The Jamaica Scorpions have endured a tough start to their 2022 West Indies Championship campaign, losing their first two games to the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force and the Barbados Pride, respectively.

The Jamaican outfit lost a low-scoring affair to the Red Force in Trinidad before falling short in a run-fest against the Pride at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

In the latter, the Scorpions found themselves 299-3 batting first at the end of day one, only to be bowled out early on day 2 for 328. After toiling hard in the field, thanks to a brilliant 276 from Barbados captain Kraigg Brathwaite, the Scorpions were staring at a first-innings deficit of 193 runs after Barbados declared their first innings on 521-8.

At one point in their second innings, Jamaica was 131-2 on day four and the game was seemingly heading towards a draw before, you guessed it, another collapse ensued.

They lost their final eight wickets for 102 runs, leaving the Pride with only 40 runs to get for an outright win, which they did by 10 wickets.

The question has to be asked: What is causing these batting collapses?

“Soft dismissals after a significant partnership or after individual players would have had starts,” was the response offered by Jamaica Scorpions head coach Andre Coley told Sportsmax.tv.

“The thinking has to be that we are never in as a batting unit, which means we need to be ready for the period-by-period battles while being sensitive to and aware of key periods in the game in which there could be a momentum shift. Bottom line is we need hunger for centuries and big runs, while having the patience to execute our plans,” he added.

Under normal circumstances, the regional four-day competition would see each team playing 10 matches but in this Covid-19 shortened season, each team will only play five matches, with that in mind, how many chances will players get?

“Usually, you would want to give players an opportunity or a run. A shorter tournament can mean less room for error or comeback. There can be no excuses in all areas if we are to move up the table. Performances that help the team either win or draw are important,” Coley said.

When asked about challenges faced in the first two rounds of the championship, Coley had this to say.

“Our most significant challenge at the end of round 2 would’ve been around our inability to bat a specific number of sessions based on the team plans. We have identified the areas of focus for the next six weeks. Our inability to take 20 wickets in either of the matches was also an area of concern, injury played a role here, and despite consistent early strikes, we were unable to get past resolute middle order defenses. Our ground fielding was excellent, and our catching was above average compared to the previous season,” he said.

Spartak Moscow, the Russian Premier League club of Reggae Boy forward, Shamar Nicholson, will not be allowed to host its last 16 tie of the Europa League.

The ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which has sparked global condemnation, prompted the European football governing body to reschedule all the club’s matches for neutral venues, following an emergency meeting on Friday.  The ruling applies to all Russian and Ukrainian teams in European competitions.

Spartak Moscow has been drawn to face RB Leipzig in the round of 16, with the tie commencing at the Red Bull Arena in Germany, on March 10.  The return leg will take place the following week, but the venue is yet to be announced.

"The UEFA Executive Committee also decided that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams competing in UEFA competitions will be required to play their home matches at neutral venues until further notice,” a release issued from the sport’s governing body explained.

Nicholson joined the Moscow club from Belgian Pro League side RSC Charleroi, where he scored 13 goals and five assists in 18 matches last year.

Leeward Island Hurricanes batsman Devon Thomas has earmarked the upcoming West Indies President’s XI match as another opportunity to showcase his ability with improved consistency.

The 32-year-old top-order batsman has been one of the outstanding players in the West Indies Championship so far.  After two rounds, the player’s 242 runs scored at an average of 80.66 puts him second behind West Indies red ball captain Kraigg Brathwaite, who has scored 341 so far.

The Leeward Hurricanes have won one match and lost one match so far, his highest score of 112 critical in a fightback against Barbados.  Despite his exploits, he was not named to the West Indies squad to face England in the first Test but did find his name among those taking part in a 12-man President’s XI squad.

“I’m just looking at it as getting the opportunity to play some cricket, so I give thanks for that. I was motivated since last year during the 2020/21 season and I just (took) it over into 2022 and try to do a lot better and be a bit more consistent. I am trying to stay in the moment and trying to be more consistent,” Thomas told the Antigua Observer.

“I had a goal before the match where I was looking for 150 runs, but I got a bit close to that. It could have been more, but I was pleased at the end of the day. I think we had good performances in both games but we were short of a player in the first game when Jerimiah Louis came down with a sickness and we played with 10 men throughout the whole game.”

The CWI President’s XI squad will play England in a four-day warm-up match at the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) starting March 1.

Jhaniele Fowler scored 37 goals as the West Coast Fever defeated GIANTS 47-41 in the Suncorp Team Girls Cup at the Parkville Stadium in Melbourne on Friday.

West Indies pace bowler Shannon Gabriel remains very much a part of the plans of the new Desmond Haynes-led selection panel despite not being selected in the squad for the first Test against England.

The 33-year-old pace bowler, who has been playing for Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the West Indies Championship, was not named among the 15-man squad for the first Test or Presidents XI.  His omission is, however, due to sustaining a hamstring injury.

“Shannon was injured in the game that he played in Trinidad.  We were told by the medical panel that he is having a bit of a problem with his hamstring and would not be fit for selection,” Haynes told members of the media on Wednesday.

“Shannon did very well against England the last tour here.  He’s probably our fastest bowler and we are hoping to get him fit so that he can be on the park."

Overall Gabriel has taken 37 wickets against England in 11 matches and took 5 for 25 and overall figures of 9 for 137 when he face England in 2020.  The English went on to win the series 2-1.  Concerns have been raised over the player’s workload in recent times after the fast bowler has found himself sidelined by a few injuries.

An unspecified number of fully vaccinated supporters will be allowed to enter the Boy’s and Girl’s Championships this year, meet organisers the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA) have confirmed.

In addition, the organization is also expected to add a number of school sports back to its yearly calendar after an extended absence for some due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

“Over the next two weeks, competitions will begin for U-19 Girls Netball, U-19 Boys Basketball, U-19 Cricket as well as U-16 Boys Football,” a release from ISSA said.

The release went on to add that other sports will be added to the calendar later in the year.

“Competitions in Volleyball, Table Tennis, Hockey, and Girls Football will also be staged later during the Easter Term and are to be completed by April 30, 2022,” it added.

In addition to spectators, ISSA also requires that all athletes taking part in its competitions this season be fully vaccinated.

On August 1, 2021, Britany Anderson lined up in lane seven of the final of the Tokyo Olympics 100m hurdles. Having run 12.40, a personal best and the second-fastest time going into the final, only Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who set an Olympic record of 12.26 in her semi-final, was faster.

Expectations of a medal were high for the 20-year-old Jamaican but it was not to be. She hit the sixth hurdle, managed to clear the seventh but then stumbled, lost her momentum and with it any chance of a place on the podium and making history as the first woman from the Caribbean to win an Olympic medal in the event.

That honour went to her compatriot, Megan Tapper, who finished third behind world record holder Kendra Harrison of the United States, who won silver and Camacho-Quinn, who created history of her own becoming the first Puerto Rican woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

During a recent sit-down with Sportsmax.TV where she talks about her improvement this season, how her training group and her faith in God, have helped her successfully transition to senior competition, Anderson revealed that running her personal best in the semi-final impacted her in a way that she did not expect.

“My emotions were all over the place. I was crying. I was excited, I was overwhelmed,” she said about what caused her to lose her focus after running her lifetime best in the semi-final.

“In the final, I don’t know what…it was like, something went wrong, not just with the hurdles, but because I was so overwhelmed and it was my first senior games, everything was just all over the place.”

Nevertheless, she said she was not disappointed at the eventual outcome saying that she felt like she had won just to make the finals at the Olympic Games.

It is with that mindset that Anderson has approached the start of the new season wherein the span of three weeks she ran three-lifetime bests in the indoors 60m hurdles. Starting at the Millrose Games on January 29, Anderson, who turned 21 in January, ran a lifetime best of 7.91 to defeat a field that included Kendra Harrison.

Just about a week later, she lowered that time to 7.88 while finishing second to Danielle Williams, who ran a then-personal best 7.83 at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York.

Six days later, at the American Track League Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, Anderson would go even faster clocking 7.82, the fourth-fastest time in the world. Only Williams (7.75), Harrison (7.81) and Alia Armstrong of the USA (7.81) have been faster.

According to the former Vere and Camperdown athlete, her success this season comes down to the change in mindset bolstered by improving confidence.

“I feel like it was just the mindset that changed from last season to this season. Last season was just something to show me what I could do this season and I bring all of that to this season, worked on what I had to work on in practice and just bring it out there on the track,” she said.

It wasn’t that long ago that Anderson set the World U20 record in the 100m hurdles, 12.71, in July 2019 in Finland. She is the World U18 champion and the silver medallist at the World U20 Championships in Finland in 2018.

Since that time, her transition to the senior ranks has been relatively painless as evidenced by her qualifying for her first Olympic final eight months after she turned 20.

She credits her training partners at Tumbleweed, the training group she joined in 2019, for helping her make the transition to the senior ranks.

“Most parts of it was the people I had around me, like my training partners, they helped me throughout everything, off the track and on the track so the transition from a junior to a senior wasn’t really hard,” she said, adding that having fellow Jamaicans Christopher Taylor, Christania Williams and fellow hurdler Omar McLeod, played their part in helping her make a smooth transition.

Transitioning to the senior ranks comes with its own challenges because before she can conquer the world, she has to first overcome perhaps the deepest pool of talent currently at Jamaica's disposal with the likes of Danielle Williams, Tapper, Ackera Nugent, perhaps Janeek Brown and Yanique Thompson among others. Asked about where she sees herself among Jamaica's world-class hurdlers, Anderson confidently indicated that she knows what she is capable of.

"I know what I can do. I know what I am going to do. At the trials, I know what I am going there for, so I will just let all of that play out in God's way," she said.

As for this year, Anderson is focused on the World Championships in Oregon in July but as it relates to World Indoors next month and the Commonwealth Games, no decision has yet been made. Her agent Mario Bassani said those decisions will be made at a later date and will be as a result of discussions with her coach Rana Reider, whom she describes as a really great coach.

“The lesson I take from him is I can do whatever I can put my mind to,” she said.

So far, that advice seems to be working well for Britany Anderson.

 As Bassani tells it, whichever championships she decides to compete at this year, she will be ready.

Jamaica’s Olympic gold medallist Briana Williams will be made available to represent Jamaica at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade from March 18-20.

Out-of-favour West Indies opening batsman Kieran Powell has admitted it was a disappointment to not at least be considered for the CWI President’s XI squad ahead of the upcoming four-match Test series against England.

The 31-year-old left-hander missed out on a chance under the new selection panel, after being skipped over in favour of Jamaica batsman John Campbell.  Powell, who last played for the West Indies last August against Pakistan, has scored 144 runs in two matches for the Leeward Islands in the West Indies Championship, the seventh-best so far.

Campbell has in the meantime scored 213.  With performances, the batsman believes there could also have been some consideration for Leewards no. 3 Devon Thomas who has scored 242, the second most behind West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite, who has 341.

“I definitely thought that if I didn’t make the Test squad I would make the President’s XI based on the performances, but I saw Devon Thomas batting the way that nobody else in the Caribbean batted in those two games and if the team is going to be selected on performances, the way that he has played is second to none so you would like to think that he would have gotten into this squad,” Powell told the Mason and Guest radio show.

Despite not making the squad, however, Powell was pleased with his start to the season and expressed disappointment at the competition going on a break during the England tour.

“I’m pretty happy with where I was able to get to.  I’m very disappointed the season was halted after two matches because you would have seen cricket not being played for two years and guys were so excited to get back out there and the level of cricket the Leewards played in those games, we had some tough decisions against Barbados and a few things could have gone our way.”

The Hero Caribbean Premier League has delivered outstanding exposure and generated a significant economic impact to the 2021 host countries, St Kitts & Nevis. The tournament took place in the Federation of St Kitts between 26 August and 15 September with all 33 matches being held at Warner Park, Basseterre.

The total value delivered to St Kitts & Nevis from the 2021 Hero CPL was US$88,698,200.

This figure comes from organizer spend, visitor spend and sponsorship value. The report detailing all the deliverables was compiled by an independent and world-leading research company, YouGov Sport.

The total economic impact value for St Kitts & Nevis was US$8,990,210, with the direct spend being US$3,329,707. This figure takes into account the total spent by Hero CPL to put on the 2021 event as well as the money spent with local business by those who travelled into St Kitts & Nevis for the tournament, either independently or as part of CPL’s franchise teams.

The total spent to organize the Hero CPL in St Kitts & Nevis during the tournament was US$2,250,725 with local suppliers and businesses being the beneficiaries. In addition to the organizer spend, St Kitts & Nevis also benefitted from franchise owners and fans from across the region and the world coming to watch the games – an extra USD$1,078,982 of direct spend being attributed to this group.

St Kitts and Nevis also enjoyed huge exposure from the global broadcast of the tournament, a sponsorship value of US$79,707,790 being generated – the most any host country has ever received. A combination of innovative and engaging advertising throughout the Hero CPL broadcast, including branding and tourism vignettes, ensured St Kitts & Nevis was given the opportunity to promote itself to a vast global audience.

The total viewership figure for Hero CPL 2021 was 517.4million, with the tournament passing half a billion viewers for the second successive year. This massive TV and digital viewership helping to drive the fantastic sponsorship valuation.

“We are hugely grateful to everyone in St Kitts & Nevis who made the 2021 tournament possible, especially the Government who backed CPL to deliver another World Class event,” said Pete Russell, CPL Hero CEO.

“Special thanks to the Minister for Education, Youth Empowerment, Culture and Sport, the Hon. Jonel Powell and his team who left no stone unturned in ensuring we had a safe and successful tournament. We are delighted that St Kitts & Nevis were rewarded with these fantastic numbers and of course a winner’s trophy.”

The minister, meanwhile, was delighted at the news.

“I am very pleased with the data, in particular, the direct spend into our economy and the local employment at what has been a very difficult time financially. The exposure that our Federation has received to over 500 million viewers is of tremendous value, it is our hope that the world now knows St. Kitts and Nevis as not just a fantastic destination for R and R but also a great destination for sports tourism. We truly value our partnership with the CPL and look forward to developing new opportunities that we can share together,” he said.

Former West Indies batsman, Carlisle Best, insists he does not understand the reluctance by Cricket West Indies (CWI) to part ways with team captain Kieron Pollard and coach Phil Simmons given the team’s recent poor run of performances.

Simmons, who was appointed a coach of the team in 2019, and Pollard, who was appointed West Indies white-ball captain that same year, have come under immense pressure in recent months, following a string of bad results and poor performances.

An aging Windies squad put in a poorly, lackluster showing at last year’s T20 World Cup, where they exited meekly, and followed that up with a historical One Day International series loss to Ireland and 3-0 T20 series sweep at the hands of Pakistan.

The team rallied to beat England 3-2 in a T20 series against England last month but were defeated 6-0 overall, 3-0 (ODI), 3-0 (T20I), in their most recent tour of India.  In particular,  the batting form of the team has been lambasted with many believing there to be an overall lack of concentration or engagement.  Best believes given the results the leaders of the squad have to be judged on what they have accomplished to date.

“What kind of leader is not going to be accountable for the results that occur under his stewardship,” Best told the Mason and Guest radio show. 

“If we are going forward, we have to focus primarily on performances and those performances have to be result oriented…Do we want a winning team and can we find that winning formula, certainly we do not have that formula now with either captain Pollard or coach Simmons. It’s as simple as that,” he added.

“The writing was on the wall a long time ago when he made the comment publicly that IPL and Trinidad came before West Indies cricket that is well documented and yet he finds himself as a Putin of West Indies cricket.”