Rain, No Play

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Today's shocking and humiliating 51 run defeat by the West Indies at the hands of county side Derbyshire in a Twenty20 game is further evidence of the depths to which West Indies cricket has plunged. In fact, looking back at the futility of West Indies cricket over the last 2 years, at least in Test matches, shows an alarming resemblance to the futility of Test cricket's newest entrant Bangladesh.

A comparison of West Indies and Bangladesh's Test results since January of 2005.

Team	Wins	Losses	Draws
Bangladesh	1	9	2
WI	1	16	8

Now, the West Indies certainly don't match the Bangladeshis in terms of innings defeats, with Bangladesh suffering 6 of those over the period as opposed to only 2 of those for the Windies. However with six losses by 7 wickets or more and four more losses by more than 130 runs, it's easy to see that the West Indies are not far behind Bangladesh in futility.

With the West Indies not having won a single Test in the last 2 years now, (their one win since Jan 2005 was in May of that year), it may not be long before questions are asked internationally if the West Indies belong at the Test level, just as those questions are now asked of Bangladesh.

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The ICC has suspended the 5 match officials who officiated in the April 28 World Cup final that ended as a farce. These five officials, namely West Indian Steve Bucknor, Aleem Dar; the reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden, and the match referee, Jeff Crowe, have all been suspended for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup final in September.

Their actions led to the most farcical finish ever witnessed at a World Cup final. With Sri Lanka needing 63 runs from the final 18 deliveries of the match and with the light fading badly, these 5 officials concluded incorrectly that the Sri Lankans needed to come back the next day to finish the match. Now, this was when all of 33 overs had already been bowled (20 are enough to constitute a match) and the Sri Lankan captain had already conceded defeat. The correct decision by the officials would have been to declare the match finished, and award the championship to Australia. Instead, after discussion, the officials then allowed the Sri Lankans to face the supposedly remaining 3 overs against Australia's spinners in near pitch black conditions. The incredulous Kensington Oval crowd rightly booed the farce that unfolded before them.Read more

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For years, the West Indies Cricket Board has pointed its finger of blame at its players for the continued decline of the team's fortunes. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Board's actions have been a farcical attempt to further its power and take advantage of its employees.

Today, the WICB had to recruit West Indian players from local leagues in England to fill in for the players called up for the One Day series in England due to mismanagement of travel arrangements. Injuries to members of the Test squad meant that there was a shortage of healthy players to cover for the late arriving players. Claims of indiscipled players have been rampant for the past few years, and many West Indians (myself included) have been all too willing to heed the WICB's accusations and lay blame at the feet of the players. Incidents such as this latest fiasco demonstrate that there is more going on in West Indies cricket than immediately meets the eye.Read more

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Shivnarine Chanderpaul once again fought alone.

At Riverside in the fourth Test, Shiv Chanderpaul continued his valiant, almost singled handed effort in fighting for West Indian pride. Unfortunately, as has been the case for so long, his fight was in vain as the other members of the team rolled over and played dead before a rampant English squad.

With Gayle and Chanderpaul resuming the from the overnight score of 83/3, still 30 runs behind England's first innings total, batting out the day should have been the goal. The first session went well enough, with only Gayle (52) losing his wicket, edging one of his expansive drives to slip. The post lunch session, however, was horrible for any West Indian as the Windies lost 6 wickets for 88 runs to put England in the match winning position. The manner in which many of the batsmen got out left much to be desired as in addition to Gayle and Runako Morton on the previous day, Dwayne Bravo (44) and Daren Powell got out to absolutely ridiculous shots. Denesh Ramdin and Marlon Samuels fell cheaply as well, but at least they got decent deliveries from Monty Panesar. Chanderpaul was last man out for 70, leaving the English the small total of 110 to chase. England then raced to 111/3 with all of 30 overs remaining in the days play.Read more

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Shivnarine Chanderpaul continued his "Mighty Mouse" impersonation in this series and came to the Windies rescue again today. Dwayne Bravo joined him and the pair featured in an unbroken 77 run partnership for the fifth wicket on second day of the fourth and final Test at Chester-Le-Street.

The Test match started after lunch on the second day after rain had washed out the opening day. Put in to bat, the Windies were in trouble right away as Ryan Sidebottom had Daren Ganga's wicket with the first ball of the match. Ganga was slightly unlucky in that he turned a fullish delivery straight into the chest of Alastair Cook at bat pad. Maybe he should heed Sir Everton Weeke's famous advice of not hitting the ball in the air next time. The other three wickets that fell were all due to poor shot selection. Chris Gayle (28), already suffering a poor tour, went for an almighty heave-ho against Matthew Hoggard and was plum lbw when he missed the ball. Gayle looked out of sorts as he tried to blast his way out of his rut by going for big shots. Devon Smith's heart must have sunk when he left a straight one from Sidebottom only to hear the deadly sound of timber rattling behind him. He made only 4. Smith was probably expecting the ball to swing away from him, given the prodigious swing that Sidebottom had earlier extracted, but you can't just leave a ball that's headed straight for your stumps, swing or no swing. Runako Morton (6) did his best to outdo Gayle for the worst shot of the day when he tried to drive a shortish ball from Steve Harmison and gave a simple catch to Sidebottom in the covers.Read more

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[Austin Richards, Jr. courtesy of www.stanford2020.com]

The WICB have named a 14 member squad for the limited over matches in England and Ireland this summer. Presumably that includes the two Twenty20 internationals between the West Indies and England.

One notable inclusion in the squad is Antiguan opener Austin Richards Jr. Richards is a young 23 year old left handed opener who has played 10 first class matches since 2004 with and average of 37.88. In the past Carib Beer series, he slammed a maiden first class century of 183 against the Windward Islands. He is yet to make his debut for the senior West Indies team. Out-of-form Dwayne Smith has also found his name in the squad as well. Chris Gayle has been named the captain after the about-face by the WICB.

The squad:

Chris Gayle (captain), Shivanrine Chanderpaul (vice captain), Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Runako Morton, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Austin Richards Jr, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith.Read more

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Average: 4 (1 vote)

In an about face, the WICB, according to CaribbeanCricket.com, will offer the ODI and Twenty20 captaincy for the current England tour to Chris Gayle. Previously the WICB's executice committee had rejected the selectors' choice of Gayle for stand in captain for the ODI and Twenty20 matches.

Apparently the WICB's executive committee led by President Ken Gordon wanted to clean house with the supposed "indisciplined" players. However, the selectors made it known Gayle has never been charged with "indiscipline" and that they would resign en masse if the board interfered with their decision. Good for them. Their job is to select the team and if the WICB doesn't like their performance then they should replace them when their terms are up, but stay out of the selection process, Mr. Gordon!Read more

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Yesterday the Jamaican police finally made the embarrassing announcement that Bob Woolmer, the former Pakistan cricket coach, was not murdered after all, something that the Jamaica Gleaner reported a month earlier on May 13. The formal announcement was made by Commissioner of Police, Lucius Thomas, with the man who headed the misguided investigation, Mark Shields, by his side. Woolmer was found dead in his twelfth floor room at the Jamaica Pegasus on March 18 of this year. Four days later, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shields announced that Woolmer had been strangled. This conclusion was based entirely on the report of government pathologist Dr. Ere Seshaiah, which found broken bones in Woolmer's neck that were supposedly consistent with "asphyxia by manual strangulation".



From the start, there were (or should have been) questions about that conclusion, as there were no abrasions on Woolmer's neck. If he were strangled one would have expected that there would have been some marks on his neck. Questions were also raised as to how a man of almost 250 pounds could have been subdued and strangled by an attacker without him raising an alarm. It is very embarrassing from a Jamaican and regional perspective for the local reports to have been so erroneous that foreign pathology reports were needed to established the truth. Read more

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The West Indies fell 61 runs short of achieving what would have been a miracle victory against the Englishmen today. No team had ever made as much as 455, the Windies' target, to win a Test match batting last. Shivnarine Chanderpaul's dogged 116 n.o. must be rated his best Test innings as he gave hope to the seemingly impossible victory chase.

Needing a further 154 runs to get at the start of the fifth and final day, and with 5 wickets in hand, the Windies had a decent chance of pulling off the win. They managed to get through to lunch with only the loss of Denesh Ramdin and Darren Sammy, but the tail could not wag enough to get the Windies home. Steve Harmison was the destroyer of the tail enders as his post lunch snorting deliveries that claimed Jerome Taylor's and Fidel Edwards' wickets killed off any hope the Windies had. Monty Panesar again proved to be a handful, taking six wickets in the innings and 10 in the match.

The Windies have regained some pride though, if nothing else. No one would have placed a bet on them making anywhere close to 394. There must have been some nervous individuals in the English dressing room as the Windies crept closer to the target before Harmison and Panesar wrapped up the tail. That though, is little consolidation, as the Windies came agonisingly close to winning a match for the first time in almost two years. What must also be equally agonising is the fact that the West Indies should have won this match. Here are three instances that could have and should have turned the match in the Windies' favour.Read more

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UPDATE: After thinking this one over, I had a change of heart because of the fact that Samuels did not intend for his letter to be leaked to the public. So it is apparent that he was not seeking attention for his perceived problem, but was writing to the authorities to seek redress over a perceived wrong - a right that he is entitled to. My advice to him in the final paragraph still stands though. The original piece follows below.

West Indies middle order batsman, Marlon Samuels has written to team manager, Mike Findlay, and WICB President Ken Gordon, claiming that he has been discriminated against by current West Indies coach Aussie David Moore and his predecessor Bennett King.

Samuels claims that he was discriminated against because he was not given an opportunity to bat until all the other players including bowlers, had batted. By then the net bowlers were tired and not able to bowl properly to Samuels. Marlon has also claimed that he experienced the same thing in Malaysia and India under previous coach King.

Now it certainly seems odd that Samuels would bat last, behind the bowlers, given that he is a recognised middle order batsman. And if this has been happening more than once, I too would feel like Marlon that something was amiss. But my words of advice to Samuels have nothing to do with whether he is being discriminated against or not, but rather as to how he is being perceived. The press, particularly in the Caribbean, often make references to indiscipline when they speak of Samuels. Samuels was apparently almost sent home from India in 2002 and the label of "indiscipline" has relentless stuck with him since. This perception has been built up to the point that it is generally accepted that he is an indisciplined player and yet people have a hard time pointing to specific incidents. Certainly Samuels' attitude to his batting continues to need improvement, but we haven't received recent news reports of specific incidents about his supposed "indiscipline". Samuels' writing to the WICB about his real or not, discrimination will only fuel the flames of those who would want to see the end of Samuels.Read more