“Take a Rest”

*Photos from www.cricinfo.com

A calypso by the band Tradewinds telling the WICB to “Take a Rest” has made for popular listening in the past week around the region and after the West Indies win today to secure a 2-1 series victory in the one day internationals, it is even more apt for the Board to take the advice and leave our cricket be! Ken Gordon may be resigning but nothing will change when his replacement comes into the job. The old boys network will continue as normal and life will go on.

Blunder after blunder characterised the WICB’s approach to the tour of England and ironically one of them- the row between the parasites and Gayle- served to unify and motivate the team in the one days and helped salvage some West Indian pride. Obviously nothing can take away from the inspired performances of Chanderpaul who continued to bat on a separate level from everyone else, Edwards who bowled with pace and much better control in the past, Powell who again looked like the bowler we saw in the World Cup, Rampaul who bowled with heart and commitment and the cameos of Samuels, Bravo and Morton on different occasions. While I didn’t think that Gayle should have been awarded the captaincy based on his poor performances in recent times, I admit that he did a good job in leading the team and hopefully this bit of responsibility will also translate into his batting. Once again the attitude of the team was encouraging and it warmed my heart to see the enthusiastic fielding, chatter and celebrations when English wickets fell.

Tony Cozier wrote an article earlier this week about the drastic transformation of the team when it came to the shorter form of the game while Will Luke in a cricinfo.com article says that the West Indies deserve to celebrate.

Of Storms, Flight Delays, Indian Cuisine and Calypso Cricket

My sister was due to come into NYC tonight from Ohio on her way back home to Barbados. Unfortunately, after repeated delays caused by bad weather their flight from Columbus was cancelled. Initially AA told them that the next available flight into NYC that would allow the whole family to fly together was July 4th but fortunately they have been placed on a Continental flight to Cleveland tomorrow evening where they will have to transfer to an AA flight bound for NYC. Delayed and furthermore cancelled flights are not fun and I can’t begin to imagine the hassle it must be with two little children. They left Athens around twelve today to drive to Columbus for what was supposed to be a 5pm flight. The most frustrating part for them must be that they were on the plane and about to leave when they were taxied back to the gate. On the positive side, at least they were able to get a flight out tomorrow and a friend of my bro-in-law in Columbus was able to meet them at the airport and take them to a hotel etc.

I cooked up some chicken curry for their dinner tonight and marinated some tandoori chicken for tomorrow, so they will now have to eat tonight’s dinner tomorrow night and the tandoori will have to stay marinated an extra day!

I like to cook and since being allowed to gradually put weight on my foot a few weeks ago, the kitchen has proven to be a place of solace. I’ve been cooking up a storm every few days and it has been a welcome break from the food I was forced to order since the end of January. I’ve made mostly Indian dishes and especially things my mom cooked and which my sisters now cook. My mom would be shocked if she saw me because there were not many Indian dishes I liked eating when I was growing up. It took going to London to study for me to begin eating a variety of Indian food and now Indian cuisine is my favourite.

Speaking of London, the West Indies brought some Caribbean flair to first of two Twenty20 Internationals to put some smiles on West Indian faces after a tough past few weeks. I am a purist; I love test cricket; one day internationals provide entertainment but are not a substitute for the real thing; Twenty20 is simply a slug fest and far from authentic cricket. However, I know that cricket is a billion dollar business and the powers that be will spare no effort to market the game and its entertainment value to those with no appreciation of all the intricacies and nuances of genuine cricket. I am therefore realistic and accept there is no point fighting it; I watch it just to see some big hitting; and big hitting it was from the word go. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Devon Smith hitting out as if his pants were on fire. Chanderpaul played some innovative shots and Marlon Samuels decided to turn up and bat. Despite a big hitting knock by the England captain, the West Indies total proved just enough and it was the English with all their Twenty20 experience who were made to look like novices by a team playing only its second Twenty20 at the international level.

What pleased me was the attitude of the West Indies players. I can’t remember the last time I saw a West Indies team being so enthusiastic. The laughing, smiling, shouting and encouragement of each other were a joy to watch and the young team actually looked as if they were enjoying themselves for the first time this tour. Have the events of the past week galvanised the team and has the Board unintentionally motivated the players? It would be wonderful if this sprit continues and I hope the team can go on to win tomorrow and do the same in the one-day internationals that follow.

At least is wasn't 4-0!

At least West Indian fans can console themselves with the fact that it was a 3-0 and not a 4-0 whipping! From a dominant position at the start of the fourth day to fighting for a draw at the end and ultimately losing today in a match that lost a day and a half to rain! Poor captaincy and bowling enabled England to pose a lead and the continued poor batting of the top order meant that defeat was going to be the only result. Chanderpaul continued his defiance but even he couldn’t stave off the obvious.

Hopefully this series will have proven to Ganga fans that he is not a test class player and the appointment of a man as vice-captain who can’t even justify his place on the team was a ridiculous move by the selectors. Devon Smith still looks out of place, Sylvester Joseph does not convince me that he knows how to bat, Runako Morton is neither here nor there, Marlon Samuels is a waste of time and Chris Gayle needs to be dropped for his attitude and poor performances not rewarded with the one day captaincy! Ramdin has promise but he needs to work hard to improve his wicketkeeping; some proper competition for his place would force him to raise his game and be more consistent. The bowling is pathetic with the exception of Edwards but even he needs to work to improve his mediocre returns. Powell looked a different bowler from the one who played in the World Cup and he obviously is lacking in the brain department since there can be no other explanation for his playing the same nonsensical shot in both innings. Taylor has been struggling for a while and I think he needs a rest while Collyslow has gone past his sell by date. The only positives from the series were the immovable Chanderpaul, Bravo to an extent although he needs to convert his starts and stop throwing away his wicket and Darren Sammy’s debut.

Chanderpaul has received a lot of praise for his performance this series and it is richly deserved. If only the heart and fight he has demonstrated was replicated by a few more of his teammates! This is another article written about him in the UK Guardian.

So another series and another dismal performance. The solutions to the problems plaguing West Indian cricket are rather obvious but as long as they entail disturbing the status quo and restructuring the corrupt and inefficient old boys network- WICB- nothing will happen.

No Surprises in Squad for English Tour

The West Indies squad to tour England was announced today on the recently retired (forced into retirement?) Brian Lara’s 38th birthday. Given the pool of players to choose from, it comes as no surprise that there were not any major changes from the World Cup team. However, I think the selectors made some key mistakes by the inclusion/exclusion of some players. Why is there no back-up wicketkeeper? On what basis was Sylvester Joseph selected? It certainly cannot be because of his poor performance on the A’ team tour to England last year. Darren Sammy is more suited to the one-day game. He does not strike me as a genuine batsman or bowler and someone like Ryan Hinds or Narsingh Deonarine would have been better options being authentic batsmen who also bowl well. I am also not sure why Collymore was picked. He never seems like he will take a wicket and he rarely does. I think it is time to move on with respect to Collymore. On a tour to a country that favours swing bowling, Pedro Collins would have been a more appropriate selection. Samuels deserved to be omitted based on his attitude and I would have also liked to see Chris Gayle dropped!

Have I Entertained You?

*Photos from www.cricinfo.com

Yes, bellowed the huge crowd who had turned up to say goodbye to a West Indian legend.

West Indies lost the match; appropriately many may say, as during his time playing for the regional team, it rarely won! Unlike so many times in the past though, he did not shine with the bat but it was not due to any fault of his. He was run out because of a poor piece of cricket by Marlon Samuels who symbolises much that is wrong with our cricket- lack of commitment and mental strength. Samuels will be forever remembered as the man who ran out Brian Lara in his last match. A number of fans have been saying that it was deliberate or that at the minimum selfish, as he called for the run and should have kept running and given up his wicket. Interestingly, according to press reports, when asked during his press conference if Samuels had apologised, Lara fumbled for words and then said “It would have to be a yes, or a no. So I will leave it.”

The whole affair of Lara retiring has a bitter taste to it. Only recently he had made clear his intentions to carry on playing for another couple of years until he was 40 and the manner in which he batted late last year on the tour of Pakistan demonstrated that his hunger for runs and his physical fitness have not waned. One wonders if he was, like many of our other cricketing greats, pushed out. He certainly hinted at it in his press conference. Lara has always been the consummate diplomat and once again he refused to bite at the bait the reporters threw out. However, he did say enough to let people make their own conclusions. Lara, like all of us, has his faults, but he cannot be blamed for the malaise that envelopes our cricket. For that, we must blame the administrators, their incompetence and obsession with power and money along with the way our society has moved towards a culture of mediocrity, materialism, indiscipline and instant gratification. Until we admit the deep-rooted structural problems facing us instead of finding convenient scapegoats, we will never be able to fix our beloved game. Until there is a drastic transformation instead of superficial changes to appease criticism, we will continue to languish at the bottom of the cricketing rankings. Plain and simple!

Brian Charles Lara did entertain. He entertained like no other batsman in his era. The statistics and the records are phenomenal but there was nothing like actually watching him bat. He also had the burden of playing in a team of mediocre players and of having to carry the batting for over a decade. Other great West Indian batsmen (besides George Headley) never had that burden and this makes his achievements even more admirable. We will never see that extravagant back lift, the exquisite cover drive, the deft late cut, the dismissive flick or pull; that seemingly supernatural ability to pierce fields; the utter destruction and total domination of bowling attacks all over the cricketing world. While he has left international cricket, his fans will hope that he goes on to play county cricket for a while still in England. The stage may not be as grand as that of the test arena, but it will still afford some the opportunity to see art in motion.

A transcript of Lara's interview can be seen here.

A Cruel April Fools Joke?

April Fools Day and all the West Indian fans must have been wishing that what happened in Guyana earlier today was just a cruel joke and that the actual game is scheduled for tomorrow. The West Indies played like true minnows. Actually, it was even worse because none of the minnows has displayed this type of sickening behaviour on the field- lethargic, apathetic, lack of unity and spirit, poor body language. The Windies team of the past decade has been notorious for putting in some poor performances but I can’t remember having ever seen the players act like they did on Sunday. There was a total absence of life and it is obvious that the team is disunited and beset by internal problems like never before.

The bowling (with the exception of Powell) and fielding left a lot to be desired and as has become the norm, the batting collapsed. Chris Gayle once again confirmed that he is severely limited when it comes to mental capacity as did Dwayne Smith. Even after Lara got out, I still think that Sarwan and Chanderpaul could have pulled it off but for some odd reason they played as if it was a test match. I agree that there was a need to consolidate and rebuild after the loss of three wickets but playing out dot ball after dot ball was not the answer. Singles and with the size of this new ground twos would have kept the run rate manageable and the batsmen to follow would not have been placed under so much pressure. It is absurd that two part time bowlers can go for 20 runs off 7 overs while Muralitharan went for 59 off of 9!

Mathematically we still have a chance of qualifying for the semis, if we win our next three matches and the win/losses in the other matches go in our favour. However, while I would love for the Windies to win the World Cup, deep down, I know that they do not deserve to qualify for the semis based on how they have played. If by chance they manage to qualify, it will still not disguise the fact that West Indies cricket is in need of a serious revolution, starting with a purging of the administrators and a creation of a body that is truly transparent, democratic and accountable and followed by a proper restructuring of the game throughout the region from primary school right up to the senior level. This is the ideal. The reality is that I am speaking of the Caribbean. I need say no more.

South Asian Disaster

*Photo from www.nationnews.com


*Photo from www.cricinfo.com

The marketing men will be fuming, for after all, a large number of the major sponsors of CWC 2007 are from India or have an Indian connection. The television people will be devastated after purchasing the rights to televise the tournament. The fans, anyone familiar with cricket knows, are fanatical and already the outcry and worse has begun.

The highly rated Indians appear to be joining Pakistan on their way home, barring a miracle victory by Bermuda over Bangladesh. After slaughtering minnows Bermuda mid-week, they met up with an inspired Sri Lankan team who clinically showed them the door. The Indian batting giants once again failed, with Tendulkar out for 0. Instead of India and Pakistan, the Asians will be represented by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the next round.

The West Indies won convincingly against Pakistan’s tormentors Ireland, but my doubts about whether they will be able to compete with the in form teams- Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand- continue to linger. When Jeremy Bray was flaying the bowling, the bowlers had no clue about how to respond and the captaincy was poor. Bray is a one dimensional batsman and the solution as the commentators kept pointing out was simple, yet still the bowlers continued to feed him short balls wide outside off and the captain showed no signs of leadership. If they do this in the second round against top batsmen they will be subjected to a massacre. It was good to see Chanderpaul return to form and he played some great shots; Samuels looked in good nick; Ramdin did well behind the stumps. Gayle bowled well, but batting wise, after a few big strokes he gifted his hand and demonstrated once again that he does not have much of a cricketing brain!

Onto Antigua on Tuesday for the first game of the Super Eights- West Indies versus Australia- where hopefully West Indies can produce some magic. Before that we still have South Africa versus Australia tomorrow in the final game of Group A. On a track which has seen some huge scores so far, I expect a run fest.

More Time Home, an Indian Massacre and a West Indian Struggle

I went back to the doctor again today. The swelling has diminished quite a bit but my foot is still painful. The limited walking experiment of the past few days has been called off as not only did I feel tingling sensations because of the tightness from being in a cast (which alone would have been fine) but also because my foot is still very painful. Mr. Podiatrist decided that it was best to just rest my foot and allow the tendons to heal fully and the tendonitis to disappear. He give me another cortisone shot again (which hurt more than the previous two, maybe because this one was closer to my ankle while the others were on my heel) and told me he wouldn’t cast me again as he trusted me not to abuse the boot and walk in it but keep my foot up when using the crutches. He averages that I will be home from work for a minimum of another six weeks! Thank God for the Barbadian social security system, which despite its many flaws, is still better than what prevails in many developed countries. If I was an American or living here as a normal immigrant, I would probably be out of a job by now.

The status quo was restored today when India massacred Bermuda. Actually it was restored yesterday when Australia slaughtered Netherlands. Order was also restored when West Indies won unconvincingly against Zimbabwe. There is no way that a team like Zimbabwe should have made 202 especially after losing those early wickets. The batting was not as disappointing as the bowling but it could still have been better. The openers were going along at a steady pace when Chanderpaul was drawn into a false stroke and then for the umpteenth time Gayle got out the same way he always does- caught behind the wicket. I just hope Chanderpaul can inject some life into his batting for the next match. Gayle seemed to be getting back into some sort of form but I find it so annoying that after all this time playing international cricket he still gets out the same way over and over. There is absolutely no excuse for mediocrity. Sarwan is also very annoying in his inability to play the short ball. How many times now has he been hit on his head? The way he took his eyes off the ball was also so school boyish and frankly pathetic. We saw the Samuels of old today but let’s hope that it was a one off and his new found maturity returns next match. There are many who will criticise Lara for batting so cautiously but I thought he played the perfect innings. It was a much better strategy to pace his innings and make sure he batted to the end. The fact is he should never have even been required to come out to the middle as the runs should have been knocked off with the loss of a maximum of one wicket. The batsmen who gifted their hands should be criticised, not Lara who did the smart thing and ensured a victory rather than attempting some big hitting heroics, losing his hand and overseeing the inevitable collapse. It was a captain’s innings.

Sir Frank Worrell- West Indian Hero

40 years ago on this day, the Caribbean lost one of its greatest leaders. He was not a Prime Minister or Premier, but the first black captain of the West Indies cricket team. Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell succeeded in doing what no politician before him or since has been able to do- unite an archipelago of islands with a similar history but each with its own insular view of itself. It may not have been a political or economic union, but his achievement in bringing the region together through a beautiful game that is much more than a sport in the West Indies is unrivalled. Notwithstanding this, he was also a great batsman and a member of the legendary three Ws from Barbados. While Weekes was regarded as the best batsman of the trio and Walcott was a powerful hitter of the ball, Worrell was the poet and artist, being described as one who never made an ungrammatical stroke. Tragically, like quite a few other leaders and activists in the 1960s who challenged the status quo (Fanon, Malcolm X, MLK, Che, Lumumba), he died very young.

It was therefore fitting that the West Indies team which defeated Pakistan in the opening game of the World Cup today played like a cohesive unit instead of a bunch of disparate individuals like they have been doing so often in the past decade. While they started badly, once they had recovered, they never looked back. There were some questions over strategy but in the end everything worked out fine. Even more pleasing was that some of the players who have failed miserably to fulfil their obvious potential- Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels in particular- stepped up today and led the charge. If they continue to play like this and work on the weak areas, they can prove to be serious contenders for the Cup.