West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite believes his new opening partner Tagenarine Chanderpaul is well on the way to becoming a world class player, following an impressive debut last month.
The 26-year-old Chanderpaul, the son of legendary West Indies player Shivnarine Chanderpaul, earned plenty of plaudits after beginning his senior career against top Test team Australia last month.
On debut against the Aussies, Chanderpaul scored 160 runs, which was the second most behind the in-form Brathwaite, and had a top score of 51. In addition to his scoring, however, the player's relative comfort against top-class bowling on a good pitch was also of note.
“I think he’s world class, when you even look at a thing like the ‘leave alone’ that he has,” Brathwaite told member of the media, ahead of the team's tour of Southern Africa.
“...I think he will be a world class Test batsman, obviously he has the patience and you can see he has still the shots also. On some good Australian pitches his strike rate was higher than normal, so I really think he has a bright future,” he added.
“He is a very focussed player and very determined, so for sure he will make many West Indian’s proud.”
Brathwaite and Chanderpaul will look to lead from the front, as the team looks to bounce back from a poor showing in Australia last month.
West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite expects major improvements from the team’s batsmen ahead of upcoming series against Zimbabwe and South Africa.
With the exception of productive cameos from Brathwaite and his opening partner Tagenarine Chanderpaul, the team’s last series against Australia proved to be a chastening experience, especially at the crease.
Over the course of two matches and four innings only Brathwaite, Chanderpaul and Roston Chase managed a half century. In addition, the Australians won the first Test by a massive 419 runs, where the Windies were embarrassingly bowled out for 77 in the second innings.
“We didn’t get the big scores, we didn’t get the big first innings scores that I would have liked. Going into Zimbabwe, especially at home, we know it won’t be a rollover,” Brathwaite told members of the media on Thursday.
“I really look forward to the batters spending time to get runs on the board. I think that will be crucial for us setting up the game to win it,” he added.
“We have to show our worth, I think the batters need to come and show more fight because Zimbabwe will not be easy at home. It’s not like we are going to show up and just get runs against Zimbabwe.”
Despite expecting a difficult task, the team can head into the encounter with some confidence having never lost to Zimbabwe in 10 encounters to date.
West Indies batting legend Gordon Greenidge has revealed that he no longer feels the pain of watching the regional team struggle. His secret, turn off the television.
As one half one of a devastating batting duo, the other being Desmond Haynes, for a Windies team that rarely found itself on the losing end, it is completely understandable how the Caribbean team’s recent failures would be a cause of discomfort.
The Windies' struggles now date back decades but recently things have seemed particularly grim. At the last two World Cups, the team failed to progress from the preliminary rounds, while in the Test arena, a recent demolition at the hands of Australia will hardly have inspired feelings of all-conquering nostalgia.
“It used to hurt me but it doesn’t hurt me anymore because I don’t watch cricket anymore. Only if it is Test cricket and only if it is about a young player, who I have heard about, I will try my best to go and watch that kid play and make my own judgment about what I feel about that player," Greenidge told SportStar.
The former batsman’s recent grievances, however, run deeper than just the poor performance of the West Indies team. Greenidge has also expressed concern for the longest format of the sport, where he scored 7558 runs, and its continued relevance and longevity in the face of the blossoming of several T20 leagues around the globe
“On a personal note, I would not like to see 50-over withdrawn and just T20 being played. I believe T20 is a spectator’s sport, and it is no anymore a cricketer’s sport. Yes, cricketers play, but T20, for me, is like fast food. Test cricket is real cricket. From Test cricket, we came to 50-over, then T20, and now we are going to 10-over, where will we go from here maybe one-over or two-over per side? Keep the cricket alive but don’t banish Test cricket, that is the real cricket we all are here for, we all grew up with.”
The Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) Men’s Selection Panel on Tuesday announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming two-match Test Series in Zimbabwe, starting on 4 February. The Selection Panel recalled experienced fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, as well as left-arm spinners Gudakesh Motie and Jomel Warrican.
Gabriel has taken 161 wickets in 56 Tests, placing him joint 12th in the West Indies all-time wicket-takers list and more recently was the joint-leading wicket taker in the CG United Super50 Cup for the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in November last year.
Gabriel’s last Test Match was against Sri Lanka in November 2021. Warrican’s last international appearance was also in Sri Lanka in December 2021 when he played in both matches in the Test Series. Motie made his Test debut for West Indies in Antigua in June 2022 in the first Test of the two-match Series victory against Bangladesh.
Jayden Seales is unavailable for selection following a knee injury and subsequent surgery; while Anderson Phillip is also unavailable due to injury.
Lead Selector, The Most Hon Dr Desmond Haynes said: “This is the start of the international calendar for 2023 and we will hope to start with a win. We appreciate it won’t be as easy assignment as Zimbabwe, like most other teams in world cricket, play very well on their home soil on pitches that will support their style of play.”
Haynes added: “We looked at the conditions we anticipate playing in, and have included two left-arm spinners who didn’t go to Australia in Motie and Warrican. With our fast bowlers, Seales has done extremely well for us since he started back in 2021, but with him unavailable we have decided that Gabriel would be best able to fill that role. He (Gabriel) is an experienced bowler who has been at the international level for over 10 years and has knowledge of the conditions in Zimbabwe when we won there in 2017.”
West Indies will play both Test matches at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, with the first Test running from 4 to 8 February, and the second match from 12 to 16 February. Ahead of the two-Test Series, West Indies will have a three-day warm-up match against a local side set for 28 to 30 January at Bulawayo Athletic Club. All matches start at 10am local time (4am Eastern Caribbean/3am Jamaica).
The last Test Series between Zimbabwe and the West Indies was also played at Queens Sports Club in October 2017. West Indies won the two-match Series 1-0, winning the first contest by 117 runs with the second Test ending in a draw.
FULL SQUAD
Kraigg Brathwaite (captain)
Jermaine Blackwood (vice-captain)
Nkrumah Bonner
Tagnarine Chanderpaul
Roston Chase
Joshua Da Silva
Shannon Gabriel
Jason Holder
Alzarri Joseph
Kyle Mayers
Gudakesh Motie
Raymon Reifer
Kemar Roach
Devon Thomas
Jomel Warrican
MATCH SCHEDULE
28-30 January: three-day warm-up match at Bulawayo Athletic Club
4-8 February: 1st Test at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
12-16 February: 2nd Test at Queens Sports Club
The West Indies Rising Stars opened their ICC Women’s U19 World Cup campaign with a 7-run win over Ireland Women’s U19 at the North-West University Oval.
Zaida James told CWI Media, “It’s certainly a great feeling to have an all-round performance like this and even better that we had a team victory. Our focus is one game at a time and to finish the group stage strong, then we will look at the remaining stages of the tournament.”
The victory sees the West Indies move to the top of the table in Group C, with 2 points and a Net Run Rate of +0.350. They play Indonesia on Tuesday January 17 at North-West University Oval, Potchefstroom – 7:45am Eastern Caribbean/6:45am Jamaica.
West Indies Rising Stars
125/3 (20 overs)
Zaida James 52
Freya Sargent 4-0-9-2
Naijanni Cumberbatch 21
Ireland Women's U19
118/7 (20 overs)
Annabel Squires 42
Zaida James 4-0-20-4
Amy Hunter 21
Interim West Indies coach Andre Coley insists he is eager to embrace the challenge of coaching the regional cricket team, despite the numerous challenges associated with it.
Former all-rounder Phil Simmons became the latest casualty in a long line of coaches tasked with pushing the Caribbean team back among global cricket’s elites and failing to achieve that elusive target.
Coley, who has had stints with the region’s High-Performance Centre, women’s team and also served as an assistant coach for the men’s team, was appointed to fill the role, while Cricket West Indies (CWI) contemplates its next moves.
CWI announced that Coley would oversee the two-Test tour of Zimbabwe from the 28th January to 16th February, as well as the multi-format tour of South Africa, which includes two Tests, three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three T20 Internationals (T20Is) from the 21rd February to 28th March.
Despite finding himself placed under the microscope, in light of some of the team’s recent poor performances, he remains motivated and enthused to take up the role.
“Every coaching opportunity bring a different challenge and I have never been one to back away from a challenge,” Coley told the SportsMax Zone.
“If offered generally I look to take them on. It’s just about assessing working with staff working with the players and coming up with the right strategy,” he added.
The 48-year-old has had a few stints with the senior, first joining the coaching ranks under Otis Gibson and serving spells under Stuart Law and briefly Simmons. In his estimation, communication will be a crucial part of his plans for success.
“In this case communication is going to be very crucial, so working out what that communication strategy is going to be.”
Former West Indies batting coach, Toby Radford, is confident world-class former batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul would make a ‘solid’ pick for the role of Windies head coach.
The addition of the name of the former legendary batsman to the speculative list of potential replacement for Phil Simmons has garnered mixed reactions. In opposition, some have pointed to Chanderpaul’s relative lack of experience, while others believe he would be more suited to a role in administration.
For Radford, who is well acquainted with the former player, there is no doubting the quality he would be able to bring to the role.
“I’m a big fan, I’ve often talked about Shiv and what he brought to the game as a player. He was a very hard worker and meticulous in preparation, a lot of the things I think he would instil as coach for the younger players,” Radford told the Mason and Guest show.
“He has been there and done it. He was number one in the world for a period of time, a top Test player in the world. He has played all round the world. I think he would bring a huge amount to it,” he added.
“He is new to coaching and still finding his feet but he is having relative success and I think he would bring a lot to it,” he added.
Radford, however, believes the former batsman would have to be supported by a very capable team, which is always the case for head coaches as opposed to specialist coaches. Chanderpaul, who retired from the sport six years ago, has already experienced some success as a coach, having led the Jamaica Tallawahs to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title last year.
Former West Indies fast bowler Daren Powell believes serious consideration should be given to attempting to retrieve the team's former coach Richard Pybus for the recently vacated position of head coach.
Pybus was sacked in controversial circumstances four years ago as part of a raft of changes made by the then-incoming Cricket West Indies administration of president Ricky Skerritt and his vice president Kishore Shallow.
The move had proven to be particularly unpopular at the time, given the fact that West Indies, under his leadership had only just put together an impressive performance in a Test series win against England and showed plenty of good qualities in a battling 2-2 tie in the ODI series between the teams.
In addition to that, several stakeholders and even some players advised the administration against making so many changes with the 2019 World Cup less than two months away.
With the post once again vacant following the resignation of Phil Simmons, Powell believes the opportunity could exist to correct what many consider to have been a grave error in judgment.
As to whether the 54-year-old Pybus, who is reportedly shortlisted for the South Africa job, would be interested in returning after a departure in such acrimonious circumstances, or whether the CWI be willing to make such a drastic reversal is another thing entirely.
"Why can't we go back for him (Pybus) he was doing a good job and we have tried another way and it seems as if things didn't go down the right road," Powell told the Mason and Guest radio program.
As a part of their election platform, the Skerritt, Shallow administration had promised to give priority to Caribbean-born individuals for top leadership positions.
"If you look at Pybus and what he did with the West Indies, I would have been willing to cut off my nose to spite my face for him...how do you know why a man becomes a man when he can accept that he was wrong, apologize and move on," Powell added.
Prior to his appointment as coach of the team, Pybus endured somewhat of a rocky tenure, serving as High Performance director in February 2018, having previously served as West Indies director of cricket from 2013 to the end of 2016.
India star batsman Suryakumar Yadav has backed former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard to successfully adapt his leadership skills to the upcoming inaugural International League T20 (ILT20).
The 35-year-old swashbuckling batsman has been named as captain of the MI Emirates, the team owned by the executives of Mumbai Indians, ahead of the start of the competition on January 10.
Pollard, who played for over a decade with Mumbai in the IPL before retiring last year, will bring plenty of experience to the position having, among other things, lifted 5 titles with the IPL franchise.
Having played for many years at Mumbai with Pollard, Yadav is confident that MI Emirates could not be in safer hands.
“I feel as a leader Pollard has been very calm, composed and gives everyone a chance to express themselves on the field whether the team is under the pump or even if we are on top,” Yadav explained.
“We felt very comfortable when he led MI and I am sure he will do the same thing for the MI Emirates,” he added.
In addition to Pollard and Yadav, the team will be boosted by the likes of the West Indian duo of Dwayne Bravo and Nicholas Pooran, who himself stepped down as captain of the West Indies white-ball teams late last year.
Former Test opening batsman Philo Wallace doesn’t believe that Shivnarine Chanderpaul should become the new head coach of the West Indies cricket team.
Speaking on the Mason And Guest cricket radio show on Tuesday night, Wallace said that Chanderpaul was lacking coaching experience at the international level and was not the man for the job.
“Shiv Chanderpaul as head coach would surprise me. If he is appointed, is it based on scoring 11,000 Test runs, his coaching experience at the international level is very limited. We cannot continue to keep following people. We have to set the example. Chanderpaul has been a fantastic player. He has had some success with the Jamaican Tallawahs, is it possible he can transfer that into red ball cricket?”
“Is there a bigger role outside of head coach for Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Can he be our batting consultant? Is he better suited for that role rather than a being head coach. These are things that need to be discussed. Just don’t appoint a man because he has over 11 000 Test runs,” Wallace said.
Wallace, 52, a former Barbados captain, said that selecting a head coach of the West Indies is going to be a major headache.
“We need to get someone to get our young people to understand what Test cricket is all about. Is Chanderpaul capable of doing that?
“I know he has matured now, he is a better person but is he not better suited to be the batting consultant. The head coach of Cricket West Indies is going to be a headache. If you have not appointed one for the new year for the serious tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa, you are staring down the barrel in relation to applications for the head coach job,” he added.
The 48-year-old Chanderpaul is one of the most prolific bastmen in the history of West Indies’ cricket, scoring 11,867 runs with 30 hundreds. He played the last of his 164 matches against England at Kensington Oval in May 2015.
West Indies Test Captain Kraigg Brathwaite and pace bowler Alzarri Joseph were selected to the ICC Test and One-Day International (ODI) teams of the year, respectively, for 2022.
Brathwaite was selected after a prolific season which saw him make 687 runs at an average of 62.4. In seven matches in 2022, Brathwaite scored two hundreds and five fifties including a top-score of 160 against England in Barbados in March.
Joseph was named to the ODI team after taking 27 wickets in 17 matches, the most among fast bowlers, at an average of 25.7 in 2022.
ICC Men’s Test Team of the Year: Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies), Usman Khawaja (Australia), Marnus Labuschangne (Australia), Joe Root (England), Jonny Bairstow (England), Ben Stokes (Captain, England), Rishabh Pant (Wicket-keeper, India), Pat Cummins (Australia), Kagiso Rabada (South Africa), Nathan Lyon (Australia), James Anderson (England).
ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year: Travis Head (Australia), Shubman Gill (India), Babar Azam (Captain, Pakistan), Shreyas Iyer (India), Tom Latham (Wicket-keeper, New Zealand), Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe), Mehidy Hasan Miraz (Bangladesh), Alzarri Joseph (West Indies), Mohammed Siraj (India), Adam Zampa (Australia), Trent Boult (New Zealand).
Cricket West Indies (CWI) today announced the appointment of Roland Butcher, as a Selector to the West Indies Men’s Senior & Youth Panels.
Butcher is a former England batsman who also played for over 15 years in English County Cricket with Middlesex. His appointment was confirmed during a meeting of the CWI Board of Directors on Monday 19 December.
Butcher was delighted to accept the appointment,
“It is a great honour and a privilege, to be given the opportunity to serve West Indies Cricket. I’m eager to get started to work alongside the other members of the selection panels as we look to ensure the growth and improvement in West Indies cricket at all levels.”
The West Indies Men’s Senior Panel is led by the Most Honorable Dr. Desmond Haynes and the Men’s Youth Panel is led by Robert Haynes. The third member of both panels is the respective Head Coach.
Butcher was the first Black cricketer to represent England in Test cricket when he debuted against West Indies in his native Barbados in 1981. He played three Tests and three One-Day Internationals. In his first-class career he played 277 matches and scored over 12,000 runs.
Andre Coley has been named as the Interim Head Coach of the West Indies Men’s team for the upcoming tour of South Africa, Cricket West Indies announced Wednesday.
The West Indies Men’s team will start their 2023 international year with two Test matches against Zimbabwe. The visitors will play both matches at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) confirmed the schedule on Wednesday, with the first Test slated for 4-8 February, and the second Test match for 12-16 February. Ahead of the two-Test rubber West Indies will have a four-day warm-up match against a local side set for 28-31 January at Bulawayo Athletic Club.
All matches start at 10am local time (4am Eastern Caribbean/3am Jamaica).
“The tour to Zimbabwe early in 2023 will be an important part of our 2023 Test programme, which also includes series against South Africa and India," said CWI's Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams. "Having produced some good results early in 2022, the team will be eager to begin the year with strong performances in Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe’s last Test match was way back in July 2021 against Bangladesh in Harare and, according ZC Director of Cricket Hamilton Masakadza, they will be eager to make the most of the upcoming series.
“We are pleased to confirm the West Indies will be visiting us for two Test matches that will be played in Bulawayo,” Masakadza said.
“Although it’s been a while since we last played Test cricket, our boys will be hungry and ready for some red-ball action and I believe an exciting series against one of the game’s top sides is on the cards.”
The last Test Series between Zimbabwe and the West Indies was also played at Queens Sports Club in October 2017. West Indies clinched the two-match series having won the first game by 117 runs while the second match ended in a draw.
MATCH SCHEDULE
28-31 January: four-day warm-up match at Bulawayo Athletic Club
4-8 February: 1st Test at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
12-16 February: 2nd Test at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
Renowned former West Indies wicketkeeper, Deryck Murray, has commended the team’s coach Phil Simmons for stepping down from the post but insists he is far from the only one who should be doing so.
The regional team has endured a particularly wretched run of form across all formats in recent months. A poor showing at the T20 World Cup saw the two-time champions embarrassingly eliminated in the first round of the competition after loses to Scotland and Ireland.
In the aftermath, Simmons, and, then later team captain Nicholas Pooran, resigned their positions. The Test team then traveled to Australia to face the home team in a two-match series where they were badly outplayed. In the second Test, for instance, the team lost by a massive 419 runs after being bowled out for 77.
In light of such performances, Murray believes there needs to be many more changes at the broader management level than just Simmons, if the team is to truly start moving forward.
“I want to commend Phil Simmons he has done the honourable thing.
He was responsible for the team when we did not qualify for the T20 World cup and he did the hourrable thing,” Murray told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“We should not assume for one minute, however, that one man, Philip Simmons, is responsible for the decline, for the losses of West Indies cricket," he added.
“I keep looking to see others follow suite but nothing like that has happened…”
Murray went on to state that he believed the entire government system surrounding the sport in the region needed to change.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
