Garner for Manager? You must be joking

The WICB has announced that Joel Garner will manage the side to Australia. This is madness and could be quite disastrous. What is the purpose of this appointment? To put pressure on Gayle and the players? That would be unwise! To undermine the players? That would be stupid.

Have we learnt anything from our past experiences? Does anyone remember that disastrous "A" team tour when Garner was Manager when discipline went through the window?

This is a provocative and ill conceived move by the Board.

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Murray stumped!

Congratulations to the "Movement for Change". It took them 4 years to find out what many knew about Deryck Murray and his administration. They benefited from the Lequay development program but took all of the credit. Hopefully, those skilled persons who were unceremoniously removed at the beginning of the Murray administration would be reinstated.

Ramkisson and Sammy will be valued members of the WICB.

However, Mr. Bassarath and his team should be careful of those with well known prejudices who will do their best to create mischief and derive maximum benefit for themselves.

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Our Curators Do Not Have A Clue About What They Are Doing!

The disappointment of West Indies' defeat in the series opener was not confined to their performance. They didn't get the pitch they wanted. This, despite the curator Richard LeTang's assertion that spinners would have a hard time on the Windsor Park track in response to West Indies coach John Dyson's call for a "hard, pacy and bouncy wicket." Instead, the track was not unlike the ones used in the Tests, where Bangladesh's spinners thrived and ultimately won their team its first series overseas.

Sheer guess work. Our curators are really groundsmen who have no clue about what they are doing. This goes for Andy Robers and the lot of them.

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WICB Elections

Heard that a Lloyd/Murray ticket will challenge Hunte/Cameron. The ticket is now seeking support which may not be forthcoming from a surprising quarter.

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Lloyd Speaks His Mind...

According to Lloyd, the leading West Indies players had become too "greedy" for their own good and their performances failed to measure up to the "obscene" amount of money they are getting paid. "When you say the West Indies team is going to withdraw from a series it is not that they are short of money. We have players who are millionaires with an average of 15.00 and they are a first-team pick," he said.

I could not agree with him more. I am siding with WICB on this one! It is clear to me that money is more important than the pride in representing your territory. Left to WIPA, there would be no money for development, all will go into the pockets of the players whose performance does not match their greed.

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Cozier and the Selectors' Merry-go-Round

Such is the way of the modern world of international cricket that the West Indies hop right back onto the merry-go-round on Friday for the first of four ODIs in Jamaica. The selectors have come up with a squad that reflects a mental state of confusion, presumably triggered by events in England.

A good piece by Tony Cozier.

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West Indies Squad for First 2 ODIs

West Indies: Chris Gayle (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor.

Good to see Bernard and Morton in the squad. I cannot understand how Rampaul has become a specialist one day player and almost a sure pick. I am at a loss to understand the sacking of Simmonds and Sammy. The selectors are making the same mistake they did when picking Pollard on the basis of his four-day performance by picking Darren Bravo on the basis of his four-day performance - which actually declined towards the end of the Tournament. Anyway, I wish young Bravo well.

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Ponting on the Axing of Symonds

"This is not wholly and solely about Andrew Symonds. This is about the Australian cricket team. We've got some young guys who are just finding out what international cricket is all about. This is about the bigger picture and bringing on the next generation of Australian players."

Perhaps Gayle and the like can learn something here.

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The Disrespect for Women's Cricket Continues Unabated

The WICB announced the following Women Management Team for the 20/20 Tournament: Sherwin Campbell, Coach; Patricia Greenidge, Team Manager, Physiotherapist Jacqueline King-Mowatt, and fitness and conditioning co-ordinator Shannon Lashley.

Am I missing something or are all these Barbadians? Is there no other capable person in the entire region. The Board continues to ignore those persons who have given their all for Women's Cricket and appointed someone who is not known to the Women's Federation as Team Manager, compounding the insult of the appointment of a Secretariat Staff to the recently concluded Women's World Cup.

Nobody seems to care!

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West Indies Were Awful!

As good as England were, though, West Indies were awful. Their shot selection was woeful, the running poor and the general application gave a further impression of a team that isn't bothered. The decision to rest Fidel Edwards was also strange on one of the quickest pitches of the season so far. If Gayle can turn on the style in Birmingham they could yet level the series, but don't bet on it.

I have generally been impressed with Dyson, but anyone would look good after Bennett Kings and his sidekick. I am also very convinced about the skills, particularly the fielding skills, of David Williams. However, something is not right. It is easy to blame the coaching staff but I have this feeling that the Captain is a major contributing factor in the apparent motivational decline of the team.
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How do you play good swing bowling?

This was a question raised on another blog.

The answer is very simple actually. You practice, and practice....

Buy several dozen swing-kings from Australia. Or, tape one side of a soft ball, or shave one side of a tennis ball. Any of these would cause the ball to swing prodigiously. Use regularly in the nets or on a tarmac and I guarantee that our batters will significantly improve their ability to handle swing and our bowlers would be better equipped to control the swing.

But, should not our coaches know this already? Says a lot about our coaches!

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Fazeer Calls on Gayle to Resign, Now!

We have a WICB president who isn't sure what's at stake in England, and a captain who views the responsibilities of leadership as a burden that he is more than ready to give up.

With leadership comes responsibility and expectations that extend well beyond the boundary ropes, and having made crystal clear that these are burdensome and uncomfortable, he should be prepared to function as a regular player from tomorrow morning.

What message is he sending to his team-mates when, as also appears in the Guardian interview, he not only gripes about wanting to give up the job, but harps on the fact that it was only at the insistence of unnamed officials (selectors? President? CEO?) that he accepted the position in the first place?

I could not agree more! I said it before, West Indies Cricket is slowly dying, leadership at all levels is non-existent. We are in some serious trouble.
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Gayle to Quit Captaincy?

Read the story here!

At a time when we need to be positive we get this hogwash of negativity from our Captain. Not a good sign at all...

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LLoyd Hits Out...

Lloyd hinted he was not entirely convinced at the reasons offered by the West Indies board for Bravo's continued participation for the Mumbai Indians while the Test series in England proceeds. Note: Is Lloyd not a member of the said Board?

He was also sceptical of Gayle's argument that the springtime pitch conditions in England contributed to his side's heavy defeat at Lord's. "They've been playing county cricket a month before that," he said. "It's a matter of getting here early, getting in your nets, working hard at your fielding and your batting. It's Test cricket - you have to be at your best. It's a Test of your character and your skills. That's why it's called a Test match. You've got to be on top of your game."

Source: cricinfo.com
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A Media With No Independent Thought

Copy cat media! That is what we have in the region. No independent thinking; no sense of identity. They copy whatever is written elsewhere (the insults; the mistakes)and reproduce them.

I just read a piece on sportsmax.tv about the Manny Pacquiao decisive victory over Ricky Hatton. The article is laced with insults to the Philippino people.

- the impoverished nation celebrated Pacquiao's emphatic win;
- a gun-ridden metropolis of 12 million (referring to Manila);
- Pacquiao's dirt-poor home city of General Santos, while in Manila's depressed Tondo area another 2,000 people packed an airless gym to watch the fight;
- ..Philippines, often a victim of natural disasters, political upheaval and corruption and whose already struggling economy....

Was all of this garbage necessary on an occasion like this?

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Donald Peters "Pushed" Out

In what should come as no surprise to cricket watchers, the WICB announced that it has accepted, with some amount of glee I may add, the resignation of Dr. Donald Peters as CEO. Peters' tenure was a comedy of errors, missteps and misstatements. The last straw was the ill advised public criticism of his own Board.

The quick acceptance of his resignation and his immediate departure speaks volumes.

I am anxious to see whether nepotism or objectivity wins out in appointing a replacement. In the mean time, I wish Stephen Camacho the very best.

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"We've got a number of options for our pace attack," Dyson. "I've said to the guys on several occasions that all spots are up for grabs. We've got three games and those that perform in those three games can look with confidence at selection for the Test side."

Source: http://content.cricinfo.com/engvwi2009/content/current/story/401047.html

Let's see if he will keep his word.

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ICC Pitch Consultant Slams Dead Pitches

Andy Atkinson, the ICC's pitch consultant, has warned that pitches around the world are becoming too batsman-friendly, largely because of the volume of cricket played.

Several Test matches this year have been dominated by high-scoring draws, notably in Karachi and Barbados, which produced first-innings totals of 600 and 700. Atkinson believes the increase in one-day and Twenty20 cricket has affected the skill of producing surfaces that promote an even battle.

He may be correct about Karachi but not Barbados. That pitch has hardly seen any cricket since CWC 2007. The quality of the pitch in Barbados (and Antigua and perhaps even Trinidad) had more to do with ignorance or incompetence.

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Peters criticises his own Board

A column in the online edition of the Trinidadian Guardian today reports that "(Donald) Peters made several suggestions but the main and most riveting comments were that he was not happy with the functioning of the board and that he believed that the WICB as it was structured now was ineffective and needed to be replaced by another structure that was more accountable, responsible and relevant in today’s conditions.

He conceded that the board would not disband or restructure itself and wondered how and who could implement the change. He thought that some members, though he did not name any of them, had their own agendas which were not necessarily or primarily for the benefit of West indies cricket. Too many mistakes are being made and nobody is ever held responsible or accountable for those".

Very strange and ill advised comments from an employee of the Board. Of course, Peters is passing the buck and not accepting responsibility for anything. One wonders what is his role as CEO and, given all of his recent media gaffes, whether he can keep his job.

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Andy Roberts to Run Bowling Clinics?

According to a report on windiescricket.com - http://snipurl.com/evknq - Andy Roberts will be conducting a series of fast bowling clinics throughout the region.

The idea of restarting these clinics is good but the proposers need to look at what transpired in the past and do not make those same mistakes. It did not work with Andy in the past and would not work now! Andy may have been a great West Indian icon but he has done nothing in his coaching career (at the West Indies, Antigua or Leeward levels) to give anyone confidence that he is able to develop fast bowlers.

The WICB and local boards should use Andy as an advisor and find a coach who understands basic biomechanics and who can plan, execute and report.

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Lula: White Crisis

More problems with West Indies Cricket. But what's new? Lula's impressive, factual, bold statement:

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said the world's poor people should not be forced to pay for the global financial crisis.

President Lula said white, blue-eyed people - not Indians, nor black, nor poor people - had created and spread the crisis throughout the world.

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Dinas' Conflict of Interest?

But Ramnarine’s decision to quit his seat on the West Indies board was largely self-serving. During the New Zealand tour he set up, with the players’ blessing, the West Indies Players’ Management Company, of which he is the sole director. This makes him the players’ agent, and he thereby stands to gain from their involvement in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The crux of the dispute is Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor being allowed to miss the tour of England in May to play a full season of the IPL, an issue that may be resolved if the tournament is cancelled for security reasons.

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Dinas Resigns. First Class Players go on Strike.

Citing a host of outstanding issues, Dinas yesterday announced his resignation as Director of the WICB. Of the several issues listed in his press release, none specifically referred to the IPL but my understanding was that was what broke the "camel's back". The IPL clashes with the upcoming tour of England.

It is my understanding that WIPA is against the tour going forward as it would like its members to be available for the full IPL season. (Three WI players are contracted to IPL). Is this, therefore, all about money, individual profit over regional cricket? Or is WIPA's concern that the WICB has not been negotiating in good faith a genuine concern?

The immediate fallout is that the First Class Players are now on strike; the Digicel reception in Guyana was boycotted by the Players; and we are playing the current ODI with masking take over the Digicel logo on the left arm.

So, when we just begin to feel that our cricket and cricketing relationships are about to turn the proverbial corner, this happens.

I am tired with the blame game, and would not even go there.

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Whither Women's Cricket?

Four years ago West Indies women were on the crest of a wave. Their success in the World Cup in South Africa had earned them an automatic place in this year's trophy.

With a young nucleus, keen coach and number of matches on the increase, it will be interesting to see where West Indies will stand by 2013. With the full support of the WICB, they could do their nation proud - and this time their countrymen may pay more attention. Source: Cricinfo

Our girls won one (1) match of the Women's World Cup 2009. We would need more respect for women's cricket and enlightened management on the part of WICB if women's cricket is to develop, even to the level of four years ago. I am not hopeful that the region will take note of our performance at the World Cup; just as the issues of mismanagement leading up to the World Cup was ignored.

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West Indies Board to Blame for Antigua Farce

Source: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/392295.html

The West Indies Cricket Board was responsible for the shambles of the abandoned Test at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium, according to the ICC chief executives' committee. The announcement came after the second day of their meeting in Johannesburg.

The executive committee reconfirmed that the responsibility for ensuring the delivery of a venue fit for the purpose of international cricket rested with the host member board. Until now, the WICB has been reluctant to accept that it and not the local board was at fault for not ensuring the venue was up to standard.

The committee recommended that from now on all boards would be required to notify the ICC in February of each year the identity of all venues they intended to use for international matches in the following 12 months. This would need to be accompanied by a declaration that the grounds were up to standards already agreed by the ICC.

With regards to the outfield in Antigua, this is currently the subject of an ICC investigation and the WICB has been asked to submit its own report. The ICC has the power to impose a sanction ranging from a warning or a fine up to a suspension of international status for the venue.

NOTE: This flies in the face of statements by Dr. Peters seeking to cast blame on LICA and the ABCA. In an interview I heard him saying words to the effect that the WICB leases the ground from the local Board whose responsibility it is to deliver it in good condition. He is either being evasive or he does not know and understand how these thing work. Or perhaps he is looking for a scapegoat. What do you have Cricket Operations Officers for? What do you have a Ground Committee for? Why do you spend money on recees?

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Several Stand to Lose Money Invested with Stanford

Several West Indians players, including Shiv, as well and Garner and Gibbs stand to lose their investment with Stanford.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1149423/West-Indian-winners-miss-Stanford-millions-following-fraud-probe.html

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Stanford Stumped!

Read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/business/18stanford.html

An interesting note is that the whereabouts of Stanford is uncertain. I can hear the legends now - "yeah, yeah..."

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Donald Peters at it again

Dr. Donald Peters as quoted by the Antigua Sun (online edition, February 18):

“The question about what happened has been asked of me over 100 times,” he said. “But I am choosing to look forward. There is a lot of blame to go around.

“At this point, it has happened, we will ensure it does not happen again, but it was great that everybody threw their weight behind getting the Antigua Recreation Grounds ready, and maybe down the line, in the next six months or so, we can probably look at what happened and make sure it does not happen again.

“We will investigate all of the processes and find out where the lapses were, and when we have found this out, we will put systems in place to deal with them. We will get an independent person to do this. Not a WICB person.”

I would have thought that the situation was serious enough to warrant an immediate investigation. Dr. Peters obviously does not agree. No doubt he will be attending all the matches as a first priority. Then perhaps, along with the Stanford situation, everything will be forgotten. He will probably travel to England during the next tour and then there is Cricket again in the West Indies and....

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A Bunch of Ignoramuses

The WICB continues to amaze and amuse. The recent debacle in Antigua boggles the mind that we could have such incompetents managing our cricket. This is an international game and the blame must be laid fairly and squarely on the Board and Secretariat, not LICA. There was a time when the Board was blamed for not hiring "cricketers". These are the same individual running things now. What is their excuse?

The Antigua Sun reported that "during an interview with ZDK’s Patricia Benjamin on Tuesday, ("Kuma" ) Rodney (Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association) admitted that the growth of the grass at the facility is not what he had expected but that the other aspects of the preparation at the facility were in “near” perfect conditions.

“The grounds, sometime after Romantic Rhythms, was taken up and redone and, right now, you can almost call it perfect. The growth of the grass, to be honest, is not what we had really expected but the ground is still in a nice playable condition,” he said.

He must have had his head in the proverbial sand or somewhere else!

This is just one in a string of embarrassments. We remember the President's officegate affair, the CEO nonsensical babbling and, what the media has been silent on, the continued insult to women's cricket in terms of the appointments of the management team to the World Cup...

The show goes on. Believe me, this will not be the last such episode.

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WPA VP Hinds Slams WICB CEO

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161434157

Statements attributed to the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Dr Donald Peters, have prompted public condemnation by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), in particular vice-president Wavell Hinds.

Commenting on the lack of remuneration for first-class cricketers in the Caribbean, Peters was quoted as saying:

"The cricketers should not have to live with that situation but sometimes they are their own worst enemy. The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has worked against them in terms of expanding the realm of professional cricket."

The statement was part of an article that was examining the state of West Indies cricket.

"Erroneous and shocking" was the way Hinds, through the WIPA release, reacted to the comments.

Hinds added: "We at WIPA will not highlight what we see as the many acts and omissions on the part of the WICB, since the assumption of duty of the CEO, which appear to have been costly and may have undermined confidence among several stakeholders, including the players themselves, sponsors and the public at large."

WIPA through their vice-president said they regretted that such an "incorrect and bizarre characterisation of players and their association should emanate from a very senior official of the WICB with whom WIPA interfaces on a regular basis to deal with, inter alia, players' contracts, other playing conditions and related cricketing matters."

The release ended: "Mr Hinds, therefore, finds the statement of the WICB's CEO particularly disturbing and in total conflict with the terms of conduct agreed to by both parties and hopes that it will not affect immediate or future relations between the WICB and WIPA."

I WISH IF THE MEDIA COULD TREAT THE PLIGHT OF OUR WOMEN'S CRICKETERS WITH THE SAME ENTHUSIASM AS THEY DO MEN'S CRICKET

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The Insult to Women's Cricket Continues

It was with some disgust that I learnt of the surreptitious appointment of a junior employee of the WICB as the Manager of the West Indies Women Cricket Team which leaves these shores in a few weeks for the Women's Cricket World Cup. This has nothing to do with the appointee herself whom I consider a friend and whom I had recruited. It is with the process and the continued insult to Women's Cricket, Women Cricketers and those who struggled over the years for the development of Women's Cricket. One would have thought that an event of this nature would require the appointment of someone with experience and expertise in Women's cricket matters.

The unceremonial dumping of the former President of the Women's Cricket Federation as Manager without explanation adds insult to injury; it is my understanding that the Board was unaware of the decision taken by the Secretariat management. This on top of the fact that the WICB ignored the Federation's recommendation for Coach and Physio. The entire management team now consists of persons with little or no background in women's cricket!

There was a song on the radio this morning which speaks to this situation: "no one want to plant the corn, everybody want to raid the barn". This is exactly what is happening and women's cricket can only suffer!

The WICB's Women Committee, if it still exists, should resign en bloc.

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WICB Passing the Buck?

I do not agree with Tony Cozier too often, but he has a piece that is quite interesting. Read it here: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161427625.

"EVEN by the known standards of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the statements by its chief executive in Port of Spain last week touched a new height of illogic and arrogance.

Donald Peters basically placed the blame for the recent loss of sponsors on the players and portrayed the continuation of the one-day tournament and the expansion of the first-class series, in spite of it, as some sort of triumph for the board.

Here is how he put it in an interview with the Trinidad Guardian: "I have already told the West Indies cricketers that they must start winning in order to help us in attracting sponsors. When this happens everybody wants to come on board and this would put us in a better position given the current financial crisis around the world."

He continued: "I am happy to announce that this money being used to run the regional first-class series is not from a loan but from our resources that we have put away, in order to keep our cricket going. This will tell you that the board is a well-financed and well-run unit and is not being mismanaged."

Somehow, the responsibility of his board and of its affiliates to properly prepare those cricketers to "start winning" escaped him.

He ignored its failure to get the long-promised Academy, and its several off-shoots, up and operational after several missed deadlines.

December 15 last was the latest given by him; now his president, Julian Hunte, puts it at the end of this year. While West Indies cricket continues to wait, the rest of the world marches on.

There was no mention, either, of the scheduling of first-class matches on third-class grounds; last season's embarrassing cancellation of an 'A' team match against an international touring team; the lack of coordinated coaching programmes; and any one of the several administrative hindrances that have led to the weakest domestic competition in memory and the subsequent inability to produce winning teams.

To Peters, the fact that the WICB has had to use a sizeable chunk of its dwindling finances to fund what were the KFC Cup and the Carib Beer series is proof that "the board is a well-financed and well-run unit and is not being mismanaged".

It is no such thing. Instead, it reveals the understandable aversion of sponsors to any involvement with an organisation so prone to chaos and controversy.

The level of disdain reached by those who have backed West Indies cricket with their millions was typified by the strong words of Denis O'Brien, the chairman of Digicel, last November. O'Brien's .... told the media: "I am greatly perturbed by the behaviour of the president and the chief executive officer. I think that both of them really need to really withdraw."

Of course, neither has. That is the way of the Caribbean.

Instead, Peters has remained to conveniently pass the buck."

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