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none of the match fixing allegations have come out of there, which is interesting given all the sportsbooks floating around the West Indies, and the not particularly prosperous state of the game there......
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Not particularly prosperous in what regard?
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A Virtual Replica of the Official Homepage of the Antigua & Barbuda Department of Tourism
One cannot fully grasp the culture of Antigua without considering the island's fierce devotion to cricket. The sport is played everywhere and at any time, though official matches tend to be held on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The cricket season lasts from January to July and is interspersed during most seasons with regional and international matches. The Antigua Recreation Ground, which became in 1980-81 the 52nd international test venue, is one of the most exciting places in the world to observe a match. The local crowd is extremely devoted to the game, and the facilities themselves are outstanding.
Although Antigua's pool of players is small it has proven to be among the world's richest in talent, having produced three of the West Indies' best players. The first was Andy Roberts, who emerged as an international star during the mid-Seventies. Roberts' outstanding career as a fast bowler during the heyday of West Indian cricket in the early 80's was followed by his tenure as the coach of the West Indies team. Another great Antiguan player is Richie Richardson, the former captain of the West Indies, who developed into one of the game's most punishing batsmen in the decade following his 1983 debut.
The most celebrated of Antigua's sports legends, however, is Viv Richards, who ranks among the very greatest cricketers of all time. Richards' international career lasted from 1974 to 1991, and during the middle years of that career the "Master Blaster" led a West Indian team that dominated world cricket. Richards is deservedly adulated on his home island today: his bat has been placed in the Museum of Antigua & Barbuda, and Richards himself remains involved in the Antiguan, West Indian, and International cricket scene. Spinnakers Beach Bar and Restaurant in ****enson Bay is the home of the Vivian Richards Cricketeer Club and a good place to catch a glimpse of the man himself.
For more information about cricket around the world, visit CricInfo - The Home of Cricket on the Internet; for those of you who would like a basic explanation of how cricket is played, click here
For more information, contact:
Andrew Sealy
Secretary, The West Indies Cricket Board
Tel: 268-460-5462/64
Fax: (268) 460-5452/53
email: wicb@candw.ag
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Most fragile Windies batting since the 1930s, say ratings
PricewaterhouseCoopers - 11 May 2000
Without Brian Lara, the West Indies batting line-up could be the most fragile to have faced up to England since the 1930s, according to analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Ratings assess the form of international cricketers. They have been backdated to 1877.
According to the latest PwC ratings, the West Indies currently have only one Test batsman in the world top twenty, and that is Brian Lara. The next highest batsman is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is 21st. Captain Jimmy Adams is 32nd, having suffered injury and only modest form since he last toured England in 1995.
Roger White, marketing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a spokesman on theRatings, commented: "In the past the West Indies have usually had three or four of the world's top batsmen in their squad, with players like Greenidge, Richards, Sobers, the three Ws and George Headley. You have to go back to the early 1930s to find a West Indies side with no batsmen in the top 20 of the ratings."
Brian Lara is currently top of the PwC Ratings for Test cricket, thanks largely to his sensational series against Australia in 1999, but he has slumped to 18th in the Ratings for one day cricket.
The West Indies bowling is a different matter. Ambrose and Walsh are both still in the top ten, and newcomer Reon King is climbing the ratings rapidly.
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West Indies Cricket: Light at the end of the Tunnel
Colin E. Croft - 3 April 2000
Brian Lara must now be ruing his decision not to play cricket this Caribbean year against Zimbabwe and Pakistan. My own thought is that he badly miscalculated the situation at hand. Even though the immediate opponents were to be the somewhat weak Zimbabwe, and then, probably a disorganized Pakistan, (we have to wait to see), I believe that Lara, or at least his handlers and advisors, thought that before long, all, like (Sir) Vivian Richards has openly done, would have been calling for his immediate return to the team, since they would have reasoned that the West Indies cricket team would not have been any good without Lara's presence. I am not so sure now.
To be honest, I am more than convinced that this present team is playing that much more effectively, albeit against "poor" Zimbabwe, because of Lara's absence. All want to show that even without "The Prince", the kingdom still exists. This present cricket team, with all of its youth and uncertainty, seems to have tremendous recuperative powers. While I still believe that Lara probably did the correct thing to "take a complete rest from cricket", especially after that terrible New Zealand tour when everything positive for the West Indies team seemed to disintegrate into ignominy, Lara's calculations and those of his handlers have surely backfired, especially after the positive way the West Indies cricket team has responded to Lara's absence, winning the 1st Test match in Trinidad & Tobago from a losing position, easily winning that 2nd Test, and especially winning the one-day games in Jamaica.
You will also notice that while Courtney Walsh did achieve his momentous land-mark of 435 Test wickets in Jamaica, and Curtly Ambrose also bowled so well in both Tests, even getting his 377th wicket overall, it was left to the younger fast bowlers, Reon King, who got the most wickets in that Jamaican Test, and Franklyn Rose, who was the "Man of the (Zimbabwean) Series" for the Test matches, who really shone through, perhaps taking on the responsibility, or irrationality, of youth.
You will notice that it was Jimmy Adams himself, after a dismal Busta Cup series, so much so that even I suggested that he should not be considered for selection (I am very pleased that, for once, I was proved wrong), who not only redeemed himself, but his team's fortunes, with a century, 101 not out, with absolute patience, 8.5 hours of it, to be exact, in that 2nd Test, when it was necessary for someone to be responsible enough to take the weight of the resurrection of the batting. This is the same guy who, for some unearthly reason, was fielding so far away, on the deep-extra cover boundary for most of the time in New Zealand, while still holding the "post" of vice-captain, but seemingly incommunicado, and therefore contributing little, if any, while the crap in New Zealand continued under Lara's captaincy.
This is a renewed Jimmy Adams we see, as captain, one who somehow gives the impression that he realizes the problems and understands the responsibility put on his shoulders in the position as captain. With the tremendous help given to him by his team, in no mean measure because he is easily less volatile and less "visible" than Lara, and therefore more approachable and perhaps more understanding because of his less-than-star-like- qualities and hence "more like normal" minions, Adams has taken to the job like a duck to water. While he certainly will not always have as easily as he had it in the Zimbabwean series so far, Adams at least brought some calm to the tumultuous, even gargantuan, waves of the captaincy and Lara's influence therein and thence.
Additionally, both debutantes, Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle, who, between them, collectively, may have been selected to fill Lara's breach, have been the ones doing well in the one day games, and in the Test matches too. Had both not been run out at least once in that Test match in Trinidad & Tobago, one might have made a hundred. As it was, their contribution was crucial to the winning effort of the 1st Test. Had they not done sufficiently well in that Test, Zimbabwe would probably have had to make 11 to win instead of 99. (Check the stats.)
Probably not least, but last, for now at least, is the fact that Sherwin Campbell, as the vice captain, is tremendously more involved in the planning and implementation of whatever is at hand, simply because he is being "included" by his captain. He has now made a one-day hundred, and while all is not absolutely well with his, or for that matter, many of his team-mates' batting, at least the understanding of the responsibility involved and the acceptance of the effort needed, suggest that this team, Lara-less, is more of a cohesive unit that it has been in recent times, even when the world record holder was actually breaking records with his batting, which, incidentally, has not happened lately.
Now, I also agree with Sir Viv and Jimmy Adams in their assessment of Lara's absence. Strangely, but understandably, both have suggested that "any team, anywhere, should be grateful for the presence of a player of Brian Lara's caliber to be included in the batting line-up." No argument here on that score. If Lara could only be a batsman, captain or not, would suit me fine. The problems come when there is so much more innuendoes, additional jargon and outright asininity, by some of those around the best batsman in the Caribbean, if not the world; "West Indies can only win when Lara makes runs"; that it turns his head from the responsibility, to responding to the foolishness of the surrounding crap. Well, the West Indies have won, two Tests to booth, including digging themselves from a hole in T&T, without Lara. I doubt that many even remember his name, especially in Jamaica.
Oh, please do not think for a moment that I think that we are out of the woods. It would only take perhaps a few fiery deliveries, uprooting a few stumps, from perhaps Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, to destroy the confidence of the last three weeks. However, at least there is confidence, cohesion and hope there now, where, not three months ago, there were only despair and a fractured firmament, after New Zealand, present.
Again, there are points of wonder and points to ponder. We all agree that Zimbabwe are not the best, or toughest, cricket team in the world. Indeed, they are probably the least considered team in Test cricket. While they are better equipped for the one-day version of the game, Zimbabwe may have other, perhaps more important things than cricket on their collective minds, which could well be affecting their performances and progress. Only someone as uniquely qualified as Sports Psychologist Dr. Rudi Webster, the "Performance Enhancer" of the West Indies cricket team, or, in layman's term, the "mind doctor," could perhaps explain the pressures and the stress such situations bring.
Even though it has not yet been openly mentioned, at least we all see that most of the Zimbabweans are Caucasians, no doubt, just as it was in the West Indies cricket team at the start of its history in 1928, because of the English influences so long ago. It should be noted that Zimbabwe only became an independent nation in the early 80's and have so far only played 41 Test matches. Please note further that this is in no way racist, but a fact.
Now, unless you are dead or nearly so, you must have read, or at least heard somewhere, of the uprisings and political problems coming out of Zimbabwe itself in the last few weeks, with the upheavals featuring the Negroids and the Caucasians surfacing again, as they did in the 60's, 70's and 80's, when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, over farms and lands etc., and ownership thereof. After actually talking to some of the Zimbabwean players, I know for a fact that some of them are very concerned and unsure of their own positions as situations continue to develop in Zimbabwe. Most of us would probably have been equally preoccupied with such thoughts, had we been under the same pressures. Anyway, so much for the politics, on which, incidentally, I am no expert.
Brian Lara, like most professional sportsmen, or more particularly, his "advisors", must remember a few things about professional sport, if indeed, he, or they, has (have) not yet been reminded of them. Firstly, the game must go on, regardless of the personnel making up the respective teams. The game is always bigger than the man!! Secondly, no man is an island, and even with T&T and its cricket involved, no pun is intentioned. Thirdly, and finally, for now, most players, in any game, are as good as their last effort, even if their overall collective achievements will probably always live in history.
We all heralded (Sir) Garfield Sobers as the greatest cricketer ever to have lived, but, unfortunately for us, by no fault of many of us, Sobers had to stop playing sometime, and worse, Sobers' input since quitting playing cricket has been miniscule, at best. Michael Jordan, easily the best player ever in the National Basketball Association of the USA, is now a distant memory in the minds of Tim Duncan or Koby Bryant.
Except in the case of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls; even then, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman helped him out; as did Gerson, Carlos Alberto and Tostao help out the incomparable Edson Arantes do Nacimento, otherwise known as "Pele", in Brazil's 1970's soccer team, the best ever; do we note that no player is good enough to carry a team forever. Sachin Tendulkar and India is a case of point. He keeps making runs, but India keeps losing.
Of course we all remember that the same (Sir) Vivian Richards now has the highest aggregate for West Indian batsmen, but, of course, he no longer plays.
Having experienced the euphoria of the present West Indies team bowling Zimbabwe out for 65 when they needed a (simple?) 99 in T&T, then the dominance of both the Test and the one day games in Jamaica, all of the "ordinary" West Indian supporter, those who drive taxis or push computer buttons, the "real" experts, remember, is that Adams made a century and was "Man of the Match" in Jamaica, Rose was "Man of the Series", King bowled the best and the fastest overall, and that Campbell has perhaps come of age, while Hinds and Gayle are moving upwards on the learning curve. The same supporters could not care less if our supposed best batsman has held a golf club much more recently than he has held a bat. People's memories are normally short, especially when a team wins.
Jimmy Adams and the present West Indies cricket team have won everything they have attempted so far, as a unit, even if it is against Zimbabwe. That light coming through the tunnel is not another train to derail the cricket, but perhaps, hopefully, the end of a long tunnel. If Lara and especially his "handlers" had any sense at all, he would join the fracas, with humility, as this force will gain momentum in the United Kingdom, and even in Australia, before this year is done.
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Windies make 'mush' of it
24 April 2000
Port-of-Spain - While Christians around the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, nearly 20 000 at the Queen’s Park Oval and many more around the region mourned the West Indies’ death in the Caribbean’s first-ever triangular limited-overs competition yesterday.
Unpredictable Pakistan, beaten twice by the same opponents in the preliminary phase of the competition, were the ones who rose to the occasion to complete a hard-fought victory by four wickets in the third and decisive final.
It was complete misery for West Indians watching their side capitulate to their lowest total in 33 One-Day Internationals at the ground, an inadequate 114 which the Pakistanis overhauled for the loss of six wickets.
'I think we were about 60 runs short of having a competitive total. We tried our best to defend it, but in the final analysis, we didn’t get enough runs,' captain Jimmy Adams admitted.
'Without getting too technical, the bottom line is that we did not score enough runs.
'You talk about keeping wickets for the last ten overs. That did not happen and we paid the price for that.
'We have accepted the fact that we made mistakes. We have to face them and we have to make sure that they don’t happen again.'
The hosts defended their paltry total gallantly, with Reon King at the forefront of an absorbing battle.
The improving Guyanese fast bowler brushed aside both openers before the lunch break and added the scalp of Abdur Razzaq just after. But his four wickets for 25 runs from ten overs were not enough to stage a remarkable resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Pakistan survived the early discomfort of 19 for three, and although it took them 45.1 overs to attain the target, it was a deserved success for the Asians to follow up their capture of the Sharjah Champions Trophy just before coming to the Caribbean.
Inzamam-ul-Haq was by far their leading light with the bat. He ignored the discomfort of a foot injury that necessitated a runner for most of the afternoon and held things together with a composed unbeaten 39 that carried his series aggregate to 295 runs (ave. 59.00).
Few would disagree with his being chosen to receive the Man-Of-The-Series prize of a Rover vehicle.
Unlike so many previous occasions, West Indies’ demise was not caused by careless, irresponsible strokes after they predictably maintained the pattern by batting first on winning the toss.
It was orchestrated by the craft and guile of the dangerous leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed and a sensational over from Shoaib Akhtar in which he twice sent stumps flying all over the place.
The combination of Musthaq and Shoaib triggered the deterioration from 71 for two to 97 for eight, which meant that six wickets were swept side for the addition of 26 runs after the best opening stand of the series between Philo Wallace and Sherwin Campbell.
Mushtaq, a constant threat throughout a series in which his economy rate was second to none, finally gained a big haul.
He snared four wickets, including the three young Jamaicans in the 23rd over of the innings that virtually settled the outcome of the match.
After Razzaq induced Campbell into flicking a catch to mid-wicket with the total on 61, Mustaq started the West Indies’ problems by having Wallace stumped, a decision which television replays suggested could have gone either way.
The memorable Mushtaq over followed. The victims, in order, were Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle and Ricardo Powell, the trio falling within two balls of each other.
The left-handed Hinds was left clueless about a delivery which he expected to spin away. Instead, it spun onto him and bowled him. Both Gayle and Powell were outfoxed by flight, the former clipping a catch to mid-wicket and the latter slicing one to backward point.
When Ridley Jacobs was dismissed to a bat-pad catch off off-spinner Saqlain Musthaq, there was still some hope of a West Indies revival, but that was quickly snuffed out by the irrepressible Shoaib.
Still not yet fully recovered from the groin injury that kept him out of the series until now, Shoaib was not at his best. But he gave a hint of what will come in the Test series by knocking over the stumps of Adams and Curtly Ambrose.
Earlier, Ambrose was typically tight with the new ball, but it was King who made the breakthroughs that were needed by finding the edge of Imran Nazir’s tentative bat and removing Shahid Afridi to a tumbling catch by Franklyn Rose.
Razzaq was another casualty to an edged catch to the keeper, but Pakistan consolidated by way of a partnership of 42 in 15 overs between Inzamam and Younis Khan.
Adams broke the stand with his left-arm spin when Younis hit a loose delivery back to the bowler.
Adams struck another blow by having Yousaf Youhana snapped up at silly-point,h and King kept the match alive when Jacobs caught Moin Khan inches off the ground.
Pakistan were then 93 for six, but the experience of Inzamam and Wasim Akram prevailed
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Aussievamp,
We thought you were talking about financial prosperity, not the state of their cricket players.
Some of us Americans don't even know what cricket is.
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West Indies: Invest in more practice areas
Tony Cozier - 23 April 2000
Is anyone listening 'Does anyone really care'
Yet again, we have had the embarrassment of a visiting captain complaining about the lack of adequate practice facilities in the West Indies.
Moin Khan's comments prior to Wednesday's first One-Day International final simply echoed the public censure of Steve Waugh and Clive Lloyd last season and the concern that has existed for some time.
The problem is that some of the club grounds that are utilised to accommodate the visitors - and the locals too - do not have all the resources necessary for proper preparation.
Even if pitches are acceptable, the hard, dry surface at this time of year makes fielding hazardous.
The comparison with what is provided overseas is stark.
At almost every other major international ground I can think of, adequate nets and practice areas are part of the complex. It is merely a stroll away for a batsman needing a workout during the course of a match.
In the West Indies, the Queen's Park Oval, by some way the best equipped and best managed of all our venues, is the only one with such an en suite arrangement.
As of Thursday, it is also the only one with modern, fully-equipped indoor nets, an overdue addition rightly praised by Jimmy Adams and Roger Harper as a significant development.
The problem of practice is a recent phenomenon but no less troubling for that.
True surfaces
The long-established procedure was for pitches to be cut on the outfield of the Test grounds and for the teams to share them, one morning, one afternoon.
The Queen's Park Oval and the Antigua Recreation Ground were the only exceptions.
It was an arrangement that worked efficiently. Far from criticising, touring teams enjoyed the hard, true surfaces prepared on the boundary's edge at Kensington, Bourda and Sabina.
It was also a chance to get a feel of the environment in which they would play the Tests.
Then the International Cricket Council (ICC) declared the grounds no-practice zones prior to Test matches and alternatives had to be found.
So far, they haven't been satisfactory. Nor is there any ready answer short of spending the money necessary to improve the relevant club grounds.
Even that does not eliminate the absence of on-site practice areas.
There is simply no room for expansion at Kensington, Sabina and Bourda so they will have to continue to depend on the good graces of clubs - unless, of course, the cricket associations and the governments recognise that all the aforementioned venues are obsolete in the 21st Century.
But that is a horse this column has already flogged to death.
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Revelations
The plot thickens and yet the outcome remains as shadowy as it ever was.
Since Hansie Cronje's belated confession that he sold himself to an Indian bookmaker, more revelations of dirty dealings have come from every which way.
Ali Bacher claims he has been told by former cricketers whom he trusts - remember, he used to trust Cronje as well - that two matches and one umpire in last year's World Cup were fixed.
No doubt those sources had heard it from somebody who had heard it from somebody else.
Chris Lewis says he has heard from a named bookmaker that three unnamed England players were also on the take.
Cyril Mitchley and Rudi Koertzen, two South African umpires, have revealed how they were offered big bucks to influence the way things turned out.
Indra Singh Bindra, once president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) so a big man on the international scene, informs us that match-fixing has gone on for as long as he can recall.
And he charges that Jagmohan Dalmiya, ICC chairman, is in with 'sharks and the mafia', the same Dalmiya who will chair next week's meeting to discuss the issue.
There are a couple of common threads running through all of these revelations and accusations.
One is that none can be proved. The other is that several have come from administrators who have been in positions to do something about them.
Even now, there is a report lying on the desk of someone in authority in Pakistan that directly implicates four Pakistani cricketers - two of them currently in the West Indies - in match-fixing and recommends that they should be banned for life.
The Pakistanis are not the only ones guilty of covering up.
With the connivance of the ICC, the Australians kept the involvement of Shane Warne and Mark Waugh quiet for three years before the Press found out.
When Lewis made his charges last week, he was instantly cast in the role of villain. No one seemed to feel he was doing the game a favour by alerting the authorities to what he had heard.
The issue is surely serious enough for every report to be taken seriously and investigated.
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West Indies: So much for the cutting edge
Mike King - 14 March 2000
In view of the unconvincing utterances of Mike Findlay and Roger Harper at Saturday morning’s Press conference in Jamaica, it stands to reason that little has changed in West Indies’ cricket.
The message was brought home to thousands of viewers all over the Caribbean that we are still relatively technologically backward.
We can’t prepare for a series and depend on a scoring system to identify the weaknesses and technical flaws of our opponents.
The system devised by Darnley Boxill will tell us where a batsman will gathers most of his runs, whether off-side or on-side, but surely it won’t tell us who can’t handle the short-pitched ball, who is vulnerable to leg-spin bowling and who plays with his bat away from his body.
A scoring system, however modernised it is, can’t do the work of a video that can be monitored, studied and analysed by the coach and players.
That and a simple phone call to Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore would help, Mr. Harper. Surely, he and Mr. Findlay must know that Sri Lanka have just beaten both Zimbabwe and Pakistan, our forthcoming opponents.
Captains always seem to have an influence on the composition of West Indian teams and this time is no different. When Richie Richardson was at the helm, there was a sizeable Antiguan contingent, while Trinidadians never had it so good till Brian Lara called the shots.
Jimmy Adams, captain by default, has not stepped onto the field yet, and there are seven Jamaicans in the 13-man squad for Thursday’s opening Test. We will soon see how good all of them are.
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Reduced tour fees hurt Windies
AFP - 6 March 2000
BRIDGETOWN, March 6 (AFP) - Profits for West Indies overseas tours are likely to be drastically reduced following an initiative by all Test-playing countries to reduce tour guarantees.
The West Indies next overseas series in England, starting in early June, will see the hosts continue to cover all internal expenses, but offer a significant reduction in tour profit.
''The main difference is that we have to pay our players fees - which normally they would pay,'' said Steve Camacho, chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board.
''Our tour profit has been drastically reduced. This is as a result of countries adopting a new approach to the payment of tour profits and expenses.''
Camacho noted that air travel, internal and external accommodation, tour fees, assembly costs, insurance, meal allowances and laundry, all used to be paid by the home territory in the past.
''For example, when England came to the Caribbean, we paid all of their expenses and when we went to England they would pay all of our expenses,'' he said.
''We would then negotiate a guaranteed profit on top of that, but the whole arrangement has changed.
''While they still look after our internal expenses, they just give us a guaranteed figure to cover our external expenses which is so much per Test or limited-overs international, which in the final analysis is considerably less than the arrangements we had before.''
Camacho said that the bottom line was that when the West Indies tour England in the summer, it will be for less money than they did before.
''What the countries of the International Cricket Council intend to do is fix a figure for Tests and limited-overs internationals,'' he said.
Over the years, the WICB has suffered losses on home tours while relying on visits overseas, particularly to England and Australia, to make a profit.
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West Indies: One stoned, one sacrificed, one ruined
Hilary Beckles - 3 March 2000
An end to the madness
Clive Lloyd has been publicly stoned; Viv Richards has been set up and sacrificed; Brian Lara, the inheritor, has been systematically unprepared. How did it come to this? When will the madness end?
Let us start from the beginning, the very beginning. You tell me if I am right and where I have gone wrong. We must get to the bottom of this disregard; this disrespect for those who have created the best of what we have.
In 1928, our cricket team was enfranchised with "Test" status; recognition allowed equality with the English and Aussies. We were admitted after a torrid 50-year apprenticeship in which our boys were humiliated on both sides of the Atlantic divide.
Formed in 1884, our team went on its first overseas tour in 1886, to North America where the standard was high. They tarred and feathered us in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Halifax, and God knows where else in Uncle Sam's country. We were treated with the greatest contempt by the Young America XI in Philadelphia. But our boys, still all white, took the grief like men and moved on.
Looking for respect, we crossed the Atlantic and engaged the English in 1900. Class conscious to the bone, the English ruled that we were "second-class" and treated our boys as if they had no class at all. We returned in 1906, this time with "first-class status," but played a second-class kind of game, and were soundly whipped on the field.
There was also the humiliation off the field. Our now multi- racial outfit inspired JB Moreton, a popular cartoonist, to depict us as a monkey being spanked by WG Grace, the father figure. Whip in hand, monkey spread face down on his lap, Captain Grace is dressed as a military officer of the British Empire. For the English, then, this was a matter of war, putting down a colonial revolt.
After another 15 years of licks, some less painful, we finally emerged in 1967 as world champions under Sir Gary. We whipped England, Australia and India, one after the next, between '65 and '67. Sir Gary put us up there for the first time, but we could not sustain it through 1968. Seeing the promise land, and living in it, are two separate things. Ask Lot's wife!
Was it not Clive Lloyd and Sir Viv as leaders who took us back there in 1978 and sustained it for almost 20 magnificent years, an unprecedented, unparalleled achievement? Was it not the Lloyd- Richards formula of leadership and representation that showed the Caribbean people that for us the skies had no limit, and that we are a modern, sophisticated, intellectually sound civilisation? Did these two gentlemen not bring honour, dignity and vision to cricket culture? Did they not put an end once and for all to the humiliation? Did they not silence the laughter and demand respect for our boys? Did they not end the madness of their time?
Why is it, then, that the WICB can treat them, in my opinion, like stray dogs and chase them out of the yard? Who on the WICB has a right to decide that Viv, the greatest "general" of all in the global war game, isn't qualified to train the youth because he has no school certificate? Sir Gary, Sir Everton, and Sir Clyde have no certificates, so they too are disqualified; as are Michael Holding, Ian Bishop, Richie Richardson, and most of the other greats. And why were Lloyd's requests for more involvement in decision making ignored and set aside?
While I heartily congratulate my good friend Jeff, and offer "nuff respect" to Harps and Mr Skerritt, every day I cannot but relive the first pain of hearing Viv's desperate plea in New Zealand: "I am qualified but I am not certified." The very heart and soul of our cricket culture, the spiritual and cultural things that give it life, are being butchered and bargained day after day, and all I want to know is when will it all end. How many more killings will there be before our cricket is finally murdered? Desmond and Richie, now Richards, Lara and Lloyd, it follows a pattern of mis-management if you see what I mean.
And how in God's name, after South Africa, New Zealand, and all the other painful places, can the WICB continue to hire and fire (and re-hire in the case of Lara) as it wishes but remain (despite this proven record of incompetence and failure) unaccountable, above the law, and beyond reproach? Where are the ones who built this shrine which is now surrounded by imposters and vagrants? How can national heroes like Clive and Viv be chased out into the cold while a posse of fat cats with no cricket record at all, who made no cricket contribution of note, are rolling in big salaries off the very cricket culture?
Where is the logic, morality, and the decency?
Or is it the sign of the times that those who did the planting are not doing the reaping? Is it true that the money changers have taken out mortgages on the church? And what are we, the believers, going to do about the daily desecration of our place of worship? When will the cricket greats who built this magnificent monument rise up to protect it? What are they waiting for?
Today, our cricket heroes who, in building this legacy to community, endured much pain and shame, are looking like the Europeans in 1938.
What more evidence do they need before they say enough is enough, and move in to put an end to the madness?
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Facilities for Cricket - Not!!!
Colin Croft - 2 February 2000
One of the things which distresses, and embarrasses, me most, as I sometimes travel to other countries around the world to cover cricket, is the lack of proper cricketing facilities, in all aspects, here in the Caribbean. With the 2007 Cricket World Cup slated for our neck of the woods, we need to have started yesterday to put these properly in place.
Comparing everything wherever I have gone in Australia, New Zealand, England, India and South Africa; (I have not yet gone to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh nor Zimbabwe to cover cricket), from the stadia where the cricket is played, to the facilities for the press, paying patrons and even the players, to those in the Caribbean, is really the proverbial comparison of "chalk to cheese."
While press identification passes, and even players identification passes are normally required to be worn by all in most places, the only place I have been asked to produce passes on a regular basis, by the same personnel every year, no less, is in the Caribbean. Although I always have them available, I have never been asked to produce an entrance/identification badge anywhere outside of the Caribbean. That, I suppose, is neither here nor there, since the gate personnel could suggest that he/she is only doing his/her job "properly".
However, I would suggest this. The respective cricket authorities in the Caribbean must become quickly aware, if they are not so aware yet, and place unbiased and cricket-informed people, even professional security people, at the entrance gates, so that everyone is asked for passes, not just the few that someone seems to want to embarrass, for whatever purpose.
Last year, for example, Sir Everton Weekes, of Barbados, of all people, known world-wide as one of our best batsmen ever, was told by a gate man at the Kensington Oval in Barbados; "Sir Everton, I know you played for the West Indies, but I cannot let you into the cricket without a proper pass." There is not much one can say about that, is there? Incidentally, Sir Everton was actually doing commentary then too.
The playing facilities, though, should take the priority. Ask any West Indian cricketer, from the Test team to the Under 19 and even the Under 15 teams, and they would tell you. They too are badly embarrassed when they get to those far away lands and experience the facilities there. Roger Harper's comment when he coached the "A" team's tour to South Africa a few years ago was apt: "When you look at these facilities in these overseas countries, it is no wonder that their players really want to play cricket. Everything is put into place to encourage them to play and play well."
In Kimberley, South Africa, for example, during the senior team's last tour, all of the players were amazed, and many of them voiced that amazement, that such a small place, where Otis Gibson and Keppler Wessells played for Griqualand West in their first class competition, could provide such facilities. Not only at "The Diamonds" were these available, but everywhere. Everywhere, there were at least three indoor net pitches, and at least four outdoor pitches. If my memory serves me correctly, none of these outdoor practice pitches were on the "real" field of play.
The same goes for most of the United Kingdom, except perhaps Trent Bridge in Nottingham, all of Australia and all of New Zealand and most of India. Indeed, the practice facilities at the Adelaide Oval in Australia, in my opinion, are the best in the world, just better than those at the Wanderers, in Johann***urg, in South Africa. Under these conditions, fast bowlers can operate at full throttle while batsmen could really concentrate to make every practice session as close to the game conditions as possible. After all, proper practice is so very important if one wants success in the actual games.
In the Caribbean, with the exception for the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad & Tobago, where there are about four outdoor practice pitches, there are no outdoor practice facilities available at the cricket venue, in very near proximity of perhaps a game in progress. In Jamaica, Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda and most of the other territories, outdoor practice is either carried out on the actual outfield of the Test arena before the international game, or the practice is completely removed from the Test venue altogether. Indoor facilities are, maybe, only available in Antigua & Barbuda.
Everest Sports Club in Guyana and Melbourne Sports Club in Jamaica, among others, are sometimes used for this latter purpose of practice away from the game venue. One must wonder what would happen if a batsman needs a quick ten-fifteen minute "proper" practice hit-up during a Test game, before he bats, as is sometimes required (I have actually bowled to (Sir) Viv Richards, among others, at the Adelaide Oval while they waited their turn to bat). Would he be taxied to the nearest ground with a walkman on his ear, to know when he is in? I am sure that most sports fans see baseball pitchers warming up in their "bull-pens" before being brought to the mound to do their thing. You see my point, I hope.
As far as the players changing facilities are concerned in the Caribbean, very little has changed, except perhaps the occasional coat of paint. The Queens Park Oval in Trinidad & Tobago, the Bourda Oval in Guyana and the Kensington Oval in Barbados, while building new stands, have done nothing to change the cramped changing rooms that I myself once inhabited, with eleven other guys, more than twenty years ago. While Antigua & Barbuda and Jamaica have improved their changing room facilities for the players somewhat, and Arnos Vale in St. Vincent and the new stadium in St. Georges, Grenada provide just adequate room for the players, all of the changing rooms in the Caribbean pale when compared to the rest of the cricket world.
In these days of ongoing professional cricket, when every player has a large cricket case to carry all of the equipment needed, a "coffin", and almost as large as the real thing, and where such things as weight rooms, saunas, steam rooms and baths, and even proper medical rooms, are required at the players' quick "beck and call", as niggling injuries and pained bodies need continuing work and relaxation too, the state of the changing rooms in the Caribbean, for the most important people in the cricket, the players, is appalling. As far as I know, the only weight room in quick proximity of a major cricket arena in the Caribbean is at the Queens Park Oval.
This is 2000AD, folks, not 1000BC.
I have been to many soccer stadiums around the world, and even visited Joe Robbie (Pro Player) American Football stadium in Miami and Giants Stadium in New Jersey. One thing is very obvious when one visits these places. The players, the people who bring in the money, as they are the ones the populace come to see, are pampered, sometimes beyond belief, with facilities.
New Zealand was a revelation too. While all of the cricket arenas have every convenience necessary for the games at hand, the new WestPac Trust stadium, in which the West Indies had the honor, if not the pleasure, of being involved in the inaugural cricket game, is something else, as they, sensibly, went further. Even before it was built, the Trust's management spoke to, and took advice from, the players, both of cricket and rugby, for which it will be used, the press and from the paying public, as to what exactly is required in a facility that they could be using. That is a great sense of "hand washing hand to make hand come clean" (Guyanese proverb). Everyone involved must be exactly that: involved.
The press facilities at the cricket stadia in the Caribbean are simply some of the worst in the world. In a sense, I might even blame some of the press personnel themselves, of which, sometimes, I am one. There is no real Press Association, at least not in the sporting press, in the Caribbean, to organize and keep things running properly in the Caribbean.
Food-wise, it is even funny. At the Queens Park Oval, unless you come equipped with a roti-and-curry, or any such edible gotten from elsewhere, you will probably starve for that day. In Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Antigua & Barbuda, while the victuals are sometimes available, it is normally from a "home- made" commercial venture, with some small vendor trying to make a killing with their exorbitant prices.
While many of our sports journalists have not traveled overseas much, I would really hope that most do soon, so that they could see how the rest of the world really treats journalists there, home and visiting personnel alike. Most overseas cricketing bodies actually walk hand in hand with their press, as they know that the press is there to help them propagate the sport. In the Caribbean, the sporting press is seen as an appendage, sometimes a hindrance.
Anything drinkable, from water to teas to even wines and beer, sometimes, depending on the venue, along with properly catered spreads, are normally available; the entire cost being financed by the home Press Association. I do not know about other sports journalists in the Caribbean who may have gone overseas, but having gone around the world with this cricket, I am terribly embarrassed when cricket tours come to the Caribbean and the commentators and overseas sports journalists come here. I have actually heard, and seen written, many openly complaining as to the facilities here in the Caribbean.
Some of the physical facilities for the press in the Caribbean are a shambles too. For a great example, I have been going to places like Guaracara Park, in Trinidad & Tobago, for about 30 years, first as a player and now as a pseudo journalist. The commentary and press facilities there, among some others in the Caribbean, are so poor, with continually leaking roofs and sometimes lack of electrical power, among other things, that even normal lay persons, men and women not associated with the cricket but who visit from time to time, ask the inevitable question; "Are these the facilities that you guys work in and from? They are pathetic!!"
I have not even touched on the actual preparations of the playing pitches, or the lack thereof. That is another story altogether, as is the lack of any lighted stadia in the Caribbean. In the meantime, Australia will play South Africa, I think, in the new completely covered stadium in Melbourne later this year.
These things are very relevant when we remember that in 2007, not so long from now, the rest of the world is supposed to come to our shores to be involved in the Cricket World Cup. I have heard many already say that "we are not ready for that!!"
Folks, I am here to tell you that we have no choice but to be ready. Caribbean cricket needs a Jack Warner (of FIFA fame), to light a flame under our collective backsides; someone who gets things done, and in the vast majority of cases, done well. We must be ready for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, come what may. It could be a great boon for all of us, if everything is properly put in place.
It is probably already too late for the implementation of much of what we should have already done. However, we must strive to see what we can change now, even at this late stage. Time waits on no-one.
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West Indies: Things fall apart - Part II
Mike King - 28 February 2000
The strife and turbulence that have engulfed West Indies cricket seem to know no end.
Emotional Antiguans have reacted, and in some cases over-reacted, to Sir Viv Richards being bypassed for the job of coach and Brian Lara has finally given up the captaincy he so cherished but could not handle.
It does not end there. Speculation is rife that Steve Camacho will lose his status as chief executive officer of the problem-plagued West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and may be demoted.
It is no secret that the West Indies are now strugglers in world cricket and even Mark Taylor or Hansie Cronje would be hard-pressed to work wonders with them. But it must be said that Lara has not been the motivator and strategist most of us thought he would have been.
Heavyweights such as Sir Garry Sobers and Clive Lloyd have argued in his defence that he was frustrated by the lack of support he was getting.
Lloyd added that Lara as captain probably felt that he wasn't getting enough support, particularly regarding team selection.
How much more support would Lara have wanted in team selection? Under him, a host of Trinidadians - Ragoonath, Roberts, Ramnarine, Ganga, and David Williams - all average cricketers, played at the highest level and were failures.
Lara has made the right choice. Seven losses in seven matches overseas is reason enough to quit.
So where do we go from here? Who will lead the sinking ship? It's an indictment on West Indies cricket that Jimmy Adams, not good enough to make the team on merit, is the front-runner.
Things have never been this bad.
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Why all the sympathy for West Indies
Tony Cozier - 23 January 2000
were any number of suggestions of how the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) should have handled the players just back from their thrashing in New Zealand.
They varied from an instant bush bath for all, to a year-long, all-expenses-paid holiday to Chechnya, to three months locked in a room listening to The Economist, The Cement Man and Mr. Submissions on the call-in programmes.
Ever a conservative organisation, the WICB is not inclined to such extreme measures, even after the continuing humiliation of West Indies cricket, and the executive committee that met the team last Friday would have treated them with as much compassion and understanding as possible.
Dr. Rudi Webster was called in to minister to the broken players and, we were made to understand, Clarvis Joseph and his committee told them they simply wanted to know what went wrong.
If that was the case, the day-long session was redundant. Everyone knew what went wrong. It was spelled out often enough by captain, coach and manager and, even on the other side of the globe, the live TV coverage meant we could see for ourselves as he suffered through it, night after night.
Lara acknowledged complacency after the great start in the first Test. He said that not everyone was giving 100 per cent. The commitment wasn't there. In his most factual assessment, he admitted the West Indies were outplayed which, after losses by nine wickets and an innings and 105 runs in the Tests and straightforward defeats in the One-Day Internationals, was self-evident.
These themes have now become monotonous. They have been trotted out following the similar debacles in Pakistan in 1997 and in South Africa a year ago.
What was needed on Friday was not so much sympathy as strong talk, similar to that which followed the South African experience.
Lara, manager Clive Lloyd and then coach, the late Malcolm Marshall, were called to a meeting with a committee chaired by WICB president Pat Rousseau and publicly admonished for 'weaknesses in leadership'. Lara was placed on probation for two Tests and told to 'make significant improvement in his leadership skills'.
What followed indicated that the message got through. Lara led from the front with his brilliant batting and the series against the powerful Australians was shared.
A culture of failure has become so entrenched that it will be hell to shake it off. New players of the past few years have joined a team that too rarely experiences the confident thrill of victory.
Lara, Lloyd and both recent coaches have repeatedly complained about the standard of domestic cricket and the lack of quality players coming through. These are undoubtedly pressing concerns but they are largely unrelated to what now happens once the West Indies venture outside the Caribbean.
Stacked up man-for-man prior to the series, the West Indies were certainly not inferior to New Zealand.
The difference was that our men performed well short of their potential, while theirs played above themselves.
Nor can the blame be shifted onto the loss of county cricket experience, as valuable as that admittedly was. How many New Zealanders, Australians or South Africans have developed through seasons in England'
The questions that have to be asked are more straightforward.
Why have our main middle-order batsmen - Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Jimmy Adams - fallen away as drastically on overseas tours as the accompanying statistics indicate' It is not the newer players who let the side down in Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand but those on whom the West Indies should be depending.
Why have fast bowlers of such potential like Franklyn Rose, who made such an impression in his debut series, and Merv Dillon gone backwards' Why has Ricardo Powell not yet been able to remotely harness his obvious and natural talent'
Zimbabwe are here in less than a month. The least experienced of the Test countries, they have to play above themselves to compete - and they will. Unless, and until, the West Indies can follow suit, we will continue to be embarrassed.
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West Indies must regroup for the good of world cricket
Geoff Longley - 14 January 2000
While New Zealand can approach its forthcoming one-day and test series against Australia with confidence, where to now for West Indies cricket?
Never before has New Zealand been so superior to the cricketers from the Caribbean, who too often this summer became the Calypso Collapsos, comprehensively losing the two tests and the five-game limited-overs series.
The West Indies appear to be at a cricketing crossroads New Zealand was at about five seasons ago when its performances bottomed out during the centenary season.
From then, a revamped constitution, and an overhauled administration with several key appointments has gradually steered New Zealand back to an upward path, culminating in the memorable series victory in England and the whitewash of the West Indies.
West Indies skipper Brian Lara was right when he said his board needed to look at New Zealand's success and make appropriate changes. The West Indies is beset with administrative wrangles, with the board of control often at odds with its cricket committee, comprising respected former international players.
The very nature of the numerous islands that make up the West Indies also creates problems. Here, getting the "team culture" right means more than just a modern-day catch-phrase.
Players from widespead islands such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the South American mainland Guyana, Barbados, and the outer islands like Antigua, are all brought together in a cultural pot-pourri.
Some are superior sorts, others shy and retiring, and while they all have a Commonwealth connection, uniting the differing inter-island factions is a major task.
In the late 1970s-1980s when West Indies cricket was a dominant force, such problems rarely surfaced. Most of the players, especially the fast bowlers, rounded out their cricketing education in England where they learnt their trade.
Now that most of the big names have retired, there has not been quality fast-bowling replacements, so essential to their continued success.
Nowadays the English counties, instead of having two overseas players are allowed only one, and they choose carefully, often opting for the well performed and professional Australian all-rounders and run-getters.
Only Courtney Walsh, now in the twilight of his career, and Brian Lara, have played at county level for any length of time.
Lara has lamented the standard of domestic cricket in the Caribbean and the accent on the one-day game.
The team which has just toured New Zealand is a reflection of that. But the senior batsmen such as Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jimmy Adams, and Sherwin Campbell must shoulder a large proportion of blame for their side's poor performances by not scoring heavily or consistently enough and placing undue pressure on the inexperienced players.
Only dogged opener Adrian Griffth can be satisfied with his tour, while hard-hitting youngster Ricardo Powell is undoubtedly an emerging talent.
The bowlers, Reon King apart, rarely bowled the right line and length on New Zealand pitches, often being guilty of straying to give the Black Caps batsmen a steady supply of scoring chances. Selections were, at times, hard to follow, with uncertainty apparent.
The fielding deteriorated as the tour went on and during the final one-dayer in Christchurch this week it barely rose above schoolboy standard, so common were the misfields. The three catches dropped in the previous match at Wellington, which enabled the Black Caps to romp home, were simply unacceptable from an international side.
The Caribbean motto, "Don't worry, be happy", is all very well when teams are being swept aside by the Burgundy Bullets, but greater application and attention to the basics were necessary from the visitors.
In between the one-dayers the team never trained, while the Black Caps always held optional sessions for those seeking to work on certain aspects of their game.
Such was New Zealand's dominance it only required No.9 Dion Nash, a handy all-rounder, to bat once in the five-game series.
The West Indies can recover and in new coach Sir Vivian Richards, who wants to continue, have a former player with the mana to engineer a change in fortunes.
Restructuring the game with several strong, respected personalities at the helm is necessary to revitalise cricket in the Caribbean. A strong West Indies is also important for the game world-wide.
As for the Black Caps, they face the ultimate challenge from top-ranked Australians at the end of a long, tiring season which began last August.
New Zealand is in a similar situation having had few breaks, but the heartening performances of the past year must give an injury-free Black Caps side confidence of being able to compete with the world's best.
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