Barbados and West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich has retained an attorney as he seeks redress over the process used by Cricket West Indies to deny him a renewal of his contract.
The matter came to light earlier this week when Barbados Cricket Association President Conde Riley revealed that he had received a letter from the player’s attorney on the Mason and Guest sports talk show.
In May 2021, Cricket West Indies announced the players who had been retained for the next cycle and Dowrich was not among them. Dowrich, 30, last played in a Test for the West Indies from December 2-5, 2020, against New Zealand.
In the early stages of that tour, Dowrich suffered a finger injury but later asked to be released from the tour citing personal reasons. However, according to his lawyer Philip Nichols, after being given leave from the West Indies, CWI then claims that he was not offered a new retainer contract because he had not played the requisite number of games to qualify for the said contract.
This is the bone of contention for the player, who at the time when he left New Zealand, was the first-choice wicketkeeper/batsman for the West Indies.
Dowrich was subsequently replaced by Trinidad and Tobago’s Joshua da Silva, who has, for the most part, acquitted himself well representing the West Indies as its wicketkeeper/batsman.
Following the New Zealand tour, CWI failed to follow up with the player to determine whether he had managed to put his ‘personal issues' behind him and was now ready to return to representing the regional side.
Nichols tells Sportsmax.TV that his client hopes to have the matter resolved amicably as it is not his intention for the matter to end up in court.
Dowrich has played 35 Tests for the West Indies scoring 1507 runs at an average of 29.07. He has scored three hundreds and nine fifties in that time.
Clarendon College became the fourth and final team to advance to the semi-finals of the 2021 DaCosta Cup football competition on Tuesday after recording a 3-1 win over McGrath High at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) to finish with a perfect nine points from their three games in Zone 4.
Both DaCosta Cup semi-finals will be played at 3:00 pm on January 12 with Dinthill Technical taking on Mannings High School at the Montego Bay Sports Complex while Garvey Maceo will do battle with Clarendon College at STETHS.
Meanwhile, Manchester High beat Cornwall College 2-1 at Green Pond in Tuesday’s other Zone 4 encounter to finish second in the zone with six points and advance to the Ben Francis Cup Knockout.
Manchester High and Cornwall College join Edwin Allen, Christiana High, Munro College, Vere Technical, STETHS and Frome Technical in the Ben Francis Cup.
Olympic double sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah has roped in another award on the back of her stellar 2021 season.
The 29-year-old sprinter was on Wednesday named the Track and Field News Female Athlete of the Year.
Thompson-Herah was voted the winner of the award by a 35-member international voting panel of the highly-respected track and field magazine, narrowly edging Venezuela's Olympic triple jump gold medalist and world-record holder, Yulimar Rojas.
The remainder of the top-five in voting included Dutch distance runner Sifan Hassan, American 400m Hurdler Sydney McLaughlin and Kenyan middle-distance runner Faith Kipyegon.
During her history-making season, Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win the 100m, 200m sprint double at consecutive Olympics, winning the 100m in a time of 10.61, an Olympic record, and the 200m in 21.53 in Tokyo in July.
She would go even faster in the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic in August, recording a 10.54-second clocking, the second-fastest time in history.
Thompson-Herah was also named World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year and the British Journal Athletics Weekly’s Female Athlete of the Year this month. She was also named NACAC Female Athlete of the Year and is favoured to be the RJR Sportswoman of the Year for 2021.
Eoin Morgan will lead a 16-strong T20I squad in England's tour of the West Indies.
The five-match series takes place in Barbados from January 22 to 30, with the first match scheduled only four days after the final Ashes Test is due to end.
Therefore, none of England's Ashes squad have been considered for selection, while Paul Collingwood will stand in for Chris Silverwood as coach.
Morgan's squad still includes 11 players who travelled to the T20 World Cup, with England reaching the semi-finals, only to lose to New Zealand.
Two uncapped players – George Garton and David Payne – were also named.
Dawid Malan is out in Australia with Joe Root's struggling red-ball side, while seamers Jofra Archer, Sam Curran and Tom Curran are out injured.
Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler are also playing Down Under, as is Ben Stokes, who missed the T20 World Cup to focus on his mental wellbeing.
Tom Banton and Saqib Mahmood are the other players to have been called up who were not involved in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
The series marks the continuation of England's preparations for the 2022 T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia.
"We have selected a strong squad with some serious batting power and a balanced attack as we begin preparations ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia," said Collingwood.
"The [T20] World Cup is less than a year away and there will be increased opportunities for the squad in the absence of those players who are with the Ashes squad.
"I have good memories winning a World Cup in Barbados and I'm really looking forward to going back there with this squad to face a very good West Indies who will test all aspects of our skills."
England squad in full:
Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Tymal Mill, David Payne, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, James Vince.
Businessman Chris Dehring believes the lack of professionalism among West Indies cricketers is hurting the region’s chances of becoming a force in world cricket once more.
The West Indies Rising Stars U19s will continue their preparation for the upcoming U19 World Cup with a Youth One-Day International Series against South Africa U19s in St. Vincent & the Grenadines starting later this month. Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced on Monday that the teams will play four 50-over matches from December 26 to January 3 at Arnos Vale Stadium and Cumberland playing field.
The teams arrived in St. Vincent late on Monday for the series that will be used by both teams as preparation for the Men’s ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup to be hosted in the Caribbean from January 14-February 5.
West Indies Head Coach Floyd Reifer views these matches as an important way to initially see how players react to different scenarios in a competitive setting.
“It’s great for us to have these matches as part of the build-up to the World Cup. We are really looking forward to this series against South Africa, as we are at the stage where it is important for the squad to play together, to see players in various roles, see how they respond to situations and how well they execute the plans we put in place,” Reifer said.
He also stressed the importance of the matches in facilitating good team chemistry and culture ahead of the World Cup.
“It is for us to also make sure we get the team going well together and have synergy, so the players fully understand each other. This is very crucial for us as we look to build the team energy and the team culture. I can’t stress enough how vital these matches are, and we will be taking them very seriously,” Reifer said.
He thanked the parties involved in making the series possible.
“We want to thank the Government and Cricket Association of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for working with our operations and medical teams over the past week to put things in place for us to get some much-needed playing time in the middle and preparations,” he said.
The ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup will feature 16 teams in 48 matches.
They are defending champions Bangladesh, England, Canada and the United Arab Emirates from Group A, with debutants Uganda placed in Group B alongside India, South Africa and Ireland. Group C comprises Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea and Group D sees host West Indies, Australia, Sri Lanka and Scotland.
Elaine Thompson-Herah is now being represented by Andisportsmanagement after parting ways with Adrian Laidlaw late last year. The management agency revealed their new client on Instagram on Monday.
Saturday and Sunday were good days for residents of the communities of both Waterhouse and Ewarton as they were the sites of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s Pocket Rocket Foundation 14th annual Christmas Treat.
Residents of Fraser-Pryce’s hometown of Waterhouse were the beneficiaries on Saturday and Ewarton, the hometown of her husband, Jason Pryce, enjoyed the festivities on Sunday.
The treat, which wasn’t held on Boxing Day for the first time in 14 years, was aided by a team of sponsors and volunteers who provided the residents with a variety of goodies ranging from food bags to toys and treats.
"We’re going to be giving our adults food bags courtesy of Grace Kennedy and then for the kids, they’ll be receiving toys and other goodies from Excelsior, Digicel, Nike and others,” said Fraser-Pryce, who also thanked Toyota Jamaica for providing transportation for the event.
The nine-time World Championships gold medallist said the aim was to bring some joy to the communities in the midst of a difficult year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also thanked her sponsors for helping to make it happen.
“It has been a crazy year for all of us because of the pandemic and I’m hoping that as a foundation we can bring some cheer to the community of Waterhouse and also Ewarton so I want to thank all my sponsors for what they do for me and my community year after year. We could not have done it without you guys, so thank you so much,” Fraser-Pryce said.
With about 400 care packages distributed and the resulting engagement from the community, the FastElaine Foundation’s treat in Banana Ground, Manchester on Saturday has been deemed a success; so much so that Elaine Thompson-Herah and her husband and partner, Derron, have been motivated to do even more.
Many members of the community turned out to receive packages containing household items and with the help of Mario Mitchell the councillor for the Bellefield Division that includes Banana Ground in the Manchester Northwestern constituency, packages were also distributed to other members of the community who were unable to show up.
Councillor Mitchell explained that Elaine decided to deliver packages to the elderly members of the community after having a conversation with her grandmother, ‘Miss Hyacinth’ who brought to her attention the fact that there were a number of people who were bedridden and were particularly vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus.
Otherwise, the event was well needed and was successful, Mitchell said.
“It was well-received. The children came out. The mothers came out. Banana Ground is a farming community so the farmers were in the fields but they came out later. There was music, there was food. All who came out got a token as well as a care package,” Mitchell said.
Notwithstanding her international fame, Elaine has always remained rooted in the community. Her family, including her father, uncles and grandmother, still live in Banana Ground and hence the residents were glad to have been beneficiaries of her initiative.
“They were happy to see Elaine. They were happy they had something, the care packages and educational toys for the kids as well as supermarket vouchers that were won by people who participated in a quiz about Elaine,” Derron told Sportsmax. TV.
The quiz, he said, was particularly enjoyable because so many from the community were able to correctly answer the questions about Elaine. In some instances, they were awarding prizes to as many as three people for each question.
In short, the people of Banana Ground loved it.
“I think it was a good idea and she did a very good thing, giving back to the community,” said a female resident of Banana Ground. “I know the community appreciated what she has done and I hope she keeps up the good work and I wish her all the best. I wish her long life and prosperity.”
Packages were also distributed to members of the nearby Bellefield community, who were grateful for the largesse.
Mitchell said he delivered care packages earlier but didn’t have enough “so her effort helped out a lot,” he said.
Derron said they were planning another similar event for Lakes Pen in Spanish Town, St Catherine but was unable to say when and where that would take place.
The Roger Harper-led West Indies selection panel has been relieved of its duties.
West Indies Women head coach Courtney Walsh believes his most difficult task preparing for next year's ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, will be keeping his players focused and ready for the task at hand following the cancellation of the World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe.
The players returned home to their respective islands last weekend.
“That’s going to be a big challenge,” Walsh told the Antigua Observer.
“We had a break and didn’t get to play as much cricket as we wanted to play for them to get that exposure, so I don’t want to use the words ‘starting over again’, but it is going to be something similar where we are going to have to restart or reset and see how best we can get things going to have everybody clicking again.”
Following the cancellation of the qualifiers that were to be held between November 21 and December 5, the West Indies Women were forced to spend 11 days in quarantine in Oman.
West Indies Women had won their first match against Ireland Women by six wickets.
The 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup gets underway on March 4, 2022, with West Indies Women facing hosts New Zealand at the Bay Oval in Tauranga.
Pakistan achieved their highest ever successful run chase in T20 Internationals on Friday to complete a 3-0 series sweep of the West Indies in Karachi.
The home side made 208-3 from 18.5 overs to win by seven wickets.
The Pakistan opening pair of Mohammad Rizwan and Captain Babar Azam were comfortable throughout the first powerplay, taking 60 from the six overs with Rizwan on 32 and Babar on 27.
The pair raced to 98-0 after 10 overs with Rizwan bringing up a half century, his second of the series, on the last ball of the 10th over, and Babar on 46.
A boundary off the first ball of the 11th over bowled by Oshane Thomas made Mohammad Rizwan the first batsman ever to score 2000 T20 runs in a calendar year.
Babar achieved his 50 off 40 balls in the 12th over.
Rizwan and Babar brought up their 150-run partnership in the 15th over, which ended with Pakistan 158-0, still needing a further 50 from 30 balls to secure the sweep.
Babar was finally dismissed for 79 on the first ball of the 16th over bowled by Odean Smith.
Rizwan’s brilliant innings of 87 from 45 balls was finally ended in the 18th over when he was caught off the bowling of Dominic Drakes leaving Pakistan on 184-2 needing 24 off 16 balls to win.
Fakhar Zaman was the next Pakistan batsman to go, caught in the 19th over off the bowling Romario Shepherd for 12 to leave them 195-3.
Pakistan got to their target off 18.5 overs thanks to a late cameo of 21 from seven balls from Asif Ali.
Earlier, The West Indies won the toss and elected to bat, posting an excellent 207-3 thanks to 64 from captain Nicholas Pooran.
He was well supported by Shamarh Brooks who got 49 and Brandon King who scored 43.
Shahnawaz Dahani was Pakistan's best bowler on the day with 1-23 from his four overs.
Mohammad Rizwan was named Man of the Match and, after his brilliant 203 runs in three matches, was also named Man of the Series.
The West Indies have set Pakistan a target of 208 to win the third and final T20 in Karachi thanks to 64 from Captain Nicholas Pooran, his highest T20 International score.
Darren Bravo and Gudakesh Motie replaced Shai Hope and Akeal Hosein in the team for this game as Hope and Hosein were among the five additional members of the touring party to test positive for COVID-19 during PCR tests administered by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday.
With Hope missing, Shamarh Brooks joined regular opener, Brandon King, at the top of the innings. Together they brought up 50 in the fifth over with King going well on 37 and Brooks on 11.
King was dismissed on the last ball of the powerplay by Mohammed Wasim Jr for a well-played 43 to leave the team 66-1 after six overs.
Pooran came to the crease to join Brooks who was on 21.
Brooks narrowly missed out on a maiden T20 International 50 when he was dismissed for 49 by Shahnawaz Dahani in the 10th over to leave the West Indies 99-2.
After 15 overs the West indies were 153-2 with Pooran on 37 and Bravo on 16. Pooran brought up his fourth T20 International 50 in the 17th over off 31 balls.
He was eventually dismissed by Wasim Jr for 64 from 37 balls to leave his team 192-3 in the 18th over.
The 200 came up in the 19th over with Bravo on 30 and Rovman Powell on four.
The West Indies eventually ended their turn at the crease on 207-3 with Darren Bravo finishing not out on 34 from 27 balls and Rovman Powell not out on six.
Pacer Shahnawaz Dahani was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with 1-23 from his four overs.
The ODI series between Pakistan and the West Indies have been postponed due to an outbreak of the Covid-19 virus among the visiting delegation. Five additional members of the touring party tested positive for the virus after PCR tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday.
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