“HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016! Expect real sporting fireworks this year!”

Jan 03, 2016 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft

“Happy New Year 2016”, the “Year of the Red Fire Monkey” in the Chinese Zodiac!
Per author and religious minister, late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, whose words should have inspired many a cricketer, 2016 could also be seriously upwardly mobile, but only if you believe:
“Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. No matter how dark things may seem to be, or actually are, raise your sights and see greater possibilities. Always look for them; see them; for they are always there. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. Without reasonable confidence in your own powers and abilities, you cannot be successful or happy!”
Is it not ironic that, amidst revelry starting this searing sporting year, a spectacular conflagration in Dubai occurred at the exact time when excellent fireworks were taking place there? Luckily, no one died, but the “Address Hotel”, like the proverbial Phoenix, will rise again from the ashes!
2016 is already momentous with that authentic “Towering Inferno” which reminds, like the film of that same name, that despite great opulence, anything can still go up, or come down, in flames!
But from scorching embers of sport in 2015, including tremendously incendiary FIFA soccer scandals, with hot halos for its head honchos, sparks will definitely fly for many sporting disciplines in 2016. Like 2012, leap-year 2016 will be filled with sizzling, eye-watering sports!
Commencing the Caribbean’s 2016 cricket season, West Indies Cricket Board’s NAGICO Super-50 50-overs competition starts in Trinidad & Tobago and St. Kitts later this week. Players in every regional team should realize that impressive performances in this tournament can seriously assist ambitions for selection to WI teams for world tournaments in 2016 and beyond.
Defending 2015 champions Trinidad & Tobago will find 2016 much more challenging, being without star players, especially Sunil Narine, whose bowling action has been banned, and always exuberant Dwayne Bravo, both helping T&T beat Guyana in last year’s final. With an ICC Americas team also included this year, to gain experiences, it is any team’s tournament to win!
But good performances in WICB-NAGICO Super-50 2016 will definitely be used when WICB’s selectors name their team to represent the region in ICC’s World T-20 2016 tournament, scheduled for India in March and April, where defending champions Sri Lanka will also be without their exceptional stalwarts Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan.
Later in 2016, when India tour the Caribbean, and for ODI’s already billed for Guyana, St. Kitts and Barbados in June, featuring South Africa, Australia and WI, good performances in this regional ODI series will certainly be taken into full context, probably extending to world 50-overs tournaments like Champions Trophy 2017, and even further, to ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
While international tennis does not always excite West Indians, and international golf has taken a back-seat since T&T’s Stephen Ames’ slide down the ranking list, there will still be interest in these great sports for Caribbean people, while cycling does have many fans in the Caribbean.
“Grand Slam” tennis tournaments; Australian, French, Wimbledon, United States; and “Majors” in the golfing world; Masters, US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship; along with that other prestigious golf competition; Ryder Cup featuring USA v Europe; are events to look forward to. Knowing that many former and present WI players are ardent golfers, these tournaments could inspire for 2016.
As a massive fan of Formula 1 and road cycle racing, having attended F-1 races in Australia and England, and the start of Tour de France 2007 in London, I hope that, in 2016, I could again have those euphoric experiences of seeing cars achieve airplane speeds in Brazil, Mexico, Hungary, Germany or especially Monaco; seeing big boys drive very fast in expensive toys. Who knows, I could even be at the “Grand Depart” of Tour de France 2016 next July at Mont-Saint-Michel.
Why is it that a similar cycling event, encircling our picturesque region – “Tour of the Caribbean” – from Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba and Jamaica in the north, to Guyana in the south, has not yet been explored so that our excellence there can be properly showcased too, as regularly seen in Guyana, T&T and Barbados? 2016 could see that come into the sporting calendar too!
But, speaking of Brazil, the largest country in South America, the biggest and most anticipated sporting event for 2016 must be Rio 2016 Olympics, scheduled for splendiferous, ferocious, dangerous, sprawling Rio de Janeiro, next August.
After incandescent exploits at London 2012, with especially Jamaica and T&T providing great successes in disciplines in track, field and aquatics, and with Brazil’s proximity to the Caribbean, the XXXI Olympiad, probably Jamaica’s Usain Bolt’s swan-song, should be a “must attend” event for Caribbean people. “Lightening” has scorched the world’s tracks for so long, in so many meetings, that to see him leave in deserved exulted glory would be worth the effort to get to Rio.
Yes, 2016 promises to be yet another steaming smorgasbord of sporting activities regionally and world-wide where Caribbean natives could excel. We all wait in feverish anticipation. Enjoy!
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