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GUYANA CHRONICLE Saturday March 5, 2016
Bowlers beware! World Twenty20 seeks to sate boundary-lust
By Amlan Chakraborty NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - Batsmen will be encouraged to satisfy contemporary cricket’s seemingly insatiable lust for boundaries and bowlers reduced to mere cannon fodder when the sixth World Twenty20 gets underway in India on Tuesday. With 35 matches spread over 27 days, starting with eight “minnows” battling it out for two spots in the Super10 round, the tournament looks set to illustrate once again just how skewed the 20-overs game is against bowlers. There is more chance of discovering life on Mars than in the docile Indian tracks, which will be rolled out for a tournament that concludes with the April 3 final at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. While cricket purists may
look on it with disdain, there is a growing acceptance that
British colonies. The International Cricket
Darren Sammy will have a big task to lift the West Indies team if they are to win the tournament for the second time. the format is the only way the game can expand beyond its current stagnation in former
Petra Organisation/Milo Schools Football
Round-of-16 action today at Ministry of Education ground By Rawle Toney WHAT started with 32 Secondary Schools in Georgetown has now boiled down to 16 with eight of them going into action today, as the Petra Organisation/Milo Schools Football Tournament reaches the round-of-16 stage. Defending champions Chase Academy, Dolphin Secondary, Lodge Secondary, Queen’s College, Christ Church Secondary, Bishops’ High School, St John’s College, and Mae’s Secondary, all finished atop their respective groups. With the exception of St John’s College, the aforementioned schools played undefeated in the Group Stage. St Rose’s High, Queenstown Secondary, South Ruimveldt, Richard Ishmael, North Ruimveldt, North Georgetown Secondary, Kingston and Tucville Secondary are the other eight teams. From 11:00hrs, Group C winners Lodge Secondary will oppose Group D runners-up North Ruimveldt Secondary in the first quarter-final at the Ministry of Education ground on Carifesta Avenue. Dolphin Secondary, Group B finishers, collide with Group E second-placers Richard Ishmael at 12:00hrs, followed Tucville Secondary versus Queen’s College (14:00hrs) and Bishops’ High tackling St Rose’s at 15:30hrs. The Round-of-16 will conclude tomorrow before the quarter-finals on March 13, semi-finals on March 17 and the grand final on Sunday March 20.
Council (ICC) last month received a status report on its ongoing dialogue over the
game’s possible inclusion at Olympics and Commonwealth Games. Like rugby sevens before it, there seems little doubt that cricket’s best hope of being given a place at such international multi-sport events is to push the shorter form of the game. That Twenty20 has the potential to break new ground was evident in November when ‘All-Stars’ games featuring retired greats such as Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar drew an aggregate crowd of 83 900 to three matches in the United States. The ICC, who have had little success selling the game in the land of baseball, lauded the All-Stars series, convinced it would “help cricket to reach its significant potential in the United States”. The format has long proved a smash hit in cricket’s traditional heartlands,
spawning franchise-based leagues across the cricketing globe. India were the last major team to embrace the format but went on to win the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007. They top the current rankings and recent series wins over Australia and Sri Lanka suggest they have sorted out their death-bowling issues and are a good bet for a second crown. SAMMY’S CHALLENGE Darren Sammy will attempt to bring a second title to West Indies but the ever-smiling all-rounder will have to inspire a team who just weeks ago were planning to boycott the tournament over a contractual dispute. The 2012 champions averted the crisis but Sammy is likely to miss spinner Sunil Narine’s guile and all-rounder Kieron Pollard’s power-hitting down the order. Sri Lanka will be defending champions in India but skipper Lasith Malinga must marshal a team in transition since the retirements of stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and
Mahela Jayawardene. Australia’s spectacular lack of success is one of the most intriguing points in the short history of the tournament, which has seen three Asian champions in the five editions. The reigning 50-over world champions have responded by putting Test and one-day captain Steven Smith in charge of a squad boasting an explosive lineup that also includes David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner. England will look to the experience of skipper Eoin Morgan, who was part of Paul Collingwood’s victorious 2010 team and has been playing in the Indian Premier League. Few teams can match the flair that a mercurial Pakistan team under Shahid Afridi brings to the table and the 2009 champions have also been boosted by paceman Mohammad Amir’s return after a five-year spot-fixing ban. Fellow contenders South Africa and New Zealand will have to overcome a tendency to flop on the big stage in order to take home the trophy.
‘The Hammer’ prepared for Slingerz ALPHA United would be a reenergised team for their meeting with arch rivals Slingerz when the STAG Beer Elite Finale continues next Wednesday at the Tucville ground. Alpha head coach Wayne Dover has indicated that the return of several players to the club has made it a more potent force, capable of overcoming any hurdle on the local football field. “I would say that we have a wealth of experience and with the return of some players we have a greater chance of taking on and prevailing over any team in the Fina-
Alpha United head coach Wayne Dover le,” Dover said yesterday. Wednesday’s game would mark the first time this year
that Guyana’s top two clubs would be meeting. Last year, the two clubs met on three occasions with Slingerz winning two and the other being a draw. However, since then Slingers have seen the exodus of several key players to Alpha including striker Anthony `Awo’ Abrams, Colin Nelson, Solomon Austin, Joshua Brown and dependable midfielder Dwayne Jacobs. Abrams has already stamped his authority and is the Finale’s leading goalscorer. He has fired in a hat-trick in Alpha’s last game and is expected to be
a thorn in the side of his former club. “We prepare for, and expect tough games and next week’s match is no different. Our team is a mixture of youth and experience. We will be looking for the more senior players to lead from the front. Once we stick to our plan and remain focused the sky will be our limit,” Dover opined. S o f a r, A l p h a h a v e played three games in the Finale winning two and drawing one. The `Hammer’ drew 1-1 with Fruta Conquerors, defeated GFC 3-1 and then crushed Monedderlust 4-0.
Cozier suing WICB president Dave Cameron TONY Cozier, the voice of Caribbean cricket, is suing president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron for defamation. Cozier, an icon of broadcast cricket commentary for more than 50 years, is headed to court and seeking damages for defamation over words used by Cameron last May 22 during a meeting at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.
TONY COZIER
Cozier, 75, full name Winston Anthony Lloyd Cozier, has engaged the services of Queen’s Counsel Peter Symonds. At that meeting last May, Cameron is purported to have said: “There is no ban on Mr Cozier. The challenge is Mr Cozier has gotten to an age – and everyone needs to agree, that he is not actually seeing very well anymore. And we are being very, very frank about that. (Nation News)