West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran insists the team will relish the challenge against India and is determined to be more successful as the tour shifts to the T20 format.

The regional team is coming off a difficult run of matches in the ODI format where it lost its last nine in a row.  Recent history suggests the Windies will, however, be far more competitive in the T20 format.  The team is in fact coming off a 3-0 sweep of Bangladesh in 20 overs, before experiencing a reversal of fortunes in the ODIs.

The team has also typically competed well against India in the format, but it is the Indians who have ended up with the lion's share of the victories in recent years.  Pooran is hoping that particular statistic will be changed. 

“The guys are always up for the challenge against India, they want to show the world what they are made of as well,” Pooran told members of the media on Thursday.

“For some reason, we just turn up and perform well, unfortunately, we haven’t been getting the series wins and that is something that we need to happen.  We don’t want to perform as players and the team is still losing.  So, the only thing on our mind is to find a way to be successful.”

The West Indies and India will square off for five matches beginning on Friday.

West Indies coach Phil Simmons has backed the One Day International (ODI) team to eventually pull things together after a number of discouraging recent results.

The ODI format has been the team’s least productive over the last few years, having won just 9 of 51 series played in the last 10 years, which amounts to a 17 percent win rate.  In the last three consecutive series, the regional team has failed to win a game after being swept aside 3-0 by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.

In three of the last four matches against Bangladesh and then India, however, the team at least managed to put in strong batting performances despite losing the match.

“The first two games we batted the 50 overs and looked like we understood what batting 50 overs was about.  I think that’s a step forward and we will just have to keep trying to move forward with that,” Simmons told members of the media on Wednesday.

“The bowlers have been doing it in a few games and not the batsmen.  Now it’s turned around.  So, we’ve got to get everything together.  The one plus is that the fielding keeps getting better and better, so we have to put everything together,” he added.

“Everything takes time, the guys have been playing together more and more and we are having a squad play together more and more.  That’s what happened with the Test team, the guys played together for a while and now we are seeing the fruits of that.  Let’s see what happens with the ODI team.”

West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King each fell short of a half-century as the team failed to halt the momentum of India who completed a 3-0 ODI sweep over the West Indies on Wednesday.

In the rain-affected fixture, India triumphed by a massive 119-runs via the Duckworth Lewis method, after Shubman Gill’s 98 anchored the team’s first innings effort of 225 for 3, in a reduced 36 overs.

In pursuit, the West Indies never really got things out of first gear.  As early as the second over, Mohammed Siraj dealt the men in maroon an early blow, after getting rid of Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks in the same over, which left the team struggling at 0 for 2.

King and Shai Hope put on a 47-run stand to give the team a fighting chance.  Yuzvendra Chahal struck to end the partnership, however, after Hope was stumped for 22. King then partnered with Pooran to keep the recovery going, but that momentum was ended when Axar Patel's arm-ball bowled King for 42, leaving the team at 5-103.

With a climbing run rate the struggles of Keacy Carty, who was next at the crease, put pressure on Pooran to keep up with the run rate. Carty was put out of his misery after going down the pitch to Shardul and edging the ball onto the stumps, making a total of 5 from 17 balls.

With the rate needed climbing to 10 an over Pooran was dismissed for 42 when he was caught at mid-on off by Prasidh Krishna.  Chahal ended with the best figures for India after taking 4 for 17.

Jamaica national representative Kemba Nelson has de-activated her Twitter handle after it was flooded with a torrent of negative comments, in the aftermath of the women’s 4x100m relay team’s surprise loss to the United States at the IAA World Championships on Saturday.

Nelson, who finished second at the country’s national trials, ran the lead-off leg for Jamaica and was part of a botched first to second leg exchange with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah.  On Sunday critical messages were posted to the @iamkemba account, which has since become unavailable.

 The athlete had also failed to keep pace with the United States’ Melissa Jefferson, who clocked an 11.35 split on the opening leg, compared to Nelson’s 11.45.  Despite blistering third and final legs from 

100m and 200m world champions Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, the team narrowly failed to claw back the deficit.

The result left several fans upset, with some going on to blame Nelson for the loss and expressing the opinion that they did not believe the athlete should have been selected ahead of, another young sprinter, Briana Williams.  Williams was part of the successful relay team that won gold along with Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce, and Jackson at last year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.  Interestingly, however, Williams's first-leg split in the first round was identical to the time Nelson ran in the final.  Williams was, however, the only Jamaican to win a relay leg.

West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer is expected to return to the regional team in short order, having recently passed a fitness test.

The player has been practicing with the Windies team during its ongoing One Day International series against India, despite not being named as a member of the ODI squad.  The way will now be clear for Hetmyer to return to active duty having passed a fitness test on Tuesday.

The talented batsman's struggle with his fitness has been well documented over the last few years.  Hetmyer missed out on two series against Sri Lanka in the span of a year, and again in January of this year against Ireland and England.  He could now be on course to be selected for the upcoming five-match T20 series, which will get underway on Friday.  West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran is delighted with the player’s impending return to the fold.

“We hope to have him back soon, I think he passed the fitness test this morning, which is wonderful news, so we expect to have him back as soon as possible,” Pooran told members of the media on Tuesday.

Hetmyer has not represented the regional team since November of last year, against Australia.

Pre-race favourties Jamaica finished in second position behind the United States on the back of a few untidy baton exchanges in the Women’s 4x100m relays at the IAAF World Championships on Saturday.

The US quartet of Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini, and Twanisha Terry blasted to the line in 41.14.  With Terry just managing to hold off rapidly closing 200m champion Shericka Jackson.

The Jamaicans had gotten off to a poor start with a botched exchange between first leg runner Kemba Nelson and second leg runner Elaine Thompson-Herah putting the team immediately on the back foot. 100 World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce reduced the deficit on the third leg but could not pull things back.  The team finished with a time of 41.18.

The German quartet of Tatjana Pinto, Alexandra Burghardt, Gina Lückenkemper, and Rebekka Haase claimed third place in a time of 42.03.

In the men’s equivalent, the Jamaicans finished just outside the medal places.  The top spot went to the Canadian team who upset pre-race favourites the United States.  Great Britain finished with the bronze medal.  The Jamaica team consisted of Ackeem Blake, Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville, and Jelani Walker.

Grenadian thrower Anderson Peters put together a series of sensational performances to dominate the Javelin Throw at the IAAF World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday.

  Straight out the gates, the Caribbean athlete served notice of his intention to defend the crown he won in Doha, at the 2019 edition.  Peters went straight to the head of the pack with a massive throw of 90.21.  The athlete went on to register another three 90m throws, including his winning distance of 90.54 in the final round.

The Grenadian was the only athlete on the day attaining the 90m standard.  Second spot went to India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra who registered a mark of 88.13 in the fourth round.  The Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch claimed the bronze medal with his best of 88.09, which he achieved in the third round.

Peters heading into the event as the athlete in form, having registered a world-leading mark of 93.07 in Doha, Qatar in May.

West Indies batsman Brandon King believes there is plenty of encouragement to be drawn from the team’s batting performance despite a 3 runs loss to India in the first One Day International series on Friday.

King made a crucial 54 from 66 balls as the Windies attempted to chase down India’s total of 308.  Despite eventually falling short of the target, the performance was one of the team’s best in several ODIs,  particularly on the back of a poor showing against Bangladesh.

In addition to King, Kyle Mayers added a half-century, while the lower order pair of Akeal Hosein and Romario Shepherd added a valuable 53-run partnership, which got the team close.  King himself formed part of two half-century partnerships, the first with Shamarh Brooks, then Nicholas Pooran.

“We always believe that if we bring a game down to the final five overs we have guys that can chase down a total.  Shepherd and Akeal showed that today (Friday), we were always in the game.  We would have liked some of the early wickets not to fall so we could have some batsmen at the end but that’s part of cricket,” King said.

“It’s just our batting formula and how we want to play cricket.  I think bringing down the game to the last ball, chasing 300 plus, was very good for us, another day we would have gotten over the line.”

The West Indies will attempt to level the series when they play India in the second ODI on Sunday.

Five-time 100m World champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, admits the Jamaica team would benefit greatly from more relay practices but is confident they will have the ability to cause plenty of damage in the final on Saturday.

On Friday, a second-string team that featured a quartet of Briana Williams, Nataliah Whyte and Remona Burchell, and Kemba Nelson, made it to the finals with very little drama, after finishing behind Great Britain with a time of 42.37.

Even so, the Jamaican team’s changeovers were significantly slower than that of the British team who won the event with a time of 41.99.  Great Britain's combined changeover splits were clocked at 6.26, with the second place Jamaicans coming in at 6.77, the second slowest in the field.  The Jamaicans have also had their fair share of mishaps when it comes to getting the stick around in previous games.  Most notably, the team failed to complete the baton changes at the 2008 Olympic Games where they were heavy favourites.

“If I’m being honest, we don’t do a lot of relay practice in Jamaica which I think can be a downfall for us.  I think if we had time to have relay camps we would be better at the 4x100s,” Fraser-Pryce said on Friday.

With that being said, the Jamaicans have a solid record at the World Championships recently and have won the event at 4 of the last 6 editions.  With 100m champion Fraser-Pryce, 200m champion Shericka Jackson and Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah to join the line-up, for the final, the team has plenty of firepower left in reserve.

“We just pray to God when the finals come we will have a blistering run and we will have Shericka (Jackson) with that 21.4, listen it’s over!” the athlete quipped.

The Jamaica men's team, who once dominated with quartets led by the legendary Usain Bolt, also advanced out of the heats but as one of the fastest losers.  Competing in heat 2 the quartet of Ackeem Blake, Kemar Bailey-Cole, Conroy Jones and Jelani Walker finished fourth in 38.33.

A late attacking onslaught from Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein proved to be inadequate as the West Indies came up short by 3 runs, against India, in a thrilling start to the One Day International series.

After a solid top order partnership of 117 from Shamarh Brooks and Kyle Mayers, following the loss of Shai Hope, the Windies found themselves needing 120 off the last 15 overs and with seven batsmen in reserve.

Shardul Thakur, however, checked that momentum after taking two wickets in two overs. The pacer removed both Brooks and Mayers.  Unlike the previous series, however, the Windies managed to keep putting partnerships together.  Brandon King and Nicholas Pooran then kept the score ticking over for the regional team with a 51-run stand.

Pooran was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj in the 36th over, and Yuzvendra Chahal lifted Indian spirits even higher when he removed Rovman Powell. King, Hosein, and Shepherd though, continued to take the fight to the India bowling line-up. King stitched together another fifty-run stand with Akeal Hosein before he was dismissed.

Hosein and Shepherd seemed determined to bring things over the line.  Hosein anchored from one end while Shepherd attacked from the other.  They kept going into the last three overs, hammering Siraj for 11 in the 48th and Prasidh for 12 in the 49th. The equation came down to 15 off Siraj’s last over but the bowler held his nerves, conceding 11 runs off and keeping Shepherd largely silent.  In pursuit of 308 for 6, the West Indies got to 305 for 6.

Bahamian quarter-mile star Shaunae Miller-Uibo added the 400m world title to her impressive collection after dominating the event at the IAAF World Championships on Friday.

The reigning Olympic champion had failed to capture the world title on two prior occasions, at the 2015 and 2019 editions, where she was made to settle for silver. In Eugene, Oregon, the athlete, who claimed she would retire from the event after this season, seized the moment.

Miller-Uibo took charge of the race early on, before pulling well clear of the field down the stretch to stop the clock at a world-leading 49.11.  The event ended with a Caribbean sweep of the medal places as the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino ran 49.60 for second and Barbados’ Sada Williams took a surprise third place in a new national record of 49.75.  Jamaicans Stephenie-Ann McPherson and Candice Mcleod missed out on the podium spots after finishing 5^th and 7^th.       

In the men’s equivalent, Grenadian Kirani James was forced to settle for second spot behind American Michael Norman who took the event in 44.29.  James was second in 44.48 with Matthew Hudson-Smith third in 44.66.

Two other Caribbean athletes in the event Christopher Taylor of Jamaica and Barbados’ Jonathan Jones were 7^th and 8^th respectively.

Newly crowned women’s 200m world champion, Shericka Jackson, insists she was determined to put on a show for the much-anticipated event at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Oregon on Friday.

By any measure, the young Jamaican certainly succeeded in doing so.  En route to the gold medal, Jackson clocked the fastest time recorded for the event in 34 years.  As it stands, only American Florence Griffth-Joyner, whose record still stands at 21.34, has gone faster.

The Jamaican’s time of 21.45 was a new national record and eclipsed the previous mark of 21.53 recorded by her compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah at the Beijing Olympics last year.

“I wanted to come out here and put on a show and I did just that.  The fastest woman alive, a national record, and a personal best, I can’t complain,” Jackson said.

The 28-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise to her lofty position in world sprinting having begun her professional career at the 400m distance in 2015.  The win was the first gold medal for the athlete at any major championship. 

Griffith-Joyner’s world record, however, continues to be elusive but Jackson insists that isn’t a cause for concern at the moment.

“I wasn’t thinking about any time, the world record wasn’t on my mind.  I was just going out there to execute each round as best as possible and when the time comes it comes.”

Five-time 100m World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce considers her longevity in the sport of track and field to be a blessing having seen so many of her contemporaries bow out.

The colourful Jamaica star first burst onto the world stage in 2008, as a 21-year-old, after capturing gold at the Beijing Olympics.  One year later, the athlete proved she would be a force to be reckoned with after repeating the feat at the 2009 Berlin World Championship. 

In a sport that is marked as much for its brevity at the very top level, as much as it is for blazing speed, 13 years later Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was once again crowned world champion in Oregon this week after dashing to gold in a blistering 10.67, her fastest time at a major games, at a jaw-dropping 35-years old.

As a testament to her remarkable longevity, the sprinter has remained the one constant in a changing sea of 100m athletes during the period.  In the previous four World Championships finals, Fraser-Pryce has competed against 23 different athletes, the majority of which have now retired from the sport.  

“Each time I step out on to the track I’m always feeling blessed to be able to do it because I know there are so many people I’ve competed with who have retired or they are injured or whatever it is.  I’m just feeling blessed and am grateful to be able to continue,” Fraser-Pryce said.

In addition to being the oldest sprinter to win the 100m title, she also embarked on the journey of motherhood after taking time away from the sport in 2017 to have her first child, only to return to dominate.

“Age is a part of life, everyone will get to that stage, and taking time out to have a child is just part of the journey.”

West Indies coach Phil Simmons admits he is pleased to welcome Jason Holder back to the fold after the all-rounder was recently rested due to load management considerations.

The 30-year-old former captain has not represented the regional team since March of this year.  Following his return from the India Premier League (IPL), it was announced that the player would be left out of the team, for the upcoming series, considering a recent heavy workload.

As a result, Holder has missed the team’s One Day International tours against The Netherlands, and Pakistan and a recent visit of Bangladesh.  The team easily won the first series but could certainly have used Holder’s experience and explosive all-round play as they struggled to find their footing against both Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The player is once again available ahead of the team’s series against India, which begins on Friday and Simmons admits he is impressed by what he has witnessed in training so far.

“It’s good to have him back,” Simmons told members of the media on Wednesday.

“He looks fresh, he had some time out of the game.  He has been bowling well the last two days and batting well too so it’s good to have him back.”

  The West Indies and India will face off in three ODIs.

West Indies coach Phil Simmons expects a much better showing from the team’s batsmen ahead of the upcoming series against India.

The Windies line-up struggled mightily against Bangladesh, albeit in difficult circumstances for batting in the most recent One Day International series.  In three matches the team, batting first on each occasion, managed just a total of 435.

The team’s captain Nicholas Pooran was the team’s scorer with 91 runs but scored 73 in the final game when the series was already decided.  Shamarh Brooks was the next best and he totalled 42 over the three matches.  Despite facing superior opposition, India, in another series beginning on Friday, Simmons does not expect such a brutal showing with the bat.

“You expect a better batting performance.  You don’t really want to make excuses and in the last game we showed what we should have shown in the first two games, on what were bad cricket wickets on whole but we expect differently,” Simmons told members of the media on Wednesday.

“We’ve had two days of practice, we practiced yesterday and a really good session today, something that we did not get between Dominica and Guyana because of the rain that stopped us from practicing.  From the sessions I have seen so far, the guys seem to be switched on again.”