The end of Windies cricket ??

[Joe]

This topic is an insult to the greatest team to have ever played the game.
We must acknowlege the brilliance that was and shall be again.
The other day India beat Australia,that proves that anything is possible.
The comments of this furry creature have shattered me.
I am gonna get electric fences that go six feet into the ground and I am gonna cook me some fur balls.
Please show some respect to the Windies.

[commonwombat]

Joe,

I do respect the Windies. In fact I will always barrack for them when they play the Aussies. It is good to see some talent coming thru and can only hope they do justice to it and can STAY generally competitive.

I am only airing some hard cold old facts about the health of the game back there. If things aint right there, then yr hopes aren't good long term.

BTW, don't underestimate the ingenuity of a wombat as he may evade yr electric fence. Also we wombats taste bloody awful and are as tough as old boots so have fun chowing down to yr furball stew. You might have digested it by start of next season.

Bye now!!

[Donny]

I have a question for Joe and Clokey.

Why does Charlie Lara score heavily against the teams with good attacks - Australia and Sri Lanka - and no-one else ??

Oops, I forgot England. He once hit a high score against them didn't he ?

[couragous cloke]

Check your stats Mr MAGFAN8, he scores evenly around the board, and wombat, Can u back up some of your comments with some facts, i mean, u told Joe to stop thinking about the past, when your looking into the past as u type!

[HAL]

Checking. . . stand by.

[couragous cloke]

Geez that was a long read Wombat,

First of all i'd like to say that i thought that i didnt seem to get agressive at any stage... secondly u seem like an extreamly intellegent person and ive no doubtably underestimated your Knowledge for the Game i love so dearly...

But... i think you've cut my team short, very short and i also think u underestimate the Power of success.

U state many problems with the west indies in your Reply, Many Problems that have already been sorted out, and many problems that are sorted out with a little thing called "success"

[commonwombat]

MR Courageous Cloke,

What do you define as the past?? Last week, last month, last year??
How I choose to make a proper analysis of a player is over some period of time ie a few years rather than look at their figures over only one or two series. Quite obviously, you disagree.

With regards to facts, please specify what you wish to have backed up. Come on now, speak up!!! You are obviously a great authority on this game and I obviously have have no credentials whatsoever with regards to the game of cricket.

I have tried to keep this civil and tried to reach some common ground but if you wish to play hard ball fine. State clearly exactly which matters you wish me to elaborate or back up. Over to you.

[couragous cloke]

did somone turn up the heat in here

[Donny]

Well, Clokey, I got HAL to check the stats.

He scores evenly around the board, eh ?

Against Australia he scores just under his overall average with 51.45

New Zealand: 51.16

Sri Lanka: 86.53 and England: 65.26

Then what do have we here ? India: 37.66

Sth. Africa: 35.95 and Pakistan: 30.30

Ooops, what was I saying ?

[commonwombat]

ok C.C I'm very happy to clear the air and I do certainly hope we can have intelligent discussion on this and other matters. I got terse because you did come over rather negatively and apologise for my part. We both may have jumped to inaccurate conclusions.

Let's clarify one point. I currently do not live in Sth Africa and let me tell you, there's probs big time with talent depth, politics and admin down there and it could be an interesting series. Your boys rate some chance but both sides are lacking in bowling stakes.

I did play most of my cricket there for 2 provinces, nowadays I umpire 1st grade in Sydney. Enough of that crap.

Let's agree, there is currently the best group of young batting talent WI have had since the end of their glory days. Agree, that they are far more competitive now than for several years before. I certainly hope that as many as possible translate their promise into consistent long intl careers.

The fact that Lara is back playing great cricket can only be good for the game, it's a shame that so much of this great batsman's career was unproductive for whatever reasons.

That's where we seem to differ, you are placing emphasis on recent shorter term whereas I'm looking over a longer period. Can you understand my reasoning???

With regards to WI cricket admin and my economics, I regret that I will stand my ground. Firstly in my old finance industry job, I read Intl Monetary Fund reports on some of the countries. Secondly, re admin and the like, cricinfo and especially caribbeancricket.com have some interesting reports.

I far from disrespect WI cricket. I have watched them from before they hit the top, their glory days and the bad years. I have even played against the 83-84 rebel side and believe that a healthy WI is vital for the health of the game worldwide.

Sadly, I am not overly confident of the game's long term health in the Caribbean. Don't mind you disagreeing with me, but please I can back up my case on that score.

Looking forward to future peaceful discussions. Wombat

[couragous cloke]

[Donny]

Red Stripe Bowl Mediocrity

Sunday, October 19 @ 13:13:47 EDT

by IMRAN KHAN (Stabroek News)

Rahul Bhattacharya, the Wisden Cricinfo writer suggested in a recent article that "the pillars upon which a (cricket) venue must be built upon are: spectator comfort, player facilities, a well-maintained ground, and sufficient provisions for the media."

Taking this reasonable position into consideration against what transpired during the Red Stripe Bowl Zone A in Jamaica, it is no wonder that the entire region is shifting uneasily when thoughts of us successfully hosting the 2007 World Cup are entertained.

I covered all the matches in Zone A for the Stabroek News newspaper and the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) and the treatment meted out to the media, spectators and sometimes officials was poorer than I have experienced anywhere for this level of cricket.

For the opening match at the Sir Frank Worrell Oval at the University of the West Indies ground, it was intended for the media to be accommodated under a tent to the north eastern section of the ground. In this day and age when cricket writers type their stories as the game progresses on laptops, the organisers did not see it fit to provide any electricity outlets which is mandatory at any level of games these days.

Had it not been for the television crew allowing the media to use their electricity, work would have been difficult, if possible.

There was no proper monitoring of the tent as all manner of individuals invaded the area and left the journalists without seats or space to work. What was most ludicrous was the fact that no table was provided for the media.

Electricity and tables and sometimes even chairs were a huge problem for the media, particularly the print media.

Kensington Park in Kingston was a tragedy. Not only was the outfield not cut, but the grass was so high that the Jamaican batsmen virtually refused to hit fours early in the innings as it was an unwise option with the ball holding up long before it got anywhere close to the boundary.

In Jamaica’s innings, 16 sixes were hit compared to 12 fours. It is the only game in the competition in which more sixes were hit in an innings than fours. So un- acceptably lush was the grass that the outfield had blossoming flowers growing thickly on it. I kid you not. Garfield Meyers, the sports editor of the Jamaica Observer, wrote in his column ‘Watching Cricket’, that “the grass has been so high at most grounds that some of us have wondered whether those responsible got cricket confused with football.”

At the UWI ground, the umpires did not have all the necessary equipment needed to calculate the Duckworth/ Lewis formula. I had to do this for them on my laptop as was the case at some other venues.

It is unbelievable that the Jamaica Cricket Association did not put the necessary measures in place to ensure that the umpires be able to calculate the Duckworth/Lewis system by computer at the highest level of domestic cricket in the West Indies.

Apart from the Alpart ground where a computer was provided, the umpires begged and depended on media personnel to use their computers to calculate the formula. Is this the slapdash level of organisation that we expect to host World Cup 2007?

Meyers went on further in his column, “We have had situations over the past couple of weeks where hosts simply do not know how to accommodate the working media; where security has been poor with spectators infringing on the space of players, officials and media; where sanitary conveniences have been so few and inadequate, spectators have had to line up to use them.”

Apart from the Jamalco ground where organisers had the media, officials and spectators adequately accommodated, the venue organisation and management for Zone A in Jamaica was poor. It is unbelievable, that to this day, the West Indies Cricket Board, nor the regional boards have not yet drafted a proper Venue Management Manual. Such a manual should spell out in detail what the organisers at each venue should cater for and in what manner. It should have step-by-step instructions as to how to accommodate players, spectators and the media. This is necessary since, even though some venues have been hosting first class matches for decades, they still have little clue as to how to go about doing so in a decent manner.

With a manual to work from, organisers will not be left to prepare for matches in any manner that they feel is proper or improper. At the moment, too many of them treat these important matches like curry goat cricket and organise them just the same.

[couragous cloke]

couldnt help yourself could u donny! Success will cure everything...