The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) over the course of seven years has cemented its place in my heart as one of my favourite competitions.
This year, there almost was none, but the administrators of the CPL adapted, showing a willingness to innovate and Trinidad and Tobago, maybe not for the best reasons, stepped in to help fill the breach.
With travel restrictions the order of the day, with COVID-19 cases worldwide rising to more than 21 million cases, with more than 760,000 deaths, the CPL could easily not have happened.
Players in the Caribbean who ply their trade in T20 leagues all over the world have been, in a word, stuck.
This is why it is incredulous to me, how one of these players managed to miss his flight.
Fabian Allen would have missed tournaments after the shutdown of sport and should have been anxious to get back onto the field.
Mixing up the time of the only flight that would allow him to take part in the tournament seems careless on somebody’s part.
Then there was also an announcement that Ramnaresh Sarwan would not be taking up coaching duties with the Jamaica Tallawahs this season.
That announcement was in addition to an upheaval in the Tallawahs that began with Chris Gayle’s distasteful movement to the St Lucia Zouks and Andre Russell’s declaration that this would be his last season with the Tallawahs.
Eventually Gayle would pull out of the tournament altogether, leaving a star-shaped gap in the competition.
Spare a thought for the Zouks though, who, while having good players in their roster, seem to be lacking some star power.
Then there was more controversy once the teams got to Trinidad and Tobago.
Apparently, the local T&T players were not subject to the same protocols as visitors and those visitors got pissed.
Daren Sammy, skipper of the Zouks, was most vocal about this, saying no team should have had the advantage of being allowed to train early because they were not yet in the isolation of the bubble at the Hilton Hotel.
In addition, Sammy and others felt the longer the locals were allowed to stay outside of the bubble, the greater the chances of their entry being unsafe for those already in the bio-secure environment.
Chief of CPL operations Michael Hall sought to reassure the other teams, however, that all precautions were taken to make sure the entrance of the T&T players into the bubble was safe.
So, with just about four days to go before the start of the tournament, things don’t look great.
And the CPL, while producing great cricket, has been a big seller because it showcases the self-proclaimed greatest party in sport.
But can the tournament stand just on the performances of the players?
Can the worldwide acclaim it has garnered still be guaranteed without the fans?
Can the pitches in the twin-island republic where the entire tournament is to be played, stand up to the rigours of as many games as will be played on them?
Whatever the case, just as the West Indies were the first team to stand up for cricket during these uncertain times, the CPL has stood up for the franchise format the world over.
If the CPL can manage to answer these questions in a positive way, then cricket might just come out on the other side of COVID-19 smelling like roses.
Paul-Andre is the Managing Editor at SportsMax.tv. He comes to the role with almost 20 years of experience as journalist. That experience includes all facets of media. He began as a sports Journalist in 2001, quickly moving into radio, where he was an editor before becoming a news editor and then an entertainment editor with one of the biggest media houses in the Caribbean.
Ambris hunting for 100s, hoping to secure permanent spot in Windies squad
West Indies vice-captain for the One Day International (ODI) team Sunil Ambris is hoping to stake his claim for a regular place in the first-team squad, by scoring at least one 100 in the upcoming tour of Bangladesh.
The 27-year-old Ambris was among several players unexpectedly named to the West Indies squad for the tour after 12 first-team players made themselves unavailable for the tour. Prior to that Ambris had last played for the team in February of last year, on the team’s tour of Sri Lanka. On that occasion, the player averaged 26 in three matches. He was not selected to the team for either of the team’s previous tours to England or New Zealand.
Ambris, in addition to providing support for less experienced players on the tour, hopes to push himself back in the conversation for regular selection.
“This is the first tour that I’m actually confident that I will be starting. So, I would like to use this tour to cement myself in the starting 11 for other tours,” Ambris told members of the media via an online press conference on Friday.
“I’d love to get at least one hundred out of these three games, I think that would do me a lot of good,” he added.
Call from legendary Lara helped Fletcher turn around bad run of batting form
Windies batsman, Andre Fletcher, has pointed to a call from legendary batsman Brian Lara as pivotal in helping to turn around his form in this season’s Big Bash League (BBL).
On Thursday, Fletcher smashed a brutal 89 for just 49 balls to underpin the Melbourne Stars massive 111 run win over Adelaide Strikers. The knock was timely for Fletcher as he had not passed 18 in his first nine BBL encounters.
The 33-year-old had previously also performed below expectations in a low-scoring Caribbean Premier League (CPL), where he scored 211 from 12 games despite his team St Lucia Zouks making it to the final. As it turns out, it was a call from the legendary West Indian batsman, who is on commentary duty at the BBL, which proved critical in helping Fletcher turn around that recent run of bad form.
"He called me, and I was surprised, to be honest," Fletcher said following his explosive performance.
"He was telling me that, looking from the outside, I've been striking the ball cleanly and he just told me to give myself that opportunity. Giving myself that chance and playing each ball on its merits,” he added.
"I'm an aggressive player so there's no need to go out there and look to [over] power the ball. To be honest, that's what I did today.
"I've met him before. He's a great guy. I told him over the phone, after what he told me I was like, 'So Brian, now I understand the reason you were so great'.
"He told me, feel free to call him any time I wish to, he's there, he's open for anything and willing to give me advice."
'WI selectors should not be fixated on conditions'- claims former fast bowler Gray
Former West Indies fast bowler, Tony Gray, believes it is a mistake for selectors to get caught up with selecting teams based on conditions.
Recently, Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief of selectors Roger Harper set off a firestorm with an explanation that promising fast bowler Chemar Holder had been left out of the Test squad for the Bangladesh tour, in order to include an extra spinner to exploit conditions.
For some, the decision was all the more vexing considering the absence of Jason Holder, who was typically part and parcel of a four-prong pace bowling attack, and Chemar Holder’s promising debut in New Zealand where he took two wickets in trying circumstances.
For his part, in addition to pointing out that Bangladesh were exceptional at handling spin, Gray pointed to the fact that a multitude of pace bowlers had done well on Asian pitches for several decades.
“I think that they (selectors) are fixated on the conditions, you cannot be fixated on the conditions,” Gray told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“I played my first Test series in Pakistan and I got 14 wickets in three games. You want the mindset to be there. If you are telling a young fast bowler, for example, who can bowl some 90 miles an hour deliveries, that you are not going to perform well because of bowling conditions that are not really suited to your pace and your style of bowling, then you are doing the wrong thing,” he added.
“So, I think they have been fixated on conditions and there are other things to take note of for example the strengths of the opposition, the Bangladeshis are very adept at playing spin bowling.”
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