WI gets highest
Test ranking AXED
West Indies’ Shimron Hetmyer in action against India at the Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain, June 27,
2019. Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith, fi le
Caribbean Life, MAY 21-27, 2021 33
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By Azad Ali
West Indies men’s chief selector
Roger Harper, has argued that the
number of players losing their central
contracts for the upcoming year
is a reflection of the lack of constituency
in West Indies cricket.
And he believes this has implications
for performance standards at
the international level.
Eleven players, eight of whom featured
in the white-ball format, failed
to hold on to their contracts last
week, with their performances falling
below the required benchmark
during the evaluation period.
Harper said it was critical players
at all levels of the West Indies system
understood the link between their
personal performances and those of
their international squads.
“It is concerning that consistency
seems to be an issue for our players,”
Continued on Page 34
Cricket West Indies CEO, Johnny
Grave. https://twitter.com/johnnygrave
SA tour on
By Azad Ali
The South Africa tour to West Indies
next month is on schedule, according to
Cricket West Indies (CWI) CEO Johnny
Grave.
The South Africa series, inclusive of
two Test matches and five Twenty 20
Internationals, were originally carded
to take place in Trinidad next month
but Grave said that the series will not
take place in Trinidad due to the government’s
Covid-19 quarantine regulations.
In a television newscast last week, it
Continued on Page 34
By Azad Ali
The West Indies side has climbed to
sixth in the International Cricket Council
(ICC) Test team rankings — its highest
ever ranking in almost a decade.
In the latest ICC update last week,
West Indies jumped two places to sixth,
gaining three rating points to move
to 84 points and leapfrog both South
Africa and Sri Lanka.
The results come on the backs of a
2-0 whitewash of Bangladesh in Dhaka
back in March and a drawn two-Test
series against Sri Lanka in the Caribbean
last month.
The often embattled Caribbean side
have languished in the neither regions
of the ICC rankings for over a decade,
with Test series wins hard to come by
in what has underlined as perhaps one
Continued on Page 34
Eleven Windies players lose their contracts
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