Rain, No Play

Marlon Samuels has been drafted into the West Indies side to replace the injured captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has been sent home. Sarwan had injured his shoulder during last week's Test at Headingley when he dived into the advertising boards trying to save a boundary. Presumably, vice captain Daren Ganga will be elevated to the captaincy.

The issue of who should replace Sarwan once again raised the spectre of insularity in the region. Barbadian Tony Cozier called for Barbadian Ryan Hinds to be drafted in the squad. This ruffled the feathers of a few Jamaican commentators who argued that the Jamaican Samuels should be the choice, often hinting that Cozier's choice was because he and Hinds are Bajan, while dismissing that a similar claim could be made against them.  read more »

Ryan Sidebottom in full flight. [Photo credit: Jon Hall]

In the midst of the disaster of the second Test at Headingley, there is the interesting story of Ryan Sidebottom. And his story is not interesting only because of his name and all the fun headline writers could have with it. (How does one get a name like Sidebottom anyway? Is it the English equivalent of 'backside'?). Before Sidebottom starred in England's big win with eight wickets in the match, he was famous or infamous for the fact that like his father before him, he had only played in a single Test match.  read more »

Michael Vaughan leads his team off the field victorious.

[Photo courtesy of Jon Hall]

One thing that can never be said about West Indies cricket is, "It can't get any worse than this!".

Today it got about as bad as it possibly could for the Windies as they caved to a massive innings and 283 runs defeat - the biggest defeat in the 79 year history of West Indies Test cricket. After following on a full 424 runs behind England's big first innings total of 570/7, the West Indies put on an even more pitiful performance than their first innings total of 146. This time they folded for 141.  read more »

Monty Panesar's left arm spin gives the England attack a dimension that the Windies' sorely lack.

The Windies ineptitude with the ball in the first seven days of Test cricket on the England tour has only highlighted the need for a specialist spinner in the Windies side. In the first Test at Lord's the Windies pace quartet of Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Dwayne Bravo and Corey Collymore each went for over a hundred runs as England piled up a massive 553/5 declared in overcast conditions that should have favoured the seamers. Four England batsmen: Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell and debutant Matt Prior picked off centuries against the largely wayward and rusty Windies pace attack - with 'attack' being used very generously.

Contrast that with the success of Monty Panesar against the Windies, who took six wickets in their first innings and of Chris Gayle, who took 3 English wickets in the second innings, wouldn't a specialist spinner have been useful for the West Indies?  read more »

In last week's drawn first Test at Lord's the Windies demonstrated remarkable fight to save the match after England had piled up a massive 553/5 declared. The Windies' fast bowlers struggled in the first innings with their lack of match practice being on full display. A solid batting performance led by Shiv Chanderpaul's 74 and some dogged batting by lower order batsmen Dwayne Bravo (56), Denesh Ramdin (60) and Daren Powell (36) carried the Windies to a respectable 437.

A strong bowling performance led by Corey Collymore's 3/58 and Chris Gayle's 3/66 restricted England to 284/8 dec and left the Windies with a steep run chase of 401. The Windies started positively at 89/0, but an almost rained out final day resulted in the tame draw.  read more »

The ICC has released the schedule for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup to be held in September of this year. The format will be similar to just concluded World Cup, just that the tournament will be concluded within 2 weeks, unlike the 7 weeks for which CWC 2007 dragged on. There will be 12 teams this time with only 2 minnows: Kenya and Scotland. The round robin first stage has the 12 teams divided into four groups of three with the top 2 in each group moving on to the Super 8s. The top four in the Super 8s will qualify for the semifinals. After playing in the opening matches in the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, the Windies will again feature in the initial game. Here is the Windies' first round schedule:

Tuesday, September 11th 2007
South Africa v West Indies (12noon Eastern Caribbean 11am Jamaica) Johannesburg

Thursday, September 13th 2007
West Indies v Bangladesh (4am Eastern Caribbean 3am Jamaica) Johannesburg

Proving that it hasn't learned anything from the contract dispute that took place before this current English tour and before the World Cup and before the India tour in January and ...well you get the point, the WICB is making plans for the West Indies to play 20/20 matches in a Tournament in Toronto, Canada in August as well as for an A team tour to Zimbabwe in July. Problem is, neither of these tours is listed in the ICC Future Tours Programme, and unlike with this English tour, the issue is clear cut. In a situation like this the MoU signed by WIPA and the WICB just last September requires that both parties agree to these tours. So far, it seems that the WICB has not contacted WIPA about the tours. I guess one dispute at a time...

The first Test match of the West Indies/England series of 2007 in Lords, and indeed the entire series, is shaping up to be a mismatch. A look at the Test statistics shows a gaping chasm between the two sides. Side by side, here are how each team's top 7 batsmen for the first Test compare. The final XIs have not been named and may only include 6 of these players on either side. However with Bravo and Flintoff being genuine allrounders it is possible that all 7 from each side will play, pending Flintoff's fitness.

West Indies Batsman	Average	England Batsmen	Average
Chris Gayle	38.71	Andrew Strauss	43.09
Daren Ganga	27.29	Alastair Cook	43.20
Devon Smith	25.34	Ian Bell	43.72
Ramnaresh Sarwan	38.80	Kevin Pietersen	49.69
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	44.60	Paul Collingwood	42.94
Runako Morton	26.11	Owais Shah	63.00
Dwayne Bravo	32.73	Andrew Flintoff	32.50

 read more »

Zimbabwe holds a special place in the hearts of most West Indians. Just as West Indians were keenly interested in the struggle for racial equality in South Africa, so were they interested in the struggle for liberation in Zimbabwe. So much so that Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley sang at the Independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. Then he was celebrating Zimbabwe's independence and the election of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe after Ian Smith's minority rule in then colonial Rhodesia. How prophetic has Marley's words in his song Zimbabwe become:

To divide and rule could only tear us apart;
In everyman chest, there beats a heart.
So soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionaries;
And I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.

 read more »

Runako Morton slammed an aggressive 103 before retiring hurt against Somerset in Taunton, England yesterday to press for a place in next Thursdays first Test against England. From all accounts, Morton was severe against anything short or too full and may just have booked a place in the starting XI. Morton and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (82 n.o.) revived the Windies innings after the team had slumped to 44 for 4, losing Gayle, Sarwan, Ganga and Devon Smith cheaply. From reports it seems that Gayle and Smith fell to loose shots. It will be critical that the top order avoid such collapses against the English bowlers in the Test series.  read more »