Tony Cozier

It is an issue that won’t go away. Nor is it likely to anytime soon.

Clive Lloyd’s brave new world of youth, alternatively the post-Chanderpaul era, is off to a rocky start.

By Tony Cozier   Chief selector Clive Lloyd offered two reasons last Sunday for Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s omission from the West Indies squad for the two forthcoming Tests against Australia, effectively ending the longest career of any West Indian.

WHEN the Frank Worrell Trophy was last contested, in the Caribbean in 2012, Michael Clarke, with praise rare from an Australian captain, credited West Indies with waging a “really hard-fought” series, adding that he hoped they “get a lot of credit for the way they played”.

By Tony Cozier EXCEPT for a couple of clear-cut differences, Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen are two peas from the same cricketing pod.

TO use the contemporary idiom, there will be an elephant in the room when Clive Lloyd and his fellow selectors choose the West Indies team for the first Test against Australia in Dominica June 3-7.

  By Tony Cozier   Given the well-documented background, it is tempting to dismiss West Indies’ triumph in the engrossing, fluctuating, nerve-wracking final Test over England as simply a one off against opponents suddenly overtaken by internal problems that mirror their own.

Steve Waugh has advised England to emulate New Zealand in order to rejuvenate their cricket “on and off the pitch”.

Phil Simmons would have known what to expect when he took over two weeks ago as the latest West Indies head coach.

By Tony Cozier Except for the significant disparity in their ICC rankings, England and the West Indies start the first Test series of the year at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua tomorrow with much in common.

Richie Benaud has been described by Sir Garry Sobers as “a wonderful cricketer and captain”, a “brilliant commentator” and a “good friend”.

 By Tony Cozier   ENGLAND spent their first day in the West Indies on Friday in their luxury accommodation in St.

AN article on the ESPNcricinfo website on Friday by Australian writer Daniel Brettig has triggered a few thoughts in relation to West Indies cricket, especially as it coincides with Phil Simmons’ installation as new head coach.

By Tony Cozier   THE incoming head of English cricket has handed Phil Simmons a welcome key card prior to his first series as West Indies head coach.

IN normal circumstances, Kieran Powell might have been with the West Indies World Cup team in Australia and New Zealand, as he had been on the tour of New Zealand just over a year earlier.

The West Indies’ erratic performances in yet another World Cup, culminating in their overnight elimination in the quarter-final in Wellington, is a certain, unsurprising signal for the urgent need for reconstruction with fresh, young recruits.

HE CONCERN was genuine, widespread and well-founded. Clive Lloyd’s appointment of Jason Holder as new West Indies captain for an initiation in South Africa against South Africa, one of the game’s present powerhouses, followed by the pressure of the World Cup seemed too great a burden to place on the youngest of all West Indies skippers.

By Tony Cozier   Whether the beleaguered, but defiant incumbent Dave Cameron was returned for a second term after yesterday’s presidential West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) election or Joel Garner became the first Test player since Sir Wes Hall in 2003 to head the organization is largely immaterial to the overdue revival of an entity once the pride of its passionate public and envy of the rest of the world.

Dennis Waight is a name repeatedly cited by the players as critical to the development of the great West Indies team of the 1980s as they themselves.

By Tony Cozier   OF all the numbers stacked against the name E.deC.Weekes