chanderpaul

Chris Gayle, Indian cricket team and Anirudha Srikkanth

Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle, Chris Gayle, Chris Gayle.

It’s all about the West Indian opening bat.

Will he ever play for the Windies again?

The solution to this riddle may lie with Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The heads of government opted to resurrect the prime ministerial sub-committee on cricket to resolve the dispute.

For uninterested outsiders, it becomes harder and harder to sympathise with the Jamaican player. Not because the decision taken by the West Indian Cricket Board is fair, but because it seems he’s crying himself hoarse despite being richer to the tune of $265,000 plus his RCB fee of $400,000. Being a free agent has its perks when you’re Chris Gayle.

Dr. Ernest Hilaire and Dinanath Ramnarine are the other high-profile faces of the warring sides in this drama. The man in the centre of the storm is Ottis Gibson, the West Indian coach.

Gibson is a former player from Barbados who played a couple of Tests snaring three big wickets in Alec Stewart, Darren Gough and Jacques Kallis. Gayle appears to have more than a few issues with the current coach, a common thread repeated by Shivnarine Chanderpaul among others. A resolution to the crisis can only happen if Gibson is shown the door. Every predicament has a scapegoat.

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Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Protector of the “endangered” (Satire)

RANCHI—

In breaking news, it is learnt that India’s cricket captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was approached—jointly—by the West Indian Players Association (WIPA) and the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) to become the brand ambassador of Caribbean cricket.

The  bodies-at-loggerheads—through Dhoni—seek to drive home the message that West Indian cricket is under threat of slow extinction and needs revival to  promote continuation of a joyous, carefree brand of island cricket.

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Cricket: Musings on WI-Pak,SL Premier League and IPL rumbles

Another batch of random thoughts, in no particular order (are random thoughts ever sequenced?):

West Indies beat Pakistan in the first Test match. The most laughable captain in world cricket, Darren Sammy, comes up trumps claiming a fifer as the Caribbean side wins an encounter between unpredictable “a-bit-more-than-minnows”.

Devendra Bishoo and Saeed Ajmal impress. Ajmal gets eleven but ends up on the losing side.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul lets his bat do the talking. Walking the talk? Certainly.

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Weekend Cricket Diary:Shivnarine Chanderpaul , English triumvirate and Gayle storms

Image via Wikipedia

6th May 2011

Shivnarine Chanderpaul straight-batted the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) once more with his straight talk.

Speaking to Line and Length, a local radio station, the seasoned campaigner slammed the West Indian management as ‘interfering’.

“I think, given the opportunity, I might have got bigger scores. Every time I settled in and started to get runs, messages would come telling what to do and what not to do, how to bat and how not to bat.” said the Guyanese.

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Weekend Cricket Diary: Chanderpaul,Pataudi and the IPL

29th April, 2011:

WICB chief Ernest Hilaire’s comments about the West Indian team hit a raw nerve—Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s.

When he termed the West Indian cricketers of the past 15 years as lacking application and discipline, he overlooked the chip on Chanderpaul’s shoulder.

The Guyanese bat of Indian origin who uncomplainingly carried Windies hopes, oft receiving less than his share of glory—overshadowed first by Brian Lara and later Chris Gayle—, came out strongly in a letter addressed to Hilaire .

Questioning the use of ‘we’ in his interview, the Guyanese asked him, “Are you speaking for yourself, albeit as CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board or are you speaking for and on behalf of the West Indies Cricket Board itself?”

Chanderpaul threatened to take whatever action necessary to safeguard his reputation.

The boot is truly on the other foot.

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