WI cricket politics - I believe this is mostly about T&T

[Islandman]

being unhappy that their regional T20 dominance has been torpedoed by this effort to have a successful and sustainable professional Caribbean league. Quite frankly I could easily see Jamaicans having the same "dem a fight gainst we" attitude had we been the dominant regional T20 team.

However would it maybe have been a better idea to name the professional franchises after cities instead of countries ? Kingston Tallawahs and Port of Spain Red Steel? The attempts at an ultimately unsuccessful club football league a few decades ago took this route (Kingston Lions, etc). Maybe the feeling was that there would be more affinity for the national names. Who knows.

I have really enjoyed the CPL so far and the inclusion of international players has been a great bonus. Hope we don't find way to screw up what appears to be a mostly good thing for WI cricket.

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Who gets to represent a Nation?

Can a franchise that includes players from several countries use a country's name in its title?
Tony Cozier
July 20, 2014

The CEO of the Caribbean Premier League and the new director of cricket of the West Indies Cricket Board came face to face last week with the complex peculiarities of West Indies cricket.

Damien O'Donohue of the CPL is Irish, Richard Pybus of the WICB is English. Both are relative newcomers to the factors that unite and divide these former British colonies. West Indies cricket encompasses ten of those colonies, all jealously guarding their independence and their own self-interest.

O'Donohue and Pybus have separate roles. O'Donohue's bosses, the Irish mobile phone company, Digicel, own the CPL. Operating under a 20-year license from the WICB, they are spending millions aiming to create a T20 tournament to compare, indeed outdo, those that continue to spring up across the cricketing globe.

Full Story: http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine...ry/761997.html

[Peter R]

Since that article was written, the TT PM has overturned Anil Roberts' petulance and re-instated the T&T name to the team, and he himself has had to resign as sports minister because of corruption in his ministry.

The WICB will still have its regional national T20 competition as far as I understand as this CPL is a pro league created along the lines of all the other (successful) leagues that have sprung up.

Personally, I don't have a problem with a team having the country name as I fully understand that at the end of the day, it's just a professional team that happens to carry a country name, and made up with a minimum number of players from that country.

What the ex-minister failed to recognise is that this league has bee BENEFICIAL to TT players, as they have had the best success at this format with a bag of players to choose from... now, many of them have a chance to shine and do not have to be scrambling to make the TT eleven. Imagine three out of six franchises are skippered by a trini! The ex-minister shouda move an tek weh himself wid him xenophobic self. Tenk de lord seh him did haffi resign!... and guess what, if "Red Steel" did win, you wouda see how quick dem wouda jump fi attach T&T to de name!

BTW, I think the winner of this tournament as opposed to the winner of the WICB competition will be the one representing this region at the Champions League tournament.

Anyway, it's all moot now as they are back to T&T Red Steel.

[Islandman]

Glad to hear that PeterR. I was also happy to see Bravo call it nonsense and take the stance that he did.

I think the CPL has to be seen as beneficial if you have an interest in the future of WI cricket. It opens up another opportunity for cricketers to not only make some money but also to play against T20 top players from other nations. Isn't it nice to have international players playing for our local teams for a change, instead of our top players always playing elsewhere for other teams?

The crowd at Sabina over the weekend looked really big and everybody I know who went said the atmosphere was excellent. Long live the CPL. Good going Tallawahs!

[Gamma]

"play against and with" ... getting to play alongside or to be in training with some of the expereicned international stars is a good idea and exposes youngsters to the standards of successful international teams of which windies currently cannot be considered to be one..

[Islandman]

Very good point.

[Sir X]

I think it saved W.I cricket, money pumped in the local cricket economy and we see our stars at home on show an inspiration to the youth and region...nuff yute await fi buss.

[Islandman]

Also good to see Sabina Park finally getting lights. That is a necessity for any cricket ground in the T20 era.

Now if only we can get some lights down at the Trelawny stadium

Jamaica, the island of unrealised opportunity.

[Gamma]

but yuh bright not a stadium bulb!

look how long sabina tek fi get light and trelawney stadium ongle buil' wha day yah?!!

fresh!

[Sir X]

If this takes off like how i think it will,lights soon come.

[Willi]

So true.

Jamaica knows how to build, but we hve a poor maintenance record.

[Sir X]

EDITORIAL - Rescuing Test Cricket
Published: Tuesday | August 5, 2014 0 Comments
We empathise with our Tony Becca who, in his column on Sunday, lamented the continuing diminution of Test cricket and that little effort is being made to revive this longer format of the game, whose retreat has paralleled the advance of the shorter versions of the sport.

What, however, Mr Becca does not make clear is whether the innovations he hopes for will be part of matches that continue to be played over five days, in which event its resuscitation, especially in the Caribbean, could prove extremely difficult.

The publication of Mr Becca's article coincided with the third of three matches at Kingston's Sabina Park - a legendary venue for Test match cricket - for the Jamaica Tallawahs franchise in the Caribbean Premier League's Twenty20 competition. The games had large crowds and were a great spectacle, as people have come to expect of a format of the game which, for cricket, is played at a frenetic pace.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...cleisure1.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CaC1HlNHns

[Islandman]

So much would need to happen to make Test cricket consistently viable but I believe that the traditionalists will rather see it die than make the changes required.

Gayle was criticised some some years ago when he said that he wouldn't miss Test cricket if it died but I suspect that many of the current players feel that way.

[Sir X]

Players and fans.