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bloodline@ttol.co.tt
Rising
to the occasion
DAVE
Mohammed is the best spin bowler in the West Indies; Daren
Ganga is the best cricket captain; David Williams is the
best coach, and Omar Khan is the best team manager.
Already proven these past three years, these facts were
underscored on Sunday night when team T&T obliterated
a strong (on paper) Jamaica in the final of the Stanford
20/20 cricket tournament, played at the Sticky Wicket grounds,
in Coolidge, Antigua.
As that old adage goes, “there are none so blind as
those who refuse to see;” so led by the visually impaired,
West Indies cricket continues to wallow in a quagmire of
insularity, mediocrity, island politics and favouritism,
with laid-back T&T being the patsy in the continuing
farce.
With no transparency behind decisions and selections made
by the West Indies Cricket Board and selectors, speculation
will continue within the Caribbean community, and indeed
beyond its borders, every time a team is selected.
For instance, the people of the Caribbean, especially Trinis,
deserve some kind of explanation from board and selectors
alike why Dave Mohammed is consistently ignored for selection
to the WI team. This young man has consistently been the
most successful bowler in the West Indies, in any format
of the game, repeatedly dominating and mesmerising the best
batsmen of this region.
Not only the most articulate and personable of the regional
captains, Daren Ganga is also the game’s best thinker
and tactician in this neck of the woods; in his recent outing
outwitting and out-strategising the preferred regional captain
and vice-captain.
Diminutive WI wicketkeeper Dave Williams is undoubtedly
a motivator of men, and role model for neophytes in the
game. Again I submit that the inate apathy and insular nature
of our island people continue to prevent him from occupying
the seat of regional coach, our lads apparently willing
to respond more favourably to a foreign massa.
Over half century ago, a visionless Jamaican leadership
mashed up the Federation, an unfortunate myopic referendum
that continues to plague this region and any hope of forging
a unitary state of the West Indies.
Given all which has transpired in regional cricket through
the ages, especially where T&T is concerned—from
the late Andy Ganteaume to Brian Lara—maybe it’s
time T&T considers withdrawing from West Indies cricket,
and apply to the ICC to be a Test-playing nation.
Anya
Ayoung-Chee, Miss T&T Universe 2008, plays mas in Island
People Mas’ Animal Instincts.
Photo courtesy
Wyatt Gallery
CARNIVAL
2009 takes place on February 23-24 but for the mas and music
addicts out there, there are a lot of events taking place
globally ‘til then. Below are some of the red-circle
dates that T&T mas and music will hold prominence.
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March 1 — Machel Montano HD in Miami at Jackie
Gleason Theater
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March 8-10 — St. Vincent Rhythm and Blues Festival
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March 22 — Fire Fete Toronto
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March 28 — Machel Montano HD at Madison Square Garden
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March 28-30 — Jamaica Carnival
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April 25-28 — Tobago Jazz Festival
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May 4-13 — St Lucia Jazz
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May 25 — Orlando Carnival
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May 31 — Best of the Best (Miami), Cancun Jump Off
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June — DC Carnival, Washington
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July — Houston Carifest, Texas
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August — Cropover, Barbados; Caribana, Toronto
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October — Miami/Broward Carnival
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