IN a shocking twist, West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago dual world record holder Brian Lara is now being favoured to be the next West Indies captain and appointed for his second tenure from the forthcoming Australian Test series, the Newsday can exclusively reveal today.
In a case of Deja Vu, former chairman of the West Indies selection panel, now president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Wes Hall, has found himself at loggerheads with other West Indies Cricket officials, over the selection of the next West Indies captain. Five years ago, Wes Hall’s selection team selected Brian Lara as the captain of the West Indies, but this was overturned by the WICB in favor of Courtney Walsh. The West Indies captain ends his reign at the end of each tour, so currently there is no captain, until one is appointed.
The last captain was Guyanese Carl Hooper who led the team at the World Cup in South Africa. Hooper though has been vilified in the media, and in fact the stylish 36-years-old. Batsman suggested openly that he will have to re-think his future. Current chairman of the West Indies selection panel and a former skpper Sir Vivian Richards who was in South Africa for the World Cup, has asked Hooper not to resign but instead to continue to lead the team, based on his experience. “However, there are a lot of people on the West Indies Board executive level, who are not in favour of Carl Hooper anymore, because they believe his captaincy is not good and he is over cautious and too negative in his thinking,” a close source at the WICB office in Antigua told this newspaper. “What has happened, is that during the World Cup people have identified the inflexibility of the West Indies, with his style of leadership.
In addition there is a strong opinion, that Hooper cannot retain his place on the team, giving his batting of late and the fact, that there are a lot of youngsters around now. “Brian Lara is seen as the only logical choice, and he has the support of a lot of people, because it is acclaimed that he has the best cricketing brain among all the current players.” “It is only now a question of whether Brian Lara will accept the captaincy, but the fact that he has taken on the vice-captain role in the recent past, suggests he is ready to retake responsibility. “There is a belief that Brian Lara wants to end his career on a high, and he knows that he has only three to four years left in the game,” he added. “Additionally we all know how he likes a challenge, and what he did when he was last challenged by the Australians, so that he will give of his utmost not to lose to the Aussies.
“The telling factor in all of this is that WICB president Wes Hall has a long history of being close to Brian Lara and he will want to push for him despite the antics of Sir Vivian Richards,” There is of course a serious concern that Carl Hooper would retire if he is not re-appointed.
FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF boss Austin Jack Warner urged a group of 35 coaches to “strive to be better and better with every year.”
The football administrator was speaking at Friday’s closing ceremony of the FA International Coaching License Course, a nine-day programme held at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macoya, Tunapuna. The course was the brainchild of former national senior team manager Richard Braithwaite, currently the CONCACAF Director of Development. Warner heaped praises on the English FA, in particular the lecturers Mike Hennigan and Steve Rutter, “for the support that they have been giving to CONCACAF over the years.”
The participants included Felis Geerman, Rudolfo Dirksz (Aruba); Micah Samuel, Rolston Williams (Antigua); Rene Montero (Belize); Maxford Pipe, Lenroy Henry (British Virgin Islands); Clifford Celaire (Dominica); Michael Felix, Patrick Francis, Brian Blackman (Grenada); Albert Richard, Andy Gerard (Guadeloupe); Andrew Grogan, Collie Hercules (Guyana); Cecil Lake, Ottley La Borde (Montserrat); Dariel Collazo (Puerto Rico); Garth De Shong, Randy Patrick (St Vincent); Collister Fahie, Carlton Freeman (US Virgin Islands); Donald Chin Loy, Scott Haywood, Leonard Taylor, Basil Benjamin (USA); Francisco Ramirez Gomez (Mexico); Marlon Charles, Anderson Veronique, Ferdinand Bibby, Wendell Berkley, Hilton Bailey, Kendel Crawford, Angus Eve, Philbert Jones (Trinidad and Tobago).
THE cuertain came down on the NGC/Express Secondary School’s Basketball season with two days of fierce national final action at the Pleasantville Indoor Complex on Friday and the St Paul Street Facility on Saturday.
At Pleasantville, home team Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive edged Northern Conference princesMorvant/Laventille Secondary 64-61 in the Under-17 final. Morvant/Laventille star Dylaun Skeete scored a game-high 27 points but his effort was not enough. Pleasantville pair Akeem Valley had 20 and Travis Carrington 12 to carry their team to victory. But Northern princesses Malick Secondary stopped a Pleasantville sweep edging home 68-67 in their final match-up. Crystal Kirton who scored 44 points and Nyasha Reyes 11 powered the Malick girls to a victory. Melanie Guerero with 48 points and Jenelle Terres 10 led the scoring for Pleasantville.
Sangre Grande Junior Secondary up ended Scarborough Secondary 52-49 on Saturday at the St Paul Street Multi-Purpose Facility to take the Under-15 title, behind 10 pooints from Keegan James and John Stewart with six. Scarborough got 17 points from Jegeb Orr and 10 from Lance Roberts. Also on Saturday Tranquillity Government Secondary stamped their name on the Under-20 crown when they crushed Scarborough 74-54. Sherman Diaz with a game-high 31 points and Tranquil captain Vonnelle Applewhite 24 were too much for the Tobago boys for whom Darryl Bedlow scored 19 and Johan Duncan and Keeon Anthony 10 points each. Diaz was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Under-20 age-group.
THE EDITOR: The Prime Minister said that he has introduced CEPEP to address a historical imbalance and to provide an opportunity to make entrepreneurs of the descendants of slavery and indentured labourers. He slipped in indentured labourers to give the impression that he cares about the Indo-Trinidadians as well.
I look forward to see Manning and the PNM address the other historic imbalances that exist in the police service, prison service, fire service, army, coast guard, positions of senior public servants, WASA, TSTT, UTC, goverment OJT programmes and the allocation of government housing in a country that is supposed to belong to all of the people including the Indo-Trinidadians. Not only does Caroni lands belong to all of the people, but the assets and employment opportunities in all the state agencies as well. A country where every creed and race is supposed to find an equal place. On the second point, an entrepreneur is one who undertakes investments at some measure of financial risk. What are these CEPEP people risking? These so-called CEPEP entrepreneurs are risking nothing but their own future, their children’s and children children’s future.
I would like to remind the Prime Minister and the PNM that no matter how much money and state resources are placed in the hands of people who are held capitve by any Government, their lifestyles would never improve. Can these people go to the bank for any kind of loan in an effort to improve their lives? The PNM knows that as long as these people are kept enslaved, they would continue to depend on this Government for stipends, $10 per month government apartments and soup kitchens. They will continue to live for today only and never for tomorrow. The PNM knows that they are sure to remain in power as long as the Indo- and Afro-Trinidadians are divided. Remember the first time when the Indo- and Afro-Trinidadians united, the PNM was removed 33-3. The second time the Indo- and Afro-Trinidadians united in 1995 resulted in the PNM being removed from power again.
It is in the PNM’s interest to keep thier own people in an impoverished and enslaved state. But there is hope in Jesus. It is only the blood of Jesus that can truly change and transform the hearts, and, by extension, the mentality and lifestyle of any people. This is the kind of prayer that the PNM Pentecostal leaders should be praying, instead of marching and praying for Manning.
REX MAHADEO
Marabella
THE EDITOR: This letter is for all the women in the country and I choose your newspaper because it is the most read daily newspaper in TT. Beauty is a gift that can only come from God.
Some women use it and some women abuse it, and most women want to have it. Let’s face it. We all spend thousands of dollars to try to look beautiful. We all endure a lot of pain, physical pain, in the process. Like getting your eyebrows waxed, for example, can be very painful. Having your hair coloured is so tedious, and all the dieting and exercising to have the perfect body can really take a toll on you mentally and we, the normal women, all go through this to look beautiful. We are all obsessed with wanting to look like the current celebrities. But has any one ever stopped to wonder about these beautiful celebrities that we want to look like?
If you look behind their beauty and you look deep into their personal lives, they all lead very lonely lives. I can name them for you. Look at women like Elizabeth Taylor, married five times; Marilyn Munroe died alone and lonely; Princess Diana, died young and heartbroken; Jennifer Lopez married twice; Ashwaria Rai lonely at the age of 35 and Oprah Winfrey still unmarried and she takes the cake as she is the most admired woman in the world. These women are all successful in their careers. They are all role models to the youths. They are perceived to be happy and they are always surrounded by friends and fans, but really they all lead miserable lives. Men are afraid to marry them. There is nothing wrong with these women. It’s the men who are insecure because it takes a very secure man to be with a woman who is beautiful, and because this is lacking in society, these women always end up leading very lonely lives. So if God did not bless you with beauty like theirs, that’s okay because at least you will lead a normal life and not end up lonely like most of the beautiful women in the world. It’s all so sad that these women who are so loved by all can’t even find one person to love them for who they really are.
M BOURGEOIS
Tunapuna
THE EDITOR: Strange things will continue to happen regarding the “art” of business administration, but the following news items this week have left me completely mystified.
1) The West Indies Cricket Coach has suddenly discovered that the problem with the team, which was eliminated after the first round of the 2003 World Cup, relates to insularity!
2) The Chairman of the Selection Committee, while still in south Africa, has publicly announced that he has discussed the captaincy issue with the captain, and apparently without reference to his committee members back home and has appealed to him to stay on for the Australian tour of the Caribbean this year!
I seriously believe that the skipper ought to hand over gracefully to his friend Mr Brian Lara who is eminently qualified (with the present crop of talented youngsters) to place West Indies cricket at the top of the heap within a year or two.
FYZUL HASSANALI
Author, Captaincy in Cricket
A COUVA mother of four was fatally stabbed with a penknife on Saturday night, while she stood near the doorstep to her home. Moments after the fatal stabbing of Rhonda Zamora Backhorie, 33, a relative surrendered to Couva police, unaware that she had died at hospital. The stabbing occurred in the presence of Backhorie’s children.
The Couva woman was one of three persons murdered in separate incidents in the country over the weekend, which has pushed the overall murder rate for the year to 51. The incident, which has left relatives and friends of the dead woman, in a state of shock, occurred at Sanford Street, California around 8.30 pm, when according to Backhorie’s brother Krishen Ragoonanan, he had just returned home with the Coast Guard officer and a neighbour. “We went to Enterprise, for a stove and then came home. Rhonda was watching TV and he (the suspect) said he wanted to talk to her. She went outside with him on the step and I went to eat in the kitchen. Five minutes later, I hear her calling out and when I went outside, I saw the man had Rhonda’s neck in a lock and I see she was bleeding from her chest”, Ragoonanan told Newsday.
Ragoonanan said that as he pushed the suspect away from his sister, the man plunged a knife into his (Ragoonanan’s) stomach. “I push him off and I carry her down by the neighbour’s house and she passed out”, Ragoonanan said as his eyes welled with tears. Ragoonanan added that he kept pressure on the wound, while he called out to the neighbour for help. The neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, told Newsday they had a few drinks while delivering the stove. “We just reach home and I fall asleep for about five minutes when I heard a knock on the door.” He said when paramedics arrived, they were reluctant to take Backhorie to hospital, explaining that they had to wait until the police arrived. However after arguing with the residents, the bleeding woman was taken to the Couva District Hospital where she was treated.
Backhorie was transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital where emergency surgery was expected to be performed. However, she died in the ambulance while on the way to the hospital. A neighbour claimed that Rhonda and the relative were seen in a violent confrontation moments before the stabbing. “He kicked one of Rhonda’s daughters and Rhonda put the child on the chair to sit down. He then went to the child and banged her head on a wall. That was when Rhonda push him away and is then he locked her neck and stab her”, the neighbour said. However the neighbour’s version was denied by her brother, Ragoonanan who said that there was no vexation or anything. “Everything was normal and she never expected that,” Ragoonanan said.
Backhorie’s four children — Stephanie, 15; Shandel, 10; Deron and Renee are now staying with their aunt in Mc Bean Village, Couva. Yesterday members of the Coast Guard visited the home and expressed condolences to the bereaved family. Up to late yesterday, the relative was being questioned by police investigators. A bloodstained penknife has been seized by police. At the time of the stabbing incident, Backhorie was renovating her home which she shared with her four children and husband Winston to whom she had been married for eight years. An autopsy is expected to be carried out today at the Forensic Sciences Centre. Couva police are continuing investigations.
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar: A US Patriot missile battery shot down a British Royal Air Force fighter aircraft yesterday near the Iraqi border with Kuwait, British officials said.
There was no word on the fate of the British crew and no information on their numbers, said Group Capt Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces in the Gulf. But British Ministry of Defence officials said two servicemen were aboard the downed Tornado GR4 jet. “We’re looking now for the evidence of the aircraft’s crash site and, obviously, the crew members,” he said. No other information about the incident or crew was immediately released. The jet, based in Marham, Britain, was returning from an operational mission yesterday and was engaged by the missile battery, said a statement from the British press information centre at US Central Command. “We can confirm that a Tornado GR4 aircraft … was engaged near the Kuwaiti border by a Patriot missile battery,” the statement said.
Earlier yesterday, US military officials said a US Patriot missile battery may have downed the plane. The British statement did not say the battery was American, but a British military spokeswoman in Qatar said it was. Asked how a US missile could have brought down the plane, Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told ABC’s “This Week” that “procedures and electronic means to identify friendly aircraft and to identify adversary aircraft … broke down somewhere.” “Central Command is looking into that as we speak. Again, it’s a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the crew members,” Myers told ABC. Lockwood noted the missile is designed to intercept everything above it from incoming ballistic missiles to low-flying cruise missiles. “We wish to find out just as everybody else does, the US as well, why this happened. And we will be carrying out a joint investigation to determine the facts so that we can eliminate this problem forever,” he said.
Britain has sent some 45,000 military personnel to the Persian Gulf to join the US-led attack against Iraq. Fourteen British and nine American servicemen have been killed since the war started on Wednesday night.
A 20-year-old man who fought with bandits who attempted to steal his gold chain and pendant valued $5,000, was shot in the armpit and bled to death at the corner of Cocorite Road and Devenish Streets Arima, around 1.05 am yesterday.
The killer escaped minus the gold chain. His murder is the 50th for the year so far. Reports revealed that Keon Hunt left his Phase Four, La Horquetta home on Saturday afternoon telling relatives that he was going to the movies. Relatives claimed that they received a call around 1.30 am informing them that Hunt had died. An eyewitness to the shooting death told police investigators that Hunt and two others were walking along Cocorite Road and Devenish Street, when they were confronted by two men with jerseys pulled over their faces.
One man was armed with a gun. The gunman ordered Hunt to hand over his gold chain and pendant but he refused. Reports revealed that a struggle ensued between Hunt, the gunman and the accomplice. He continued to retaliate insisting that he was not giving up his gold chain. The enraged bandit shot Hunt once in the armpit and as he slumped to the ground the killer and his accomplice fled the scene empty handed. A report was made to the Arima Police and officers of the Emergency Health Services were alerted. Hunt was rushed to the Arima Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The eyewitness was able to give a description of the killer and his accomplice.
At the Ray Sylvester Avenue, La Horquetta. home of the deceased, relatives claimed that they were able to retrieve the gold chain and pendant from the body of Hunt. They added that Hunt who worked at the meat section of Santa Rosa Foods, was supposed to take up duties on a cruise ship shortly. They added that he was a fan of American rapper “DMX” and had a DMX pendant on his chain. The chain was made by a jeweller last September and Hunt was never afraid to venture out of his home with the chain and pendant although he was advised against doing so. His mother Donna who lives in the United States had also begged her son not to display the chain when leaving his home at nights. An autopsy on the body of Hunt will be carried out today. Supt Quashie, Inspector Grant and others visited the scene and are investigating.
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning challenged the United National Congress (UNC) to bring a motion to Parliament on Friday to debate the restructuring of Caroni (1975) Limited but predicted the Opposition would not do so because it would expose their own failure to save the ailing sugar industry.
Addressing a People’s National Movement (PNM) public meeting in Couva on Saturday night, the Prime Minister described UNC threats against the safety of Government Ministers in Central Trinidad as nothing but an Opposition bluff. Under the watchful eyes of the police and the army, 16 Cabinet Ministers attended the large meeting, including Agriculture Minister John Rahael who only recently had to abort a meeting at the Rudranath Capildeo Learning Resource Centre which was disrupted by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU). “The UNC is talking nonsense about debating Caroni in Parliament. Friday coming is Private Members Day which means we give priority to motions that are moved by members of the Opposition. For that to happen you must give five days notice. They could file the motion on Monday. They could file it if they want. I give them the assurance tonight that if they do that, we will give it priority in the Parliament on Friday so we could discuss Caroni if they wish. Remember they are trying to raise this as a definite matter of urgent public importance.
The Speaker said it did not qualify under that but if they wished, they could raise it as a motion in the adjournment for which they require three days notice or better still they can file a motion with the Clerk, and we can debate as a motion when Private Members Day comes up on Friday. “I am inviting them to file the motion. The PNM looks forward to that debate in Parliament. File it, we will debate it on Friday coming and if they wish, we will carry on the Parliament and the debate until the debate comes to an end on Friday night or Saturday morning or Saturday evening or Sunday night whenever it is,” Manning declared as he threw down the gauntlet to the Opposition. However, the Prime Minister added: “ I make you a bet. They file no motion on Caroni Limited because they are saying one thing and really, they are meaning the next. They wish no debate on Caroni because they know that their position cannot stand scrutiny like ours can and that if that debate takes place, it is an opportunity to enlighten the people of Trinidad and Tobago and they can no longer go about the place being the purveyors of misniformation that has led to a lot of tension in Central Trinidad and elsewhere in the country.”
Manning dismissed continued attempts by the Opposition to compare Caroni to the Community Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP). “ Caroni is not in the same boat. Caroni Limited has been losing year on year and the Government is now seeking to bring about a restructuring of the sugar industry so we can have more stable arrangements and that those that continue to work in the industry, will be able to plan for himself and his family because he knows he now works in stable and viable arrangements,” he said. Training his guns on Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath, Manning declared: “ We were threatened not to come to Central Trinidad. Tonight we are here in Couva South. What they don’t know is that the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear. Fear no one.” Other Government Ministers present included Attorney-General Glenda Morean, Hazel Manning, Jarrette Narine, Danny Montano, Penelope Beckles, Larry Achong, Dr Lenny Saith, Christine Kangaloo, Eulalie James, Franklin Khan, Martin Joseph, Knowlson Gift, Diane Seukeran and Mustapha Abdul-Hamid.
