MADRAS: West Indies captain Brian Lara believes his young team is capable of reaching the levels achieved by the Caribbean side during their glory days in the 1970s and 1980s. “Our players certainly have the talent and are willing to learn fast,” Lara told reporters on yesterday. “But it will still take us a lot of time to get back to the top.”
West Indies, struggling to arrest their slump in recent years, were hammered 3-1 at home by Australia earlier this year, but managed to pull off a remarkable victory by three wickets in the fourth and final Test. Lara’s team made the highest-ever fourth innings winning total — 418 for seven — to avoid an unprecedented home whitewash. West Indies went on to beat Sri Lanka 1-0 at home in a two-Test series last week. “Our confidence is not borne just out of the win against Sri Lanka, but the way we won that final Test against Australia,” Lara said. He added that the fast-maturing West Indies team would be in a good position to consolidate their revival when they tour Zimbabwe and South Africa later this year. “We have the two series coming up and we will have the opportunity to win if we maintain our present form,” he said.
West Indies suffered a 5-0 series whitewash in South Africa four years ago under Lara, who recently said he was keen to wipe out the bitter memory of one of the lowest points of his first stint as captain. West Indies have been boosted in the last two seasons by the consistency of young batsmen such as Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels, along with the longer established Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Lara, Australia Test captain Steve Waugh and Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar are in Madras to promote the MRF National Karting Championship. The inaugural leg will be run today.
DEFENCE FORCE will have the perfect opportunity to claim second spot in the senior division of the T&T Pro League today.
The Army-Coast Guard combination can leapfrog W Connection with victory over South West Institute of Football (SWIF) at the Palo Seco Recreation Ground. And the third-placed Defence Force have 15 points, following a five-match winning streak due to the goalscoring exploits of strikers Russell Pope and Sherman “Ants” Phillip. Connection, second on the table with 17 points, and league leaders CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh will not be in action today as their scheduled matchup at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo has been postponed.
The “Eastern Lions” Joe Public, who have the dubious record of two victories and six drawn results so far, will host the improving North East Stars at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya while South Starworld Strikers will make the trek north to the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima to face Arima Fire. The day’s other fixture will see the cellar-placed Tobago United against “the Stallions” Caledonia AIA at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. All matches kick off at 4 pm with Under-20 matches starting two hours earlier.
ST GEORGE’S: Top Caribbean sprinters, including Kim Collins, of St Kitts and Nevis, stole the spotlight on the opening day of the XIX Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships here on Friday.
Commonwealth Games champion and CAC record holder Collins, successfully defended the 100-metre title in a new stadium record of 10.13 seconds and joined Donald Quarrie of Jamaica, Hermes Ramirez of Cuba and Obadele Thompson of Barbados as athletes to successfully defend the 100-metre title. World junior champion Darrel Brown (10.17) of Trinidad and Tobago and his compatriot Marc Burns (10.29) battled to the end but had to settle for the silver and bronze respectively. Collins enjoyed a good start and took control of the race inside of the last 40 metres. It was a fitting climax to the first day after the uncertainty as to the availability of Collins to defend his title. Martinique’s Ronald Pognon, who had earlier advanced to the final as the fastest qualifier with a wind-aided time of 10.12 seconds, winning heat three ahead of Collins (10.14), finished fourth.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Fana Ashby prevailed in a thrilling women’s 100-metre run in which a photo-finish decided the top places. Ashby won in 11.32 seconds edged ahead of Tamicka Clarke of Bahamas (11.33) and Judith Kitson of Jamaica was third in 11.34. Cuba’s Virgen Benavides was only a further 0.03 seconds behind in fourth. In other results, Barbados copped gold and bronze in the women’s high jump from Desiree Crichlow (1.81 metres) and Keitha Mosley (1.76m) respectively. Venezuela’s Jetzulida Perez picked up the silver medal. Hosts Grenada landed their first medal when Alleyne Lett (53.14 metres) finished second to Puerto Rico’s Alfredo Romero (54.09) in the men’s discus. After five events in the decathlon, Jamaica’s Decosmo Wright leads with 3,905 points, over Yoelbis Reymond (3,886).
Trinidad and Tobago’s Simeon Bovell and Kirk Sheridan topped the 800-metre qualifiers. Bovell was the fastest with one minute 50.32 followed by Sheridan in 1:51.35. In the 400-metre semi-finals Grenada’s Hazel-Ann Regis (52.52), Jamaica’s Michelle Burgher (53.06) were the women’s winners, while Grenada’s Alleyne Francique (45.84), and Bahamians Chris Brown (45.83) and Dennis Darling (46.18) won among the men. The finals of the 400m hurdles were rescheduled for the second day after the officials were not satisfied with the hurdle spacing while results are yet to be released on the 20-kilometre RaceWalk.
NATIONAL MIDFIELDER Brent Rahim is currently in Britain where he is having a trial stint with English Second Division club Brentford.
If the 24-year-old playmaker earns a spot on the club’s roster, he will be wearing the jersey for a third English team in the space of 12 months. The ex-St Anthony’s College and University of Connecticut player had a six-month loan spell with English Premier League team West Ham, but was consigned to the reserves as the “Hammers” were eventually relegated to the First Division. In February, Rahim joined Second Division team Northampton Town, under former San Juan Jabloteh coach Terry Fenwick, but Rahim was released after only six games for the struggling team while Fenwick was sacked after a few weeks on the job. Rahim recently had negotiations with the management of Levski Sofia, his Bulgarian club, to seek clearance to try out in England.
Trinidad and Tobago’s football teams will soon don new kits . This will result from a new contract with South African-based sporting company, Fain.
It all started last month when the company from Port Elizabeth, after meetings with FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, whipped up playing, training and casual wear for the team for the friendly international against South Africa. TT played in an all-red L-Sporto kit in last Thursday’s friendly international against Venezuela having given away the last set of previous home uniforms during the tour of Africa. Currently only the white strip is in stock for the team.
The 17-year-old business stumbled on a piece of good fortune when Fain founder and managing director Miley Ajam met with Warner who indicated to him that TT was “between sponsors” and needed a temporary one for the match. Now, according to Warner, a permanent arrangement is in the making. “This is a great opportunity for us to be able to produce the kits for the top team in the Caribbean and certainly one of the more recognised teams in CONCACAF,” Ajam said. Ajam added the kit was based both on a design Fain have been working on beforehand as well as the L-Sporto kit. It has all the necessary markings including the TT flag. “Our focus is purely on innovation and quality. We are always trying to emulate world trends,” Ajam added. Fain has also sponsored several African teams like Cameroon and top South African club Dynamos.
CHELMSFORD: Essex survived by the skin of their teeth after an inspired display by former West Indies captain Carl Hooper in thre English County Cricket Championship yesterday.
Hooper took six wickets for 51 from 32 overs but Lancashire ran out of time with just one wicket needed for victory.
Scores: Lancashire 218 & 383-7 dec drew with Essex 208 & 236-9.
Points: Essex 8, Lancashire 8.
They had declared 393 runs in front, with Glenn Chapple finishing unbeaten on 132. After reaching 55 for one, Essex suddenly found themselves in trouble as Hooper’s off-spin accounted for Nasser Hussain, who was leg before wicket for 31, and James Foster. Aftab Habib and Andy Flower put on 113 for the fourth wicket before Hooper had Flower caught by Essex old boy Stuart Law for 49. Habib later went in similar fashion after hitting 10 fours in his 69, but although James Middlebrook, Jon Dakin and Ryan ten Doeschate followed in quick succession, the final pair hung on.
MILLENIUM REIGN scored a mild upset, beating stablemate and raging favourite Phantom Bidder in the feature Stakes and Lower Handicap over 1750 metres at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, yesterday.
Last year’s Royal Oak Derby winner came with a resolute stretch run to swoop past The Phantom inside the final 200 metres to go on to victory by a clear two and a quarter lengths under a clever ride by Venezuelan jockey Wilmer Galviz. Form was tossed out the window in the previous race for three-year-old maidens over 12509 metres, when Galviz landed Hatrick, winner by half length over Desert Rose and Honey Belle.
Backers of the winner were rewarded with $26.60 and $3.70 on the tote. But biggest trifecta and superfecta dividend came in the 1200 metres run for three-year-old Imported Maidens, won by the quick-stepping Kalyan, the third of Galviz winners on the day’s 10-race programme. With Kalyan returning $12.10 and $4.30 on the tote, the trifecta paid a handsome $939.60, while the superfecta with Outrageous Victory finishing fourth was a whopping $2,479.30. The riding honours on the day were shared by ex-champion jockey Brian Harding and Galviz who both booted home three winners, while apprentice Sheldon Rodrigo guided home two. But no trainer managed to saddle more than one winner, but onece again John O’Brien had the distinction of training the winner of the feature. In fact he had a one-two.
A 33-year-old qualified manicurist is expected to be the star attraction today at the Malta Carib- sponsored National Junior Bodybuilding and Ms Fitness Championships.
But before you muscle fans bite off your fingernails in despair, it must be explained that Marvellous Melvin Anthony is a hulking hunk who aims to be the next Mr Olympia. The California, US native admitted on Friday that he used his vocation early in his career as a means of meeting members of the fairer sex. And besides it paid the bills. But since he started competing seriously about ten years ago, Anthony hardly has time to tend to the nails of prospective dates. Nor would his now pregnant wife allow it. He is currently ranked Number 11 in the world and is a two-time runner-up in the Mr Olympia competition, in 2001 and earlier this year.
On Friday, when Anthony was introduced to the media at the Carib Beer Hospitality Suite in Champs Fleurs, he admitted there was no miracle diet to achieve the well-toned and spectacular body of an Arnold Schwarzenegger. “You have to be taught by someone who was taught by someone. However once you have a goal it is certainly attainable,” said Anthony. He said he chows down at least three and a half pounds of meat a day, complemented by two daily sessions in the gym, a routine which has brought him to the brink of international stardom. Anthony stresses that diet is 80 percent of the job needed to nurture a physique that could command attention on an international stage and he makes sure that he consumes at least 4,500 calories daily. His love for the sport was stimulated by the pictures he saw in bodybuilding magazines while a teenager and he confesses to holding on to his dream despite the fact that several of his counterparts have drifted off into different career paths.
Anthony said that at 33 he is relatively young and has many more years to realise his ambition and has not ruled out a life in the Christian ministry after his posing days are over. Asked about women who take up the sport, Anthony says he respects their decisions but he admits not being attracted to muscular women. He has promised a wonderful show when he takes the stage tonight at the National Junior Body-building and Ms Fitness Championships at the Sport and Physical Education Centre, University of the West Indies at St Augustine. On Friday Hayden Straker, first vice-president of the Bodybuilding Federation said by staging the competition at the new Sport and Physical Education Centre, he hoped the profile of the sport will be raised. He said apart from Anthony, men and women’s senior champions Dechon Durity and Candice Carr will also be making an appearance. Straker said there will also be attractive incentives for patrons attending the show.
Next weekend in Dominica will be judgment day for the West Indies Cricket Board as they pick a new leader.
However this apart, following recent media speculation, Dancing Brave can confirm that he’s at the head of a media and business partnership bidding on behalf of Blowing Wind General Infirmary Hospital Radio to acquire the West Indies Cricket Board Incorporated. Negotiations with the Board are underway — though it would not be prudent to say more at this point. However, those of us responsible for the bid are aware that the possibility of our takeover is already the source of active debate among the few supporters of the current Board members, many of whom seem to have experienced disquiet at the thought of being owned outright by one of the brand leaders in hospital broadcasting.
Dancing Brave would like to take this opportunity here, in what is essentially an open letter to all true West Indies supporters to say why we believe our hospital radio bid is good news for the Caribbean, for the players and, most importantly, for you the fans. I want to reassure you about one thing above all: Tooting Horn General Infirmary Hospital Radio will let the West Indies Cricket Board be the WICB without the control at the end. We appreciate that the WICB have a phenomenal heritage and a highly talented staff, as well as many available cricketing venues that sit empty most of the week and would be perfect for outside broadcasts and car-boot sales. It is not just another business; it is part of the cultural fabric of a unified Caribbean approach. That is why we will make sure that the current manager is left to get on with running the WICB — just as soon as that manager has been appointed — and with only minimal involvement from our own Breakfast Show host, Michael “Wookee Wakey,” Richard “Good for Me, Not Good for you,” Valerie “I want power, I want power” and Tony “Tell me a story, I tell you a lie in a twist.”
Our bid has been represented in the newspapers (with the exception of the Infirmary News Sheet, in which we are proud to have a majority holding) as an ugly and souless cash-in by a greedy media conglomerate with no interest in cricket and who only want the WICB as a source of cheap jokes and easy feeds into the next track by the Antigua Electric Light Orchestra. In any case, our commitment to cricket in recent years speaks for itself, as anyone who has been in a position to catch — Arousing Rick’s Blowout — on a Saturday afternoon will attest. And only the other morning, a couple of Leeward Islands players dropped by the studio on their way to the children’s ward in Antigua following the hurricane. Lovely lads — and great radio. Set aside your fears: we are not a faceless corporation. Indeed, at Blowing Wind General Infirmary we boast some of the greatest faces in hospital broadcasting. Take Garth and Keith for instance, controversial hosts of our lively on-the-ward phone-in programme, Nil by Mouth. Or Jackie Jam from Traffic Jam, our popular drive-time show for listeners who are stuck in a bed and not going anywhere very much like West Indies cricket. Not to mention — I Dare yuh Chris — presenter of Chris’s Traction Engine, a selection of soft pop hits from the 1970s for people with quite literally, their feet up. Let me tell you, board meetings are going to be a lot of fun with these guys around (albeit in different roles than they were accustomed)! This bid brings together two leaders — WICB and Blowing Wind Infirmary Hospital Radio — whose skills complement each other and who have demonstrated their commitment to the sport of cricket and to top-quality entertainment with a lighter touch.
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AN on-going feud between two female relatives, one a 20-year-old and the other a 14-year-old schoolgirl, who lived in the same house, ended in murder yesterday when during a fight, the elder woman allegedly stabbed the teen in her chest with an ice-pick.
Arouca police have since arrested the 20-year-old suspect and seized the murder weapon — a bloodstained ice-pick. According to police reports, around 2 pm Simone Pierre, 14, a Form Two student of Curepe Junior Secondary school, who lived at No. 54 Bally Trace, off Thavenot Street, Tacarigua, armed herself with a ‘bilna’ (rolling-pin) and a knife and confronted her cousin. The two later fought, with the suspect grabbing an ice-pick and stabbing Pierre once on the left side of her chest. The teen slumped to the ground, bleeding profusely. She was taken to the Arima District Hospital where around 3.45 pm, she was pronounced dead by Dr Prasad, while undergoing emergency treatment.
A team of Arouca detectives led by Cpl Darceuil visited the house and arrested the suspect. Police also seized the ice-pick, rolling pin and knife. Several relatives were questioned by police who recorded statements. The teen’s body was taken to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary and an autopsy will be carried out tomorrow at the Forensic Sciences Centre. Cpl Darceuil of Arouca CID is continuing investigations.
