The distance between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the rest in the ICC’s annual Cricketer of the Year award last week was every bit as absolute as Usain Bolt’s in the 100 metres at Beijing a fortnight earlier.
After the unedifying distractions of who stumped up the cash to spruce up the president’s office and the latest, inevitably costly row over sponsorship, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) shocked us all last week with a lengthy statement that, for a welcome change, dealt with cricket and nothing but cricket.
The 2008 West Indies one-day cricket tournament is unlikely to take place in Florida as originally planned.
Windies cricket too needs a Bolt Ever since the first West Indies team toured England in 1900, cricket has been acknowledged as the one endeavour, above all others, that binds together and inspires the people of these tiny, largely inconsequential former British colonies.
As Dr. Julian Hunte and Dr. Donald Peters were at their kiss-and-makeup lunch in Antigua last week, settling an issue that had absolutely nothing to do with the depressed state of West Indies cricket, 30 players were nearby going through the rigours of training and coaching.
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