Pedro Collins and Daren Ganga arrived at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport by British Airways from London early yesterday morning, after their 36-hour journey from the Caribbean, expecting to join the West Indies squad that had flown in the previous evening from Zimbabwe for the forthcoming tour of South Africa.
They found no one on hand to meet them, had no idea where the team was, carried no contact numbers for West Indies or Cricket South Africa (CSA) officials and no instructions to advise them of their next move.
Fortunately, I was at the airport at the time and could offer some help."
New President, new CEO ..... Has anything really changed? Ah well.....
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THE PATTERSON Committee set up to look at the governance of West Indies cricket is not at all happy with the current state of club cricket across the Caribbean and has called on the ruling West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to set up an audit of the state of club cricket.
“The board had a chance to remove the selection committee but they didn’t. Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts were great players in their time but this does not make them good selectors."
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"They don't get crowds, so the kids aren't playing the game. It is hard to see how they will get themselves back because there is just nothing there to build on."
The plight of the West Indies reflects the dwindling popularity of cricket with local youth. Most young athletes prefer soccer or basketball to cricket, with the lure of US university scholarships a major factor.
Hogg, 56, was scathing of the game's administration for allowing the situation to deteriorate to such a point, with the World Cup there this year proof of where priorities lie for many officials.
"The World Cup was the last chance they had to grab the public's imagination and do something special," Hogg said.
"Instead, they turned it into a blatant money-grabbing venture. Ticket prices were out of reach of fans, so attendances were terrible. There was none of the traditional Caribbean atmosphere. Those games could have been played anywhere in the world."
Sad to say, but Hogg may be right. Certainly. he has identified the root causes which our administrators have failed to do. He is correct about CWC 2007 although officials there continue to blow their own trumpet.
According to the usually knowledgeable and informative caribbeancricket.com, Mike Findlay has lost his job as manager of the West Indies team. The report goes on to say that:
"At a meeting of its board of directors, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) today chose Clive Lloyd to replace Findlay for the upcoming tours to Zimbabwe and South Africa. The board also named opener Chris Gayle as the captain in place of the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan."
The first statement is incorrect. I spoke with Findlay during the KFC final four and he was clear that he would not be able to make the tour. He told me that the tour was too long and for family and business reasons he would not be available. I am certain that he would have communicated this to the WICB.
What is distressing is that the WICB seems to be playing yo yo with this position. They need to settle on a Manager and contract him/her for a period not less that 2 years. OR they could, as I have recommended, dispense with the position of Manager, create a position of Team Operations Officer full time employed at the Secretariat and make the Coach the de jure head honcho for the team.
NEWLY APPOINTED coach of the West Indies cricket team John Dyson is going to miss the team’s tour of Zimbabwe that gets going on November 30.
“Dyson is not with the team at the camp and will not be in Zimbabwe, he is expected to take up his duties for the South African leg of the African tour.”
As a result the WICB has summoned T&T’s David Williams and Henderson Springer of Barbados to carry on coaching duties at the camp. The source added that Williams and Springer as likely to be asked to accompany the team to Zimbabwe, until Dyson takes up the role thereafter.
Dyson's unavailability is an internal matter of the WICB and one hopes that they were aware of this when his appointment was announced. My question is - how come our boys (Williams and Springer) are good enough to act as stop gaps, yet not good enough to secure full-time appointments? This insult must stop.Viola Rowe has become the first woman in the Caribbean to act as match referee in a senior regional match, when she officiated in the KFC Cup game between Guyana and Combined Campuses and Colleges at the Providence Stadium.
"My love for the game has caused me to get involved in match refereeing," Rowe told the Saturday Sun Sports. "At this age, I can't get involved in playing and I don't really like umpiring. I'm comfortable with it [match refereeing]."
Congratulations to Viola. Let us hope that this is the breakthrough for women's cricket that we have been waiting on for several years.
Taken from www.trinidadexpress.com:
Former West Indies batsman and selector Joey Carew said he was not against a foreign coach, once he has get the job done. “I know little of the man but what I can say is that I am going to be very happy, if he can get results. If he has been given the job, it means that he has some credentials and we hope that he can inflame our cricketers to be more national minded.
“In this aspect, I would hope that probably among his management team would be a West Indian who can help in this aspect.”
Former Test off-spinner Rangy Nanan said he would have loved to see a local coach given the job but questioned whether the players would have given him the required respect. “I would have loved to see a local coach but I don’t know whether the players would have given him that respect that they might give the foreign coach.”
Successful cricket coach Anthony Gray said the WICB has to give locals the chance to get experience and stop looking outside. “We continue to be too dependent on foreign people and we are not educating our own. Bennett King and David Moore both failed because they came from a different culture and now we go back to another Australian.”
"Veteran St Lucian politician/diplomat, businessman and cricket administrator Julian Hunte is the only nominee to replace Ken Gordon as president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Hunte, who previously served on the board of directors of Cricket World Cup 2007, is expected to be voted in formally at the WICB's AGM in Trinidad & Tobago next month-end.
If this is the best the region has to offer, recycling a failed politician and promoting someone who has failed West Indies Cricket and who has nothing other than his own ambitions to offer, then our cricket is doomed.
Chris Gayle: "Will I stand up to the board? Yes, that's me," said Gayle. "I always stand up for what I believe in and when I'm wrong, I'm wrong and when I'm right, I'm right. If there are going to be any consequences you have to stand up and deal with it as a man. I'm always ready for anything.
"I'm a big man. I'm always up for the challenge and, whatever the situation may be, I am here to handle it and deal with it whatever the circumstances may be. This is crunch time. This has been a real challenge to deal with, everything happening at one time, but as you go on in life things are going to get tougher. You have to deal with these situations, be a man and stand up and handle it.
If it is true that Mike Findlay cleared Gayle's entry, then he is well within his right to defend his integrity. I was surprised by Gayle's comments but, whatever the facts, I must give him credit for speaking out. It is time that someone challenges this incompetent Board and I hope the region gives Gayle full support.
Where is the sanction, the reprimand, for the CEO who has made some quite startling and outrageous remarks against players? He should be fired for these remarks or at the very least make a public apology.
The more things change the more they remain the same!
The investigation into the murder of Bob Woolmer has turned to his final email to the PCB. The Sunday Telegraph has reported that there is now a theory that the email, where Woolmer said he would stand down as coach, was faked by his killers.
Detectives are focussing on the language used. People close to Woolmer have said that it clearly wasn't written by him and suggestions are that the author was someone whose first language wasn't English.
There has been a bombshell development in the Bob Woolmer investigation. A group of Scotland Yard investigators, who were asked to assist with the matter, have concluded that the Pakistan Cricket coach died of heart failure.
According to a Sunday Gleaner source in London, a pathology report submitted by the Scotland Yard team is now saying that the former Pakistan cricket coach died of natural causes and not manual strangulation as was initially reported by Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields. The Scotland Yard report specifically said Woolmer died of heart failure, contradicting earlier reports by the investigative arm of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and local pathologist, Dr. Ere Sheshiah, who had conducted a post-mortem on Woolmers's body.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070513/lead/lead1.htmlHowever, having spent more than $130 million to remake the historic complex, it has no plans to walk away from its investment.
