Costa Rica’s Randall Leal, right, takes a free kick as Dominican Republic’s Fabian Messina (6) and Edison Azcona
try to block during a Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying championship soccer match in Guadalajara, Mexico,
Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Associated Press/Fernando Llano
By Azad Ali
West Indies has slumped to tenth
spot in the latest International Cricket
Council’s Twenty 20 rankings, just six
months before the team defend its title
at the T20 World Cup in India.
Following the annual update last
week, which saw results from 2017-
2018 eliminated, the West Indies team
found itself on 222 rating points but
still within striking distance of the
three teams immediately ahead of
them.
Bangladesh is ninth on 225 points,
Caribbean L 34 ife, MAY 14-20, 2021
Sri Lanka on eighth with 227 points
while Afghanistan is seventh with 236.
West Indies experienced an inconsistent
run of form in the shortest
format in recent years, with only four
series wins in the last 12 while losing
14 of their last 23 games inside the last
two and a half years.
The team won the last T20 World
Cup staged in India five years ago
and is preparing for their title defense
under white ball captain, Kieron Pollard,
recently named Wisden, Leading
T20 Cricketer in the World.
man Shai Hope has kept his white
ball contract, along with his captain,
Kieron Pollard, who also leads the
West indies Twenty20 side.
Roston Chase, recently promoted as
Test team vice-captain for last year’s
tour of New Zealand was among West
Indian cricketers, including Holder
and Pollard, who declined to tour
Bangladesh earlier in this year due to
Covid concerns.
All-rounder Chase and Brooks,
have now lost favor with the West
Indies selectors and did not play in
the home series against Sri Lanka.
Exciting batsman Shimron Hetmyer
was also blanked from a contract.
By Azad Ali
The St. Kitts and Nevis government
believes the hosting of the
Caribbean Premier League will help
stimulate the tourism sector that has
been dealt a severe blow by the ongoing
Covid-19 pandemic.
Minister of Sports, Jonel Powell
said he expected the popular Twenty20
tournament, scheduled to bowl
off on Aug. 28, to have a positive
impact especially on hotels and restaurants
with a boost also anticipated
for the services sector.
This.he said, would translate into
increased employment at a difficult
time when there was little economic
activity due to the pandemic.
“We were able to manage the
Covid-19 situation very well here,
and bearing in mind the substantial
economic benefits that would flow
from being able to host the entire
CPL, here in St. Kitts and Nevis, particularly
at a time when things are
very slow because of the pandemic,”
he said.
“To be able to have the entire
CPL cohort here for some six weeks,
we are looking at the hotel rooms,
the added staff that would need to
be hired in order to take care of
the capacity, the spillover effect in
terms of restaurants and entertainment,
catering, transportation — all
of these things are opportunities for
ordinary people here in St. Kitts and
Nevis to get jobs at a difficult time,”
the sports minister said.
In 2019 St. Kitts benefited to the
tune of US$22.3 million in terms of
“total economic impact,” with 5,964
rooms filled during the five-match
leg of the tournament.
Last year, Trinidad and Tobago
hosted the entire tournament as
organizers were forced to resort to
one territory due to the Covid-19 pandemic
in the Caribbean.
ing Championship with the Dominican
Republic in what was the country’s first
ever appearance in the tournament.
Despite his young age, CONCACAF
said Azcona was one of the top performers
in the tournament for the Caribbean
side.
CONCACAF said the forward started
all three matches for the islanders, playing
in every single minute and scoring
the Dominican Republic’s first ever goal
in a CMOQ, “when he slotted home a
penalty kick against host nation Mexico
with the calm and poise of a veteran
player.”
In looking back on last March’s CMOQ,
CONCACAF said “Azcona relished the
opportunity to play for his country on
such a large stage and believes the time
in Guadalajara, Mexico was the perfect
place-setting for his 2021 MLS season.”
Not only was Azcona a member of the
Dominican Republic’s history-making
CMOQ squad, but his play had previously
garnered the attention of Senior National
Team Head Coach Jacques Passy, who
handed Azcona his debut in a January
friendly versus Puerto Rico, followed by a
second appearance six days later against
Serbia, according to CONCACAF.
“I feel like he is one of the upcoming
players in CONCACAF for the next 15
years, and I am very happy that I gave
him his debut in the Dominican Republic
National Team,” Passy told CONCACAF.
“When you talk about Edison Azcona in
two or three years, he will be one of the
players in CONCACAF who everyone uses
as a reference of a top player.”
CONCACAF said the experienced
Mexican manager has seen his share
of young players throughout the CONCACAF
region and highlighted the work
ethic possessed by Azcona in all phases
of the game.
“I have not coached someone who is
perhaps so complete at this very early
age,” Passy said. “He’s not only a phenomenal
player and has this fantastic
potential, and is a natural talent, but also
someone who is a workhorse. He works
like crazy.
“He is a guy who wakes up every
morning and wants to become better,”
Passy added. “He wants to be a better
player, a more complete player. Having
the capacity that he has in attacking and
his movement, it is amazing to see how
good he is at defending as well. He is a
very good teammate and his potential
is endless.”
Continued from Page 33
Continued from Page 33
AZCONA IS A RISING STAR IN DR
Players axed
West Indies drops in Twenty20 rankings
CPL boost to
St. Kitts
West Indies’ Kieron Pollard bats as
his teammate Dwayne Bravo looks
on. Associated Press / Andres Leighton, fi le