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Kaieteur News
Sunday May 12, 2013
“Happy Mother’s Day” to all mothers; Great respect and appreciation too, to a famous sporting father!” Colin E. H. Croft “Mama – You know that I love you; you are the Queen of my heart! Loving you is like food for my soul” - Boys to Men. “Dear Mama – Ain’t a woman alive who can take your place. You always were the Queen. Sweet Lady, don’t you know that we love you?” – Tupac Shakur. Special days and people come around so that we could fully celebrate and appreciate them, allowing us to deviate from standard stuff of wars, stress, money, religion and politics! For female parents, this is your very special day, the only one in 365 just for you; absolutely! Even if you are male, especially if you are doing twin jobs of both father and mother; “Happy Mother’s Day!” As my ‘Queen’ often joked; “I can tell you that anyone is your father. I am very sure that I am your mother!” Or, in stark, open, logical warning, if she was in a bad mood; “I made you.
Therefore, I can kill you!” You really have to love mothers! They are the most precious, unique beings! Revere them! Sylvia has been “away” since June 1993, but I still have other mothers to salute; Lynette, Gail, Marcia, Lydia, Shelisa; for being actual parents of my two off-springs, and as very best friends! Thanks, Mommies! Anyway, Sir Alex Ferguson is, like me, a donator to parenthood, but he is much more fortunate. He has his own biological family, but also, he has that other family, including me, that is Manchester United. Strangely, I was among few who were not surprised that he had decided to retire this year. Somehow, I really expected it, and said such to others, even before MUFC had won its 20th Premier League title. Sir Alex had been badly stung last year, unbelievably embarrassed, after his archenemies, the blue side of Manchester – City – had won English Premier League championship by only better goal difference.
Sir Alex Ferguson Ironically, as things have transpired this last week, it was Everton, with a tremendous come from behind 4-4 draw last season, which saw to United’s goal difference being inferior; agonizingly so! “The Boss” had to take one last repair shot. Having already “been there, done everything else”, he had to
redeem himself this year; fitting finale; by winning 2012/13 English Premier League. He did! Now, another manager who also has much respect coming his way, David Moyes, of said Everton, is to take over at MUFC. Ambition is always a very good trait; made of sterner stuff. So let it be with Dave!
CPL ANNOUNCES TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE CPL - BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS - The muchanticipated schedule for the inaugural Caribbean P r e m i e r League (CPL) tournament has been announced by CPL organisers, and as expected,
matches will be played in six franchise countries – Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago - in the months of July and August. Kicking off in Barbados
FIXTURES: Tuesday 30th July - Opening Ceremony & BAR v SLU (Barbados) Wednesday 31st July - GUY v T&T (Guyana) Thursday 1st August - BAR v ANU (Barbados) Friday 2nd August - GUY v JAM (Guyana) Saturday 3rd August - BAR v T&T (Barbados) Sunday 4th August - ANU v JAM & GUY v SLU (Guyana) Tuesday 6th August - SLU v ANU (Saint Lucia) Wednesday 7th August - T&T V JAM (Trinidad) Thursday 8th August - SLU v BAR (Saint Lucia) Friday 9th August - T&T v GUY (Trinidad) Saturday 10th August - SLU v JAM (Saint Lucia) Sunday 11th August - BAR v GUY & T&T v ANU (Trinidad) Tuesday 13th August - ANU v BAR (Antigua & Barbuda) Wednesday 14th August - JAM v GUY (Jamaica) Thursday 15th August - ANU v SLU (Antigua & Barbuda) Friday 16th August - JAM v T&T (Jamaica) Saturday 17th August - ANU v GUY (Antigua & Barbuda) Sunday 18th August - SLU v T&T & JAM v BAR (Jamaica) Thursday 22nd August - Semi-final 1 (Trinidad) Friday 23rd August - Semi-final 2 (Trinidad) Saturday 24th August - Final & Ceremony (Trinidad)
on Tuesday, 30 July with an opening ceremony followed by a Barbados vs St Lucia match, games will be played on various days throughout the four week period. There will be a three-day break before the two semifinals, the final match and the closing ceremony which will take place in Trinidad & Tobago on Saturday, 24 August. Sundays through the tournament will feature a doubleheader with matches taking place at 3pm and 7:30pm. CPL organisers emphasised that in putting together the schedule, the goal was to make it as fair as possible for the franchise countries but also ensure that there would be many exciting games between neighbouring and rival countries. In addition, the fixtures had to work logistically in terms of elements such as travel for the teams and CPL staff and the transfer of TV equipment and crew from
venue to venue. The result is a schedule that is workable and one where all teams will play three home games, three away games and one game in a neutral franchise country, for example Antigua vs. Jamaica in Guyana. The CPL team is pleased to get the fixtures out in just under three months in advance, giving both local fans and prospective tourists the chance to plan their trips to and around the Caribbean to witness what is expected to be the biggest and most exciting sporting event in the region. The 2014 and 2015 CPL tournaments will take place from 5 July to 10 August and 21 June to 26 July respectively. Next on the CPL agenda is the announcement of details for the players draft event, confirmation of which teams the franchise players will be assigned to and many more exciting elements of the tournament.
Sir Alex has been staggering at MUCF. To replace, in some minds, another legendary Manchester United manager, Sir Matt Busby, is a tremendous achievement all by itself! I have even heard suggestions that Sir Alex coming to that club, back in 1986, had sporting similarity to Nelson Mandela coming out of prison, in 1990, to later lead South Africa, or, indeed, Mahatma Gandhi leaving that very country, in 1915, to return home, to lead India to its independence in 1947! Uncanny! SAF’s statistics at MUFC are extraordinarily incredible; 26 years of real, total genius, winning an unprecedented 38 trophies overall! 13 English Premier League championships, 5 Football Association (FA) Cups, 4 Football League Cups, 2 European Champions League trophies, one each of Cup Winner’s Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, EUFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, and 10 Football Association Charity/ Community Shield championships. Whew! What an astronomical haul! I am betting that no-one, but noone, in the rest of history, will do that well. Even the stock market reacted badly, MUFC’s shares falling slightly on the NYSE! That is power! But the crowning glory year for MUFC must be 1999, a year that had many other noted firsts too! That was also the very same year when, for the very first time ever anywhere, “Wisden – CricInfo”, the superlative cricket web-site, broadcast international cricket commentary, ball by ball, over the world-wide-web, covering ICC Cricket World Cup 1999, with yours truly also included
Colin E. H. Croft in the broadcast team! I can also clearly remember where I was on Wednesday 26 May, 1999, when Manchester United beat German team Bayern Munich in Champions League Trophy Final, culminating that treble for “Red Devils”. Scotland and West Indies were to meet the next day at Leicestershire’s cricket ground, Grace Road, where present Ireland head coach Phil Simmons played. Few paid any attention to cricket stuff that afternoon! We were all around televisions, all computers paused or completely downed, cricket journalistic work ignored, especially if you were a Man U supporter, as I was, and am. That evening was absolute magic! MUFC scored two goals in what is now known as “Fergie’s Time”, those last few minutes in any game where oppositions, even if ahead, relax enough to let United in. What a game that was! Several of Sir Alex’s MUFC “prodigies” have given open homage and total credit to their “father”. David Beckham, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Andy Cole, Paul Ince, Eric Cantona, Mark Hughes, Dwight Yorke, Gary Neville, Steve Bruce have all lauded the man’s worth, bringing tears to eyes. Few mothers have ever developed such talent. Enjoy!
Mumbai go No. 2 by... From page 76 stunningly, those sixes were the last boundaries hit in the hosts’ innings. The Mumbai death-bowling was tight, rather than extraordinary, and the pitch was a little difficult, but the Warriors batsmen never adjusted to the pace of the surface and swing after swing, they continued to mistime their shots into the deep, or miss the ball completely. Mitchell Johnson finished with the best figures in the match, having taken two wickets for eight runs in his four overs. ( (
Ashok Dinda, who was among five changes to the Warriors side, bowled a peach to uproot Dwayne Smith’s off stump first ball, but with so few to chase, Mumbai could afford to regroup safely. Ajantha Mendis was the best of Warriors’ bowlers, taking 1 for 15 from his full quota, but no one was able to deliver the spell that would cause a serious scare in the opposition dugout. Scores: Mumbai Indians 116 for 5 (Rohit 37) beat Pune Warriors 112 for 9 (Yuvraj 33, Johnson 2-8) by 5 wickets.