emir

Dukes has always had his agenda. And using Anil Roberts in an attempt to disguise it.

Look how fake apoplectic he got over players removing runners up medals.

In reply to tc1

no. they were franchises and club squads. At that time and still, the franchises were stronger than the T20I teams. Deccan Chargers, the ipl champs would have mauled every team in the wt20 that preceded the champions league with the exception, possibly of pakistan, who were as good as deccan and an unknown quantity owing to the pakistani ban from the ipl. rohit sharma, ryan harris, adam gilchrist, fidel, and andrew symonds were all part of that deccan team. steve smith, david warner, brett lee, simon katich and co were part of the NSW side that we beat in the second round. In fact. lee, bollinger, katich and clarke were current members of the then australia test and odi squads. The cape cobras side we beat in the semi final had philander, jp diuminy, herschelle gibbs, mode zondeki and charl langevelt(again all test and odi members) on their team.

Ian Chappell(one of the greatest captains in history) was extremely impressed by the brand of cricket Ganga's men played.

Firstly, this team set the template for how t20 cricket would be played for the next decade globally, there is no denying that at all.

These same issues would crop up again the next year when Gayle, our best test captain since Clive was sacked because two insecure islanders didn't like millionaire WI cricketers.

I disagree a few times with SGTDJones but he hit the nail on the head. He and imusic remember events very well. 2009 was the make or break year for WI cricket. Usually you get several chances to correct mistakes, traits, and character flaws before a fall .The mediocrity of the current 2nd First XI was sown here. But honestly, i think some caribbean people don't mind watching the WI grovel once their territory gets a forward. We have to exorcise these elements if we are to progress

In reply to imusic

I am really surprise he is still on this and it is sad that he has gone so low. He told me trinidadians in social media is saying TKR was the national team, but he conveniently ignore how Guyanese have flooded social media with all kinds of insults against Trinidadians- from food, to our perceived economic stagnation to claiming GAW as their national team, to asking forein players to marry their daughters, to attacking Trinidadians in bars, to beating Trinidadian tourist in Guyana, to wishing Trinidad become "like Haiti." All of these stuff is in social media by Guyanese in Richmond Hill and in Guyana and mainly by "Indos."



It is as if a whole sea of hate and jealously of Trinidad all these years have exploded, that he took Anil as his vehicle is really really sad.

A responsible person would have want to cool down the temperature, I watch him for day 1 keeping this post going, even though I politely replied when he first made the post, hoping he would have let it die.

In reply to Emir

he hadda be fibbing. tkr was weaker than the red force side. if it's one thing the cpl did was to weaken trinidad's team to even out the competition. you remember how incensed trinidadians were when we saw the red steel roster? only somebody born in 2010 would think the tkr was stronger than the red force. the only people who've adopted the franchise cpl team as a national side has been guyana, and where would they be without ayub, hope, azam khan and angry man pratorius

In reply to Jumpstart

Correct, and they had to do so for the sake of the game, it was no nefarious conspiracy as poster Dukes, clutching to an Anil here and there to believe it.

In reply to Mulla bin Emir

It really is sad. These damn Guyanese. When will it end?

In reply to doosra

As Dr. Freud would say: "It appears the Mulla has something other than cricket on his mind."

In reply to Emir

now i know that the then WICB was really embarrassed by how trinidad made the the cricketing establishment in the region look. As stated earlier, the WI was on the upward trend when they were forced into the practice tour of england for the wisden trophy they had won weeks earlier and which took 11 years to regain. They had already gone into two series with Floyd reifer as captain, where bangladesh brownwashed us and the champions trophy in SA. People thought at the time that gayle, sarwan, tiger DJ, taylor and co might have never played for the WI again, a perfectly legitimate fear and in some ways it happened. Sarwan's career was destroyed by gibson, bravo never played test cricket after 2011 because sammy, the most talentless cricketer in a generation was captain, tiger had to threaten to sue the wicb to get them to back off, jerome taylor did not play a test match between 2009 and 2014 and brendan nash never played a test after sammy took over

In reply to Jumpstart

Hey Jumpy, what happened to the "the greatest Tittie cricket team ever" in 2010?

In reply to SnoopDog

they was liming in west mall because they thought the game would have been rained out.TT would have progressed if the game had been cancelled. we know from history it was an aberration rather than a trend. guyana took advantage, they won the trophy, were mauled in south africa and subsequently mauled by every trinidad side in both t20s and 50 over domestic games for the next decade

In reply to Jumpstart

So what you're saying is that the greatest ever Tittie team ever assembled couldn't even beat that shitty Muddie team in the local competition?

Got it Bro.

In reply to SnoopDog

for one season no. ent guyana had to contract the developmental pakistanis and an out of favor SA cricketer to beat us? and we would have won that match had ganga not decided to play across the line from a spinner in crandon who never turned the ball

In reply to Jumpstart

Would have, could have, should have, maybe have....

In reply to sgtdjones Funnily enough Sir Hugh Wooding was my late grandmother's cousin.

In reply to imusic

NEO-colonial Education does not change Guyanese….

Are you all sure you're discussing the same thing? Is Anil talking about what used to happen in 'The Champion of Champions' IPL thingy
where say a Gayle could not rep CPL champs Tallawah if is IPL team RCB was also in the Championship competition?

In reply to sgtdjones

exactly. 2009 was the year to fix wi cricket, the mediocrity of every side now is as a result of the decisions taken in 2009. anybody who believes otherwise is either ignorant. or worse dishonest