Rain, No Play

Now that the Ramnaresh Sarwan has been officially named as the captain of the West Indies team, even if under probation, lets take a shot at what the 15 man Test team to tour England will look like. Some changes will probably be made for the ODI series to follow the Test series.

1) Ramnaresh Sarwan (c)
2) Daren Ganga (vc)
3) Chris Gayle
4) Shivnarine Chanderpaul
5) Denesh Ramdin (wk)
6) Daren Powell
7) Jerome Taylor
8) Dwayne Bravo
9) Corey Collymore
10) Devon Smith

The first 9 should pick themselves. Devon Smith should also be in there as well due to his recent form and after Gayle and Ganga, he's probably the best opener in the West Indies.

11) Marlon Samuels
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Murder By Cricket

ESPN.com has done a story about Bob Woolmer's murder in Jamaica during this World Cup. The article, by Patrick Hruby, who admittedly knew very little about cricket before the story, takes a look at the sport we love and its sordid underbelly from an outsider's point of view. The story is long, but explores Bob Woolmer, cricket, its politics and its fans. You may read it here.

[ Photo courtesy of www.stanford2020.com ]

Somewhere along the road to the presumed elevation of Windies' vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan to the top post, rumor has it that his dream might be derailed.  read more »

The analysts will say that South Africa lost today's second semi final at the Beausejour stadium in St. Lucia inside the first 10 overs. After winning the toss, smiling and electing to bat, Graeme Smith could not have foreseen the carnage that was to follow as the South African top order were blown away to be reduced to 27/5 after 10 overs. The truth however, is that South Africa lost this match well before the match even started, as they apparently allowed verbal intimidation and the ghosts of their 1999 disasters against Australia to scramble their minds.

To understand what happened today to South Africa, one has to look back at the two encounters between South Africa and Australia in the 1999 World Cup. Back then, South Africa were the favourites to win the cup and had what was widely considered to be the best ODI team in the world. The two teams met twice in the 1999 edition.  read more »

In today's first semi final of Cricket World Cup 2007, Sri Lanka stamped their class on New Zealand. Urged on by strong crowd support, Sri Lanka crushed the Kiwis by 81 runs. Winning the toss, the Sri Lankans, showing the bravado that has won them many fans, elected to bat first on a wicket that promised to assist New Zealand's pacers.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene's decision seemed to backfire in the third over, when star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya's stumps were clattered by a James Franklin delivery. Franklin bowled well at the star of the innings, but the same couldn't be said for Shane Bond, who picked the worst time to have a bad performance. His first over went for 9 runs as he strayed down leg side, allowing Upul Tharanga to glance the ball for a boundary down to fine leg. The day would get much worse for Bond.  read more »

Fallout from the West Indies' continued string of failures began today when Windies coach Bennett King resigned from office. His resignation will take effect on May 31, 2007. Apparently he is staying on to facilitate the establishment of a regional cricket academy and so that the WICB can better "understand the challenges facing the Board as it implements the new structure". (King has been coach for the last three years, what more can he contribute in the next month that he hasn't been able to do for the last 3 years?). Meanwhile, the tour to England, should it go ahead (more on that later), begins in 3 weeks and the Windies don't have a coach. Apparently, King recommended his assistant David Moore, another former coach at the Australian cricket academy to take over for the English tour.  read more »

[Photo credit: Chennette]

Or better put, Marlon Samuels spoiled Lara's day.

In front of the largest crowd of the World Cup so far, Chris Gayle and Devon Smith gave the West Indies a solid platform. They put on 131 for the first wicket, with Gayle, who seemed out of sorts at the start of his innings, finding his form to make a brisk 79 off 58 balls. Smith played fairly well for his 61, but too often failed to give the strike back to the dashing Gayle and consumed all of 106 deliveries.

At the fall of Gayle's wicket, caught at third man, the crowd called out for Lara, and he came out to thunderous applause. The England players saluted Lara by forming a guard of honour as he walked out to the middle for the final time in his international career. Lara played well for his 18 runs, tantalising his spellbound audience with three fours. After Smith fell to a brilliant Paul Collingwood catch, Samuels joined Lara at the crease. And then the unthinkable. Samuels hit a delivery down to mid on and called Lara for a run that was never on. When Samuels stopped and finally realised that the run was not on, it was too late for Lara as Kevin Pietersen swooped in and hit the wicket while Lara desperately tried in vain to make it back.  read more »

Matthew Hayden made his third century of the tournament.

Australia 348 New Zealand 133

At least the West Indies didn't lose to Australia this bad. Not even Scotland lost to them this bad.  read more »