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Kaieteur News
Friday June 12, 2015
Benn, Taylor claim the night as cricket salutes excellence
Stafanie Taylor (left) receives her award from Lady Allen at the WIPA/WICB Annual Players’ Awards Ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Tuesday night. (PHOTOS: BRYAN CUMMINGS) Jamaica Observer - JAMAICAN Stafanie Taylor and Barbadian Sulieman Benn were the toast of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA)/ West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Annual Players’ Awards Ceremony as they were named the region’s male and female players of the year. The event, hosted jointly by both entities for the third year, awarded cricketers who have performed exceptionally well at both the regional and international levels during the year of 2014. Among the 12 awards handed out were two lifetime achievement awards, which saw Chetram Singh and Renford Pinnock being honoured by the WICB and WIPA, respectively. The event took place in exquisite settings in the Grand Jamaica Suite at the Jamaica Pegasus on Tuesday. Taylor has been a major figure in the West Indies women’s team since her de-
but in 2008, which has now resulted in her winning this prestigious award for the seventh-consecutive time. The 23-year-old, who was nominated alongside Trinidad & Tobago’s Anisa Mohammed and Barbadians Kycia Knight and Deandra Dottin, recollected the year that was as she revelled in the accolade. “Last year was pretty simple. I started out with the national team in the regional tournament where we retained our title, and everything else went well from there. This award means a lot to me because it shows that over the years I have been working really hard and the determination and goal in mind is bearing fruit,” said the allrounder, who was also the first West Indian to win the ICC Female Cricketer of the Year award in 2011. Meanwhile, Benn, the slow left-arm orthodox spinner who was nominated in four categories, was winning
the award for the first time. However, the 33-year-old was not on hand and the award was collected on his behalf by compatriot Jason Holder. Trinidad & Tobago’s Denesh Ramdin and Samuel Badree were named West Indies one-day and Twenty20 players of the year, respectively, while young Barbadian Kraigg Brathwaite copped the award for Test player of the year. Jermaine Blackwood upstaged countryman Sheldon Cotterell and Keon Peters of the Windward Island to be named emerging player of the year. Blackwood has figured prominently in the regional squad throughout last year after getting his Test career off to an aggressive start with a first ball six against New Zealand. Another Jamaican, Shacaya Thomas, was named first-class four-day player of the year, while Lendl Simmons of Trinidad & Tobago and Dwayne Smith of Barbados copped the Caribbean Twenty20 and Limited Overs players of the year awards, respectively. The first-class team of the year award went to Barbados, with Guyana being named the Under-19 team of the year. Shimran Hetmyer of Guyana took the Under-19 player of the year award, while Ronnie Goddard was specially recognised as the outstanding performer for WIPA in the community initiative. The ‘Sirs Club’ was another special award on the night, which was created to honour those who have contributed significantly to the establishment of West Indies cricket. Those honoured were Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Wesley Hall, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Richard Richardson and Sir Curtly Ambrose.
Attorney general says Jack has slim chance of fleeing Trinidad PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (AFP) — Ex-FIFA Vice President Jack Warner has slim chances of fleeing his native Trinidad and Tobago, where he is fighting the US bid to extradite him on corruption charges, the country’s attorney general said Wednesday. Warner, who was arrested after the United States indicted him and 13 other football officials and marketing executives in a sweeping corruption investigation, is currently free on $40,000 bail pending extradition hearings. Trinidadian Attorney General Garvin Nicholas said
Jack Warner the country had taken measures to prevent him from flee-
ing, tightening the net already around him since the United States had Interpol put Warner on its most wanted list and issued an international red alert. “We certainly made it a lot more difficult for him to escape or to leave the country, and with the Americans taking the further step of issuing the red warrant it means that every country is now alerted should he attempt to enter another country,” Nicholas told journalists. “Together with the American authorities I think we (Continued on page 34)
(From left) Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Sir Wesley Hall and Sir Richard Richardson pose with their special awards.
I knew World Cup axe was coming - Dwayne Bravo ESPNcricinfo - West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo has revealed that his exclusion from the squad for the World Cup did not come as a surprise, and he and Kieron Pollard were expecting the axe - which he called a “big joke” - from the West Indies Cricket Board selection panel, headed by Clive Lloyd. He also said the team management was prepared to lose the World Cup before it started and instead build for the next tournament. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Bravo said the pair “laughed” when Lloyd sat down the pair in Cape Town in January to explain the reasons he felt they were not fit to be part of the World Cup squad. “We actually laughed when he said it to us. To be honest, we knew it was coming. We know the type of people in charge of our cricket are actually mature enough to make sensible decisions and the right decisions for the benefit of cricket,” Bravo said. “If we had got selected we actually would have been surprised. We expected it. There was nothing that shocked us. “The explanation that they gave us was too many allrounders or they want to try young players, whatever the case might be… Kieron Pollard is 27, I am 31. Also as far as our form was concerned, as I said, the last 12 months I had been West Indies’ best player. So to be left out with those explanations, obviously, all we could have done is laugh. It was a big joke.” Bravo has endured a tough time in the last eight months since he led West
Dwayne Bravo on the World Cup squad: “If we had got selected we actually would have been surprised. We expected it. There was nothing that shocked us.” © AFP Indies’ player boycott on their India tour, during which the team abandoned the series mid-way over a contracts dispute involving the WICB and the players. Subsequently, Bravo was axed as ODI captain and dropped from the World Cup squad despite being one of the top performers in the team in the preceding 12 months before the selection. In January, he announced his Test retirement at the age of 31. Citing West Indies’ poor performance at the World Cup as a shame, Bravo said that the management had gone into the tournament prepared to lose, even as a more senior group had worked for the tournament for three years. “Another World Cup come, finish. They (were) happy with their decision. They were prepared not to win this World Cup,” he said. “It is a shame that before the World Cup even started, they were already prepared to lose and look forward to building
for the next World Cup, whereas in the last three years we were building for this World Cup. But it is all water under the bridge now. I am not someone to hold on to anything.” The allrounder finished as the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2015 but said that the performance was not meant to prove a point and he still considers himself “one of the better allrounders in the region”. Bravo welcomed West Indies head coach Phil Simmons’ move to keep the Test team’s doors open for IPL returnees, including Pollard, Sunil Narine, Lendl Simmons and Andre Russell. Bravo said that he was not currently open to the idea of returning to Test cricket. “No. There is a lot more that needs to be changed in order for me to even think of coming back into Test cricket. At the moment I am happy with my decision and I don’t see it changing anytime soon unless something drastic changes.”