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Kaieteur News
Sunday June 14, 2015
“Inspirational West Indies cricket excellence all in one place!” Colin E. H. Croft If you were at Kingston’s Jamaica Pegasus Hotel last week, as were the seven surviving West Indies cricketing “Sirs” when they attended the awards ceremony hosted by West Indies Cricket Board and West Indies Players Association, then you ought to have been inspired! That room had to be dripping with cricket greatness. What a night it must have been! Realistically, it will not be often again in the future that Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Wesley Hall, Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Richard Richardson, tremendous cricketers for their respective countries and past WI teams, could be in the same place again. What a wonderful opportunity to reminisce on WI cricketing style! These seven knights have an astonishing 541 Tests; 644 ODI’s; 43,834 international runs and 1,499 international wickets between them. On paper, all they need to
have an unbeatable but imaginary proper team, for any format, would be a real wicketkeeper, two real opening batsmen and perhaps another front-line spinner. That timely opportunity last week afforded a chance of a lifetime for present WI cricketing underlings to rub shoulders with greats, hoping that something could “rub off” from them, especially with that word “great” having been so badly diluted over the past few decades. If you are a present WI cricketer, or aspirant, and you were there, you ought to have taken every chance, with risks too, I expect, to enquire from these stalwarts as to what was it that they did over their careers to make them not only special to WI cricket but revered world-wide. Denesh Ramdin, present WI captain, and the rest of his squad for Test No. 2 v Australia; even the Australians too; must have taken that opportunity to admire those knights with awe. Unfortunately, I had to be elsewhere, attending to more important personal situations. Pity!
1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, cricket’s “time of romance,” and 1990’s and 2000’s, were very different times cricketwise, even if Sir Curtly and Sir Richie played during international cricket’s “time of transition.” Sir Richie’s career ended in 1995 while Sir Curtly played until 2000! The greatest, Sir Gary, is like boxer Muhammed Ali. They cannot be duplicated. Truth be told, I doubt, even after so much elapsed time, that Sir Gary knew, or even now realizes, how massive a cricketer he was! Having seen him play for the first time in 1971 v India; and as a Guyana Under-19 player even actually bowling to him at WI practice then; with achievements on cricket arenas, might it have been UK, India, Australia or Caribbean, that man is the last of cricket’s all-around geniuses. Sir Everton, third of “Three W’s”, following Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell, is still my personal favorite WI cricketer of all time, and not only because I am similarly named, as Sir Andy probably was too, af-
ter Sir Everton’s big exploits around the time we were born; early 1950’s. Like Brian Lara, Sir Richie and Sir Viv, Sir Everton is a batting luminary, but unlike Sir Everton and Lara, Sir Viv was more openly destructive, like his name-sake, “Smoking” Joe Frazier of boxing fame. Sir Richie was not far behind Sir Viv either in batting aggression. Sir Everton was somewhat more classical, as smooth and effective as perhaps another boxer, Floyd Patterson. If Lara was a boxer, he might have been Sugar Ray Leonard! Lara, Sir Everton, Sir Viv and Sir Gary are always included in “All-time WI XI’s’, regardless of whom the selectors are. That alone confirms their own cricketing immortality. With modern cricket, so many avenues to endure, so many shorter competitions to manipulate, so many political and other obstacles to overcome, it is conceivable that these seven cricketing knights could be some of the very last that we might ever
know here. Barbados could still maybe suggest Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Joel Garner for knighthoods, while Jamaica might even think about giving similar acknowledgements to Chris Gayle, Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh, but few other ex-players deserve such accolades. Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago are both republics, so if Clive Lloyd and Rohan Kanhai are to be knighted, then they will have to get those gongs through their adopted domicile England. Guyana’s Shiv Chanderpaul and Lancelot Gibbs, and T&T’s Deryck Murray and Lara, all for tremendous services rendered sometimes beyond duty for President or Prime Minister, will simply have to miss out due to each respective country’s political foundations. Darren Sammy could be knighted by St. Lucia too, as were Sir Viv, Sir Andy, Sir Richie and Sir Curtly honored by Antigua & Barbuda, but
that barrel of knighthoods is becoming empty! Sir Curtly and Sir Andy have been headliners for recent successful WI fast bowling culture, but if one is to nominate “The real father of modern WI fast bowling”, then that additional accolade must go to Sir Wes, the only man ever described as “pace like fire”, always leading from the front! We may never see such justifiably honored cricketing knights again in our history. Enjoy! E-mail address = c.e.h.croft@gmail.com
Do or die for Golden Jaguars and Vincy Heat in return WCQ today Most important game of our lives – Shabazz By Franklin Wilson Only one team will advance to the third stage of qualifying in the ongoing CONCACAF round of action for the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 when the dust is settled this evening at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. It will be the home team, Guyana’s Golden Jaguars taking on visitors, St. Vincent & the Grenadines Vincy Heat in what is anticipated to be nothing less than an epic battle with the respective nations knowing that only the winner will be going forward. Guyana will start this encounter with the physiological advantage following the 2-2 tie in the first game on Wednesday l a s t a t t h e Arnos Vale Play Field in St. Vincent. Vincy Heat battled their way back twice to salvage a draw which gives them a chance of advancing providing they can overcome the Golden Jaguars this evening. That will however be a monumental task given the reinforcements the home team has now with the English based quartet of Neil Danns, Marcel Barrington, Matthew Briggs and Sam Cox, being granted citizenship. Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz speaking with
Substitute Ricky Shakes (#14) shoots past SVG’s goalie Winslow Mc Dowall for Guyana’s second goal. Kaieteur Sport from the team Hotel yesterday, said that they Technical Staff is elated that the players have been grated their passports which enables them to be in contention but it does not guarantee them making the final starting eleven. ”But it gives us the choice to choose horses for courses. We want to thank the government personnel that acted swiftly, all of them, to make it happen; we’re thankful for that.” Shabazz was quick to point out that this game is the most important of their lives pointing out that they have to chose the players carefully that will do the job for Guyana
today. ”We have a good spirit in the team and we have a good feeling towards going to get a positive result.” Playing at home, Shabazz said, his charges will play with more confidence and take the game to their opponents whilst playing with more heart and desire. ”I thought at times in the game in St. Vincent we were timid and tentative. This game we want to be more assertive going forward and playing more like a team playing at home.” With the English players now being available changes would be made to the starting eleven Shabazz informed.
Danns, Briggs and Cox will all make their World Cup debuts; sitting out the starting team are Dwain Jacobs, Vurlon Mills and Sheldon Holder. The Guyanese fans are once again being urged to come out in their thousands to urge the team on to victory and a place in the next round of qualifying. According to Shabazz, they need to be part of the rebuilding process of football in Guyana. ”We’ve been through a lot as a country in football and this is a time for all the warring factions, all the different stakeholders to come together and see how we can give that good vibes and moral support to the team and
be part of this process.” World Cup time is a special time in any nation he posited, a time for total participation. “In this time I urge everybody to come and participate and hold the flag and play your role in the process of taking this football forward.” When St. Vincent touched down on Friday afternoon at the Ogle International Airport, both their Head Coach Cornelius Huggins and Captain Dorren Hamlet said they were confident of defeating the Golden Jaguars who have not lost to a Caribbean side at home since 2007. Vincy Heat displayed a lot of heart and speed at home
but will find that the atmosphere tonight will be very hostile with fans expected to be donned in their gold or yellow shirts cheering the Golden Jaguars on. The home team is expected to be decked out in their new Admiral gold kit having worn the green in St. Vincent. Kick off time is 19:00hrs or 7pm, gates will be opened at 17:00hrs or 5pm. Starting X1: Akel Clarke, Colin Nelson, Jamaal Smith, Matthew Briggs, Sam Cox, Christopher Nurse (Captain), Brandon Beresford, Daniel Wi l s o n , Wa l t e r M o o r e , Neil Danns, Emery Welshman.