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Kaieteur News
Friday January 22, 2016
Colts courting Division I League Benn (4-26), Braithwaite (80*) steers Pride past Hurricanes title with blowout tomorrow By Edison Jefford Colts is aiming to run away with Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Division I League title tomorrow at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall when they face Plaisance Guardians in a deciding third game of a bestof-three series. Colts is adamant that the game will not be as close as pundits say. President of the Club, Michael Singh told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that once his team plays crunchtime defence well, the game will become very easy for them to win on the offensive end. “Once we stay defensiveminded, we will be able to close it out. I do not think it (the game) will be close; at the end of the day, we got enough talent and structure to win. We have to play crunch time defence,” Singh said. “If we get a perfect game, it’s a blowout for Guardians. We have not played a perfect game yet,” he added. Singh believes that he has the weapons on the offensive end to comfortably win, which will
Michael Singh change the trend of the bestof-three series. The first two games were decided in the last seconds with Nikkoloi Smith shooting Guardians to a one-point win in game one, and an almost sweep in a three-point lost in game two. That is how close the series, which is levelled 11, has been to-date. Singh proffered a reason why his team has not been as dominant as expected, despite them being the higher rated team in the clash. He said that
they played game one without their guard Shelroy Thomas; in addition, he admitted the team has a new philosophy “The team has a difference philosophy now that we got ‘Gypsy’ (Centre, Kurt Elias) – that is we are going inside to our ‘big men’; we got (Kurt) English, Shelroy and Dave (Thomas) offensively and that means that anyone can give us 20 points per game,” he boasted. “We got to shut down players; we have to stop Nikkoloi. Plaisance Guardians are playing with a lot of confidence and that is something we cannot take for granted,” Singh added. Smith has been a Colt as recent as 2014, but went back to his foundation club. Colts won the GABA Under-23 League qualifiers, Division I qualifiers, Linden Forbes Burnham title and made the National Senior Club Championships final last year. They are eagerly looking to add another accolade to their cabinet tomorrow.
ICC weighs in on MCL retirement issue
The ICC gave the Masters Champions League the go-ahead on the understanding that only retired players would take part in it © MCL At least three Full Member boards have written to the ICC expressing concern over their current players asking for no objection certificates to participate in the Masters Champions League (MCL), which was approved as a Twenty20 event meant strictly for retired players. The ICC has warned that “actions of those involved with the MCL in seeking current player participation” is “unacceptable”. It is understood that the three aggrieved members are the Pakistan
Cricket Board (PCB), Cricket South Africa (CSA), and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). In an e-mail sent to all the member boards, ICC senior Operations Manager Clive Hitchcock asked them to contact him immediately if they received a request from a current or non-retired player for an NOC to play in the MCL.According to Hitchcock, the ICC had granted an approval to the MCL last November, and notified all the board members. ”Our decision not to issue
a Disapproved Notice was based on the application from MCL which clearly stated that it was an event for retired players only,” Hitchcock wrote in the e-mail, which is in possession of ESPNcricinfo. ”Emirates Cricket Board, who sanctioned the event, did so on the basis of their negotiations with MCL for a retired players event. Consequently, the actions o f t h o s e i n volved with the MCL in seeking current player participation in the event is (Continued on page 32)
into tomorrow’s Final
Man-of-the-Match, leftarm spinner Suleiman Benn spun web s a r o u n d t h e Wi n d w a r d s H u r r i c a n e s batsmen to finish with 4-26 before Kraigg Braithwaite scored an unbeaten 80 to give Barbados Pride a comforta b l e seven-wicket win in yesterday’s second semi-final at the Queen’s Park Oval. The Bajan Franchise now proudly marches into tomorrow’s final of the 2016 NAGICO Super 50 tournam e n t a g a i n st defending Champions Trinidad &Tobago’s Red Force in Portof-Spain from 13:30 hrs. Ashley Nurse (2-42), Carlos Braithwaite (2-41) and Jomal Warrican (2-30) supported Benn as the Hurricanes were blown away for 175 in 45.4 overs despite 44 from Devon Smith and 31 each from Tyrone Theophile and Sunil Ambris. Braithwaite (80) and the elegant Shamarh Brooks (33) featured in an unfinished 96run fourth wicket partnership to see Barbados to 179-3 from 44.3 overs to provide the team from the land of the Flying
Fish with a chance of dethroning the Red Force in front of what is anticipated to be largest crowd of the tournament. Mervin Matthew gave his team early hope by having the potentially dangerous Dwayne Smith LBW for a duck with the first ball of the innings before Mayers dismissed Shai Hope (28) and Liam Sebastian had Jonathon Carter (28) caught and bowled and at 83-3 in the 22nd over the Hurricanes were fighting back. The 23-year-old Braithwaite soon reached his fifth fifty at this level before being miss-stumped by Andre Fletcher off Keron Cottoy on 69. But the level headed Braithwaite, who was 20 short of his maiden century at this level, and fellow right hander Brooks consolidate the position to see their team home. Earlier, Johnson Charles was removed by Nurse for a duck with just a single on the board but Theophile and the lefthanded Smith put together 75 for the second wicket before the latter was stumped off Benn when six short of what would have been his 22nd 50-
over half century. Benn got rid of Theophile six runs later as the Hurricanes slipped 81-3 before the towering Benn struck again by trapping Fletcher (2) to leave the Windward Island Franchise in a deep hole on 87-4. Things got progressively worse when Skipper Sebastien (1) was caught behind as the 6ft 7inch Benn, who has played 34 ODIs, continued his demolition job to leave the Hurricanes on 95-5 in the 25th over. Watched by the proverbial ‘two men and a dog’ Ambris and Kyle Mayers took the score to 121 and were embarking on ‘operation rebuild’ before Ambris hit a catch to West Indies Captain Jason Holder off Warrican with the score at 121-6. Two quick wickets tumbled as Warrican removed Shane Shillingford (0) and Nurse got rid of Keron Cottoy in quick succession before Delorn Johnson (18*) and Matthew joined forces in a last wicket stand of 24. Braithwaite was then bowled by Matthew to end the innings.