Ed Smith, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo where the title reads “Was Tony Cozier the last of a golden age of commentators?”
Pic from www.siasat.com
Category Archives: West Indian Cricket
Tony Cozier: A Profound and Amiable Caribbean Voice of Cricket passes away
Mike Selvey, courtesy of the Guardian, where the title is “Thank you Tony Cozier for those exhilarating rides on the airwaves”
Somewhere in the great celestial radio commentary box my dream team have been assembled. First the deep Basingstoke claret rumble of John Arlott at his poetic best. Next, The Major, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, clipped, eloquent, meticulous in all but timekeeping, and brilliantly, twinklingly precise. And now another. “After a few words from Trevor Bailey it will be Tony Cozier.”
TC was a superb journalist and writer on the game, his columns in his own Nation newspaper, the Independent here, and latterly incisive stiletto‑sharp comment on Cricinfo, were unmissable. Almost to the very last, he was writing a scathing polemic about the dysfunctional West Indies Cricket Board. The decline of the game around the islands left him not just saddened but angry.
He was an extremely fine television commentator too, his contributions showing up many of the look-at-me gabble-peddlers of today for what they are (that he was gradually ousted from their domains was as much a testament to the insecurity of others as anything). But as a radio commentator he was truly majestic, the manifestation of West Indies cricket, his Bajan twang instantly recognisable across the cricket world (although curiously, for many years, not him: it always amused him how many people had him down as being black).
England here we come. To dominate. What elevated the great West Indian team of the 1970s?
Crispin Andrews, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, where the title is “How West Indies began their journey to world domination”
When West Indies came to England in 1976, did people in the UK realise that Clive Lloyd’s team would go on to dominate world cricket for the best part of 20 years? West Indies had won the World Cup the previous year, but were then thrashed 5-1 in Australia. Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai and Lance Gibbs had recently retired. A new generation of West Indian players, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, would go on to become household names. But in 1976, these players were as yet unproven at the highest level.
Filed under cricket and life, cricketing icons, English cricket, West Indian Cricket
The West Indians Pray … and Display Their Muscle after their Triumph
Seeking the Powers above — during the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 Final between England and West Indies at Eden Gardens on April 3, 2016 in Kolkata, India.
Filed under performance, T20 Cricket, West Indian Cricket
Kapil Dev & Brathwaite–Four Balls, Four Sixes
Mahinda Wijesinghe, in the Sunday Island, 10 April 2016
The entire cricket world was stunned when West Indian all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite brought about a dramatic win in the recently concluded World T20 tournament by clubbing four successive sixers off the bowling of England’s paceman Ben Stokes in the final over of the game. Needing 19 runs, Brathwaite hit the first three deliveries over the line and leveled the scores. Most thought a simple single would now be the answer to victory. Not Brathwaite, the next also went soaring for the fourth successive six and all hell broke loose!
Carlos Brathwaite 
Kapil Dev–www.liveindia.com
How Dharmasena’s Intervention reprieved the West Indies
The Island, 6 April 2016, with highlighting and Footnotes being the Cricketique Editor’s additions
On Sunday, the West Indies stunned the cricketing world with their come from behind victory against England in the finals of the ICC World T-20 at Eden Gardens in Calcutta . Barbadian Carlos Brathwaite and Jamaican Marlon Samuels were the stars in West Indies ’ win. However, victory wouldn’t have been possible for West Indies if not for Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena. West Indies had made dreadful start losing three wickets for just 11 runs and the game looked well beyond their reach when Samuels was given out caught behind by umpire Rod Tucker. Samuels walked off with the scoreboard reading 37 for four. However, Dharmasena the leg-umpire was suspicious given the way wicketkeeper Josh Buttler had collected the catch. Continue reading
Selection Errors and On-field Mediocrity condemn the Sri Lankan Team’s T20 Performance
Michael Roberts, courtesy of IslandCricket …….. http://www.islandcricket.lk/columns/michael_roberts/475520202/evaluating-sri-lankas-mediocre-wt20-performances, where the title is different
One bright spark, Dasun Shanaka–Pic Getty Images
ONE: Sri Lanka’s mediocre performances at the T20 World Cup were the result of poor selections, poor batting, poor running between the wickets, mediocre bowling, some poor fielding and one atrocious umpiring decision.[1]
The awful umpiring mistake by John Cloete that sent Dilshan back to the pavilion at 3.1 overs – a decision that was marked explicitly by several TV commentators including Alan Wilkins — was all the more severe because of its timing: viz., when Dilshan was on song and Sri Lanka had got off to a good start against the West Indies with 20 runs in 18 balls. Continue reading
Withering before the Windies, Bangalore 20th March 2016
Michael Roberts … also see http://www.islandcricket.lk/columns/michael_roberts/473560223/downfall-against-the-windies-why-and-how
Sri Lanka slumped to a defeat against the West Indies at Bangalore on the 20th March because of a combination of factors, some self-made, some Windies-made and some due to horrendous umpiring error. Assigning weightage amongst an array of factors is never easy and is inevitably conjectural. I side-step that problem. Just let me run through these ‘forces’ one by one, progressing in temporal order.
The umpiring was calamitous and it was Sri Lanka who suffered – not once, but on three occasions. I begin with this undermining force because the first blow was in the 4th over of the Sri Lankan innings when Dilshan was batting effectively (12 runs in ten balls) and the score was 20 – not great, but not too bad. The ESPN writer reacted thus
Brathwaite to Dilshan, OUT, and strikes first ball! Boy, that looked a bit leg-side at first glance but he’s gone lbw. Full, angling into the pads, Dilshan aims through the leg side but misses. The umpire takes a long time but eventually the finger goes up. Oh dear, that’s missing by a long way.
The TV commentators were as definitive in their assessment of the South African umpire John Cloete’s terrible decision.
Cloete adjudicating in a previous match Continue reading
Dharmasena’s Reflections on Cricket Past and Present
Dinesh Weerawansa, in Sunday Observer, April 2016, where the title is “Lankan team only lacks experience – Former Observer Schoolboy Cricketer Kumar Dharmasena”
Observer Schoolboy Cricketer turned ICC elite panel international umpire Kumar Dharmasena does not see any crisis situation in the Sri Lanka national team. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer during his short visit to Colombo for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Dharmasena said he does not see any crisis or an alarming situation in the Sri Lanka team. The former Sri Lanka all-rounder who was a member of the 1996 World Cup-winning team, attributed the recent dismal performance of the national team due to lack of experience and international exposure and expressed confidence that the team would be able to bounce back in near future.
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Filed under Atapattu, cricket and life, cricketing icons, murali, performance, player selections, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket, television commentary, unusual people, West Indian Cricket