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ICC champions trophy – West Indies Much has already been said about the current impasse between WICB and WIPA and its effect on the selection for the current squad. To effectively explain all the details and possible ramifications of this matter would take several articles. As such, this article will concern itself with the current West Indies team for the ICC Champions Trophy and what may be expected from the team by the basis of their performances in the warm –up matches. The West Indies began their preparation for the Champions Trophy with two matches against South African first-class teams. The first of these was against Cape Cobras on September 13 th in which the West Indies lost a close high-scoring match. The West Indian batting line-up posted 327/7 with fifties from Devon Smith, Kieran Powell and Chadwick Walton. Darren Sammy also provided late impetus by scoring 31 from just 14 balls. The West Indian bowling also started strongly with Kemar Roach claiming two wicket...

Sri Lanka goes in to the semi-final of the T20 World Cup to face the West Indies tomorrow at the Oval. This is fitting for a Sri Lankan team who has consistently played to their full potential and as such has been rewarded for their excellence. As they did in 1996 with 50 over cricket, Sri Lanka are redefining the established theory of the shortest form of the game. They ignore the conventional selection policy of filling the side with powerful hitters at the expense of more conventional batsmen, choosing to have faith in their established players. This logic has paid dividends as the batsmen have shown a remarkable capacity for originality which was thoroughly unexpected given their reputation for convention. From Tilakaratne Dilshan’s scoop over the keeper to Mahela Jayawardene’s reverse sweep using the back of the bat, the only limit to their strokemaking seems to be their own imagination. With the South Africans again failing to negotiate the semi-final of another major compe...

It would be no exaggeration to say that the West Indies, by reaching the semi- finals of the T20 World Cup, exceeded the expectations the majority of their supporters had at the beginning of the tournament. While they lacked the impetus to get them into the final, their unpredictability surprised teams who were expected to dispose of them easily and they showed from their first match that they were a team with enough ability to beat anyone. This unpredictability defined the entire tournament and no team had a more up and down tournament than the eventual champions Pakistan. While it can be said that it was a good tournament for the West Indies it would be irresponsible to ignore the factors that caused the moments of poor play while magnifying the moments of brilliance. The matches won by the West Indies were all due to the performance of one or two individual players, showing a dependence on someone taking matters into their own hands rather than a collective effort. In T20 it is ...