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“CT-20 2013 provides a great start of West Indies cricket excitement for 2013!”
Colin E. H. Croft
As tremendously exhilarating, sporting 2012 eased into ever hopeful 2013, West Indies cricket is perfectly placed to continue its re-emergence as the standard by which the rest of the cricket world, especially in limited overs cricket, could; should; be measured. Caribbean T-20 2013 is the right start!
Darren Sammy
While most of our present cricketers have made good names and sometimes large fortunes playing individually around the world, we are more especially proud that ICC’s World T-20 2012 trophy would be showcased, courtesy of Darren Sammy, Ottis Gibson and the rest of team who did so well in Sri Lanka.
What a fillip and boon, in every way, that has been for West Indies cricket!
West Indies T-20 2013 is almost certainly the last such competition in our region, since, already, there is that franchise situation fully scheduled to make its entry into our cricket next year. This likely last regional T-20 competition should be fully savored!
My most difficult cricket encounters ever, in many ways, was when I appeared for Guyana in regional competitions; not only for simple bragging rights either. After national experiences, playing internationally for West Indies, in concert with some great players, was a relative breeze!
Then, as now, each player was, and is, representing the very nucleus; their homelands; of their very advent and existence as professional sportsmen. That absolute beginning, back to the bare fundamentals and bases, always did; always will; bring out the raw animalistic attitudes in all of us!
We also all know that nothing evokes more insularity in each of us than our own cricket, regardless of what everyone suggests, pretends and portrays. No-where in the world can such abuse be heaped on any representative cricketer than when he is playing for our own regional Caribbean teams!
I still remember Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, great friends and colleagues when playing for West Indies, squaring up with very bad, massive pugilistic intent, in Stanford’s very first 20-20, fore-runner of Caribbean T-20 2013. None of the players thought of West Indies then, with only “yard” on their minds!
Forget friendships when you play for your country; pride, determination and bravado bring out attitudes, energies and behavior many did not even know existed or were capable of!
West Indies cricket is always exciting, full of energy and colour, and, as have been hailed everywhere, it is very pleasant to see West Indies back on top again, with our all-encompassing, ever-present swagger!
Our players still smile, quite worryingly, really, when we lose internationally. Someone has to explain to me what exactly there is to smile about when you lose! Maybe that is the new dispensation! But that is exactly why our cricket is so varied, storied and fun. No one knows what will happen next, not even players themselves, even as prepared and, in some cases, as business-like as they are. What is noticeable is that our players seem more responsive and rounded than in the recent past.
The pure, unadulterated enjoyment, the celebration of Sammy, taking a catch for Windward Islands or West Indies, is shared by team-mates, and each of the Caribbean’s over seven millions inhabitants. That energy even manages to transcend whatever ills one has at that time!
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
CT-20 2013 starts enough cricket to allow even skeptics to become fans, so much of it to be endured and enjoyed in this strange, somewhat melancholy year. By the end of 2013, West Indies can also add ICC’s 50-over Championship, the last one too, by winning Champions Trophy 2013 in United Kingdom!
So, Trinidad & Tobago, as T-20 2012 champions, have much work to do, even if, on paper, they seem capable of winning again. As “Big’ George Foreman, former world heavy-weight champions suggested: “To become champion, I ran three miles daily. As world champion, I needed to run ten miles per day, at least, to be ready, so that young upstarts who wanted my crown would have to work doubly hard to take it from me. Keeping my championship was much more difficult than getting it in the first place!”
Jamaica, Barbados and former champions, Guyana will, as always, be spoiling for a fight. Especially Chris Gayle’s absence for Jamaica, and Guyana’s inclusion of both Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, both having not featured in this format for some time, could help the latter just have an edge, only just!
Leeward Islands, whose overall cricket has been almost comatose for so long, surely must raise its head, and is due, like Baron Frankenstein’s monster, to make some spectacular comeback!
Windward Islands, whose captain is also West Indies captain, are always energized, and have somewhat erased the “old small island” moniker and taunt from the inhabitants of the other more prosperous and more populous Caribbean countries, with the advent of Sammy to our international team’s captaincy.
Combined Campuses and Colleges will not win the competition, but could be spoilers for other, better teams, with the almost ubiquitous upsets and wins against the bigger teams at the wrong time.
It may be too close to call, but CT-20 2013 starts another year of exciting West Indies cricket. Enjoy!
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