CRICKET

CARIBBEAN TERRITORIES are banking on Cricket West Indies (CWI) to host the 2021 Women’s T20 Blaze Tournament.

Yesterday, I watched a video of a former politician in Barbados making disparaging remarks about the intelligence of a sportsman who was a West Indies player, West Indies captain and West Indies coach. Although the remarks were disturbing, they were not surprising.

In 1983, I did a fantastic interview with Sir Garfield Sobers in Australia in which I was able to learn about the mental aspects of his game, and the other factors that were responsible for his greatness.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a series of articles about that interview. In response, I received feedback from several readers who doubted the authenticity of comments attributed to Sir Garfield. They said that he was too articulate. It is sad that in 2020, some people in the Caribbean still share the perception that our best sportsmen are uneducated, unintelligent and poor thinkers.

It is particularly ironic that a politician should think that way because in politics anyone can win a seat and become a Member of Parliament. And if his party wins power, he can become a minister in areas of governance in which he has no training, competence, or qualifications. It is not difficult to understand substandard leadership and substandard performance at ministerial levels.

I believe that similar disparaging comments were made by a former president of Cricket West Indies about the capacity of former players to govern; even though Jeffrey Stollmeyer, Alan Rae, and Sir Wesley Hall performed competently as presidents of the West Indies Cricket Board before he came on the scene.

Sport is about action and results and unlike politics, the rhetoric/reality/honesty gap is extremely narrow. Moreover, the sportsman conducts his business in full view of the public. With the advent of high definition TV and videos, every emotion he shows, every action he takes, every mistake he makes and every success he has can be seen, analysed and evaluated by every Tom, Dick and Harry. There is nowhere for him to hide. I can’t think of any other profession that conducts its business in that fashion.

Academic intelligence, sports intelligence and survival intelligence are not the same things. We should remember that God made man before God made books.

The purpose of thinking is to reach a better understanding, decision, or course of action, not to prove that you are smarter than someone else. A sensible politician should be able to appreciate an idea from a sportsman as he might appreciate a beautiful flower, no matter in whose garden it is growing.

We should be more concerned with the type of thinking and intelligence that focus on wisdom rather than cleverness. If you become wise, it is not so difficult to become clever as well. But, if you focus on being clever you might have little chance of ever becoming wise. Someone once said that the true measure of wisdom is the capacity to see and understand things from different perspectives.

The thinking and intelligence needed to pass examinations in schools and universities are different from those required for success in sport and business. The skills of numeracy and literacy are very different from the skills of operacy or doing.

According to Dr. Edward DeBono, education today is essentially about the past, that is, information that is already in existence. It is a matter of learning, sorting, reviewing, combining and describing existing knowledge and information. If students learn how to regurgitate that information to pass their examinations they are considered to be bright and intelligent. But if they fail in that venture they are considered to be slow and dull. But examinations only reflect what you have learnt and have been, not what you can learn and become, Many university graduates wrongly assume that once they have knowledge, action will be easy and automatic.

Rather than awakening the imagination and enhancing the gifts of curiosity, creativity, and innovation in our young people, today’s education system too often inhibits and limits the students. Unfortunately, cricket coaches and administrators are now making the same mistake. Some observers claim that cricket education and development have become too academic That might be one of the reasons why our cricket teams are performing so poorly.

In sport, knowledge and experience are important but successful performance demands much more. It requires creative and innovative thinking about goals, strategies, tactics, priorities, motivation, discipline, consequences, team building, team work, leadership, set backs and failures, physical and psychological battles with opponents and psychological battles with self.

Clive Lloyd, our most successful captain, once said to me: “What people don’t understand is that you don’t have to be bright academically to be a good captain or good player. Captaincy is about vision, good judgement and common sense, and about motivating, managing and leading players. An old friend, Fred Wills, once said to me: ”Don’t worry about this university stuff. If you have a modicum of intelligence you could become a lawyer like me, or whatever you want to be. But I can get all the best coaches in the world to teach me how to play cricket but I will never be able to bat like you or Sir Garfield Sobers.”

Clive added: “To be a good cricketer you must be able to think well, particularly when you are under pressure. You have to out-think, out-plan and out-perform your opponents. Just because someone might use a few ‘green’ verbs or might not be well versed in grammar does not mean he is not a good thinker. My players won two World Cups and should have won a third and they were world champions for about fifteen years. Not many of them went to university or to any great schools. Nevertheless they could think and play like champions and that is what is important in sport.”

Singapore is known all over the world for its high level of education. During the planning cycle, the Ministry of Education asks engineering, business and other leaders to tell them what challenges and demands lay ahead, fifteen to twenty years into the future; and what types of technologies and jobs will be in the greatest demand. The Ministry takes note, restructures its education system, and then tailors its teaching and curricula to meet and fit those new challenges. In that way, the Ministry is always well prepared.

This approach is very similar to that of Sir Garfield Sobers in cricket. He said: “To perform well you must identify the challenges and demands in the situations you are about to face; think calmly and sensibly about them; and then tailor your skills, resources and strategies to meet and capitalize on them.“

Sir Garfield added that situations, challenges and demands are constantly changing and the process of FIT must be carefully monitored and adjusted.

In the Caribbean, giving our sportsmen and sportswomen the respect and appreciation that they deserve is long overdue. It is time for people like that politician to change their perception, not just of our cricketers but also of themselves and in the process acquire a proper insight into reality. Most thinking mistakes are made in the first or perceptual phase of thinking, not in the second or logical and analytical phase. Change beliefs and you will change perception; change perception and you will change thinking; change thinking and you will change emotions and actions. We must remember that arrogance is the greatest sin of thinking. We must also remember that we see things not as they are, but as we are.

Unfortunately, we often judge and try to change others before first judging and changing ourselves.

“Build a better world,” said God. And I answered, “How? The world is such a vast place; and so complicated now; and I am small and useless; there is nothing I can do.” But God in all his wisdom said, “Just build a better you.”

(Rudi V. Webster is a Barbados scholar, medical doctor, former professional cricketer, mental skills coach and Barbados Ambassador)

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A maximum of two Caribbean countries will be able to compete at Birmingham 2022 where women's cricket is set to make its Commonwealth Games debut.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the qualifying process today with hosts England granted an automatic spot.

The six other highest ranked ICC members in the Women's T20I Team Rankings as of April 1 next year will also qualify directly for the eight-team tournament.

Australia are currently top of the rankings with England second.

India are third, New Zealand fourth, South Africa fifth and Pakistan seventh with these countries in pole position to qualify for the Games, due to take place between July 28 and August 8 in 2022.

But, since athletes from the Caribbean will be representing their countries and not the West Indies - as they are affiliated with the ICC and who are sixth in the world rankings - the winner of a designated qualifying tournament will decide which country gets to compete if the West Indies get a slot, as appears likely.

There is a total of 16 Caribbean countries that compete in the Commonwealth Games, so competition is set to be fierce.

The remaining place will be allocated to the winner of a Commonwealth Games Qualifier, the format and details of which will be announced next year.

The deadline for the Qualifier is January 31 in 2022.

Sri Lanka are currently the top-ranked country not in an automatic qualifying position and are followed by Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

"Cricket at the Commonwealth Games is a fantastic opportunity for us to continue to grow the women’s game globally," ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said.

"We are committed to accelerating this growth and maintaining the momentum we have created over the past few years, which most recently saw 86,174 fans packed into the MCG for the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020.

"I thank the Commonwealth Games Federation for their support and for making this possible.

"We share with them the vision of greater equality, fairness and opportunity in sport and I am sure Birmingham 2022 will go a long way towards us achieving our common objectives."

Edgbaston Cricket Ground is due to stage the competition, only the second time cricket has appeared at the Commonwealth Games following the men's tournament at Kuala Lumpur 1998.

"We are absolutely delighted to have women's T20 cricket debut at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games," CGF President Dame Louise Martin said.

"Cricket has always been one of the Commonwealth's most popular sports and it is so special to have it back at our Games for the first time since the men's competition at Kuala Lumpur 1998, where true greats of the game including Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar were on show.

"Now is the turn of the women and I can't wait to see the next generation of stars like [England's] Heather Knight, [India's] Harmanpreet Kaur and [Australia's] Meg Lanning take centre stage.

"Birmingham 2022 will be a fantastic showcase for the women's game and the unveiling of the qualification criteria today is an exciting and important milestone as we head towards what will be a spectacular competition at the iconic Edgbaston Stadium."

Australia, as winners of five of the seven ICC Women's T20 World Cups since it was launched in 2009, will start as favourites for the gold medal.

"The women's game has gone to another level over the past few years and its inclusion at the Commonwealth Games is a huge opportunity to take it further," Lanning, the Australian captain, said.

"The announcement of the schedule and qualifying process is an exciting milestone and one that will no doubt create plenty of excitement among players across the globe."

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WHEN the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) sealed the 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 title on Thursday, cricket coach Aslim Mandol was a proud man as three of his former students at Success Laventille Composite School were part of the winning team.

Kieron Pollard, Akeal Hosein and Khary Pierre were instrumental in leading TKR to the CPL title.

Discussing how it felt to see his past players starring in the CPL, Mandol said, “It make me feel proud of them knowing where they came from – humble beginnings. It is not (just) me, but the entire school look at them as role models.”

Pollard, who captained the TT franchise, won the player of the series award after doing damage with both bat and ball. Pollard scored 207 runs in seven innings at an average of 51.75.

He ended the tournament with an impressive strike rate of 204.95 and had the opposition going into the stands to retrieve the ball often as he slammed 20 sixes. Pollard, 33, hit the most sixes in the tournament along with team-mates Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmons.

Hosein and Pierre, who are both left-arm spinners, are close in age and have been friends since childhood.

Aslim Mandol, left, at a Zaheer Ali Foundation workshop at Success Laventille Composite School in 2018. Standing next to Mandol is Trinbago Knight Riders pair Khary Pierre, second from left, and Akeal Hosein, third from left partly hidden. -
The spinners made significant contributions as they combined to snatch 19 wickets.

Hosein, 27, took ten wickets in seven matches and only conceded 5.55 runs per over.

Pierre, 28, grabbed nine wickets in ten matches at an economy rate of 6.68.

Mandol, who has been teaching at Success Laventille for 23 years, said, “Laventille and Port of Spain East and North could produce good examples. Russell Latapy (former TT footballer) lived not too far from our school…Russell Latapy and these people can produce.”

Mandol, who is the second vice-president of the PowerGen Secondary Schools Cricket League, said they all came from “humble beginnings” and “resources at (Success) Laventille was very scarce.”

He spoke highly of Pollard who always makes time for Pierre and Hosein and always gives brotherly advice.

“Something I must commend Kieron about. Kieron when he left our school he sort of was a baby sitter for the younger ones especially people like Khary and Akeal Hosein…anything those fellas wanted they could have gotten from him. He nurtured them.”

In an interview with Newsday in May, 2018, Pierre said, “A big part (Success Laventille played in my life). The coach here Aslim Mandol was like a father to me when I was here. He had me under his wings, he always told me I will reach far. I was very dedicated, I worked hard and I always had the dream of playing at the highest level which is West Indies cricket,” Pierre said.

At the time of that interview Pierre had not played for West Indies yet, but months later he made his T20 International debut in November, 2018.

In December, 2019 he played his first One Day International.

Pollard, the West Indies 50-over and T20 captain, is one of the most popular and destructive T20 batsmen in the world. He has played over 500 T20 matches and has scored over 10,000 runs. Pollard is also a useful medium pace bowler picking up almost 300 wickets in the format.

Hosein has not played for the West Indies senior team, but represented the West Indies Under-19 team. Hosein, Pollard and Pierre have all represented the TT Red Force.

Mandol said the school has produced several national athletes as he remembered Pilar McShine, a former TT middle distance runner.

The long serving Agriculture teacher thanked Angostura for supporting the school with a number of programmes and also praised former school principal Hamida Baksh for her efforts.

The Zaheer Ali Foundation also held a workshop entitled Motivating Our Youth to Excel in Sport at the school in 2018.

Ali, a former national and West Indies Under-15 cricketer, started the Zaheer Ali Foundation in 2013 with a mission of shaping the future by moulding youth and fostering greater community cohesion.

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Tony Greig is the man who first made me aware of what the word “grovel” meant.

Of course it is now the stuff of cricketing lore that the comment by the England captain ahead of the 1976 home campaign against the West Indies so fired up the Caribbean team, especially the fast bowlers, that they made it...

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THE Prime Minister said the 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League has lifted the morale of TT after the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) won their fourth CPL title.

TKR clinched the title with an eight-wicket win over St Lucia Zouks, at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on Thursday.

In a Facebook video, Dr Rowley said, “My heartiest congratulations to the TKR, amazing champions once again.”

He thanked all those who made the tournament a success, as it was the first time the entire CPL had been held in TT.

“I want to congratulate all the organisers of this tournament both local and international and all our international guests who came as players…TKR congratulations and my very special congratulations goes out to Shah Rukh Khan (TKR owner) wherever you are. We’ve won again.”

Covid19 cases in TT have risen over the past six weeks.

Rowley said the country needed a boost.

“It was a pretty good tournament. It did not have the best of every component, but it had a lot of good cricket and it is a good lifter of our spirits here in TT and our country was on show for the last three and half weeks and I think everything went very well from that standpoint. We are pleased to have hosted the international players and our local players and we did have a very good tournament.”

Rowley also had some words for St Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet. With a smile on his face, Rowley said, “At the end of the day Prime Minister of St Lucia, wherever you are, the Zouks have been defeated by the Trinbago Knight Riders – take that! Congratulations to our Trinbago Knight Riders.”

Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Shamfa Cudjoe was elated and relieved that the CPL was held successfully during the covid19 pandemic.

In an interview with Newsday, Cudjoe said, “I am very happy to see TKR win this tournament once again. I look forward to CPL every single year.

“I am most excited to see and happy to see TT host CPL during this trying time as it relates to covid and all the planning that would have gone into it over the months.”

Shah Rukh Khan tweeted, “Thank you Trinidad and Tobago and the @CPL for the tournament.”

He commended the performance of the players and staff of TKR.

“Ami TKR we rule. Awesome display boys...u make us proud, happy and make us party even without a crowd. Love u team. @TKRiders @54simmo and my fav @DMBravo46 well done @KieronPollard55 and my man @DJBravo47 love you how many now 4!!! @Bazmccullum come to IPL lov u.”

Minister of Finance Colm Imbert also shared his joy on Twitter.

“Trinbago Knight Riders have won the 2020 Caribbean Cricket League. A fantastic performance. 12 straight wins. No losses. A perfect record. All hail Pollard and (Dwayne) Bravo.”

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