Not a Pukka Royalist! Cricketing Insights from the CJ Van Twest Scrapbook for 1957

 At the tender age of nine or so, one Christopher John Van Twest – “CJ” in family circles – was a budding young cricketer who attended Royal College in Colombo. His talents were admired THEN by his peers (for e.g. Eardley Lieversz who went on to captain Royal). CJ was also cricket mad. One dimension of this madness was the assiduous collection of newspaper items on cricket as reported in the Ceylon newspapers of the year 1957 in a SCRAPBOOK. This collection remained in his treasured archive and moved with him when his divourced mother decided to migrate in July 1958 with baggage and two children to Canada.

Remembering Joe Hoad, A Bajan Man True

Joe Hoad passed way a year or so back due to a medical mishap. My appreciation of the man and his contribution to Sri Lankan cricket was recorded earlier in Cricketique via a ditty of my own in what may pass for “islander strain:”

Joe’s no Imran Khan,

He’s just a plain Bajan man, man.

You see Joe,

Da man could talk

Boy, how he could talk

That man know how to walk the talk, and even how to talk the walk

Bumble Fumble …. Sri Lankan-West Indian Cricketing Sambal

Michael Roberts

Amidst a few cricketing highlights this ODI encounter was marked by its plethora of bumbling horrors of considerable magnitude.

One … Kusal Perera’s brain fade which left him stranded and run-out — that when he was batting well …. 18.1 a wicket thrown away! Back of a length on leg, and tapped to midwicket. Perera wants the double, but his partner hasn’t responded, and the throw from deep mid-wicket is well aimed at the bowler’s end. To be fair to Fernando, there was no two there 104/2

Lord’s Cricket Ground mourns the Departure of “The Pipe Man”

Nagraj Gollapudi, in The Cricket Monthly, where the title runs thus “Pipe Man, Lord’s will feel empty without you”

June 24: Lord’s felt empty last weekend. Because Keith van Anderson had left the ground to talk cricket with the Lord. Keith van Anderson, you were baffling. When I heard about your death last month, on Twitter, I felt a dryness in my mouth, followed by the kind of emptiness that engulfs one on losing someone close. You and I were not related in any way – blood, friendship, profession – but we knew each other through cricket, over many meetings at Lord’s.

Lord’s regular the Pipe Man, in his MCC hat © Clayton Murzello

Umpiring Howlers help Aussies down Windies

Melinda Farrell in ESPNcricinfo, 6 June 2019, where the title is “West Indies’ fury at ‘dodgy’ decisions as Australia get rub of the green”

Michael Holding has slammed the umpiring during West Indies’ loss to Australia as “atrocious”, while Carlos Brathwaite described some decisions as “frustrating” and “dodgy” and suggested that West Indies players are on the wrong end of decisions more often than their opponents. He denied, however, that the decisions had cost them the match in a hard-fought 15-run defeat to Australia at Trent Bridge.

The umpires, Chris Gaffaney and Ruchira Palliyaguruge, had four decisions overturned between them and Gaffaney also missed a blatant front foot no-ball from Mitchell Starc that preceded the delivery that claimed the wicket of Chris Gayle. If the no-ball had been called, Gayle would have had a free hit on what was ultimately the wicket-ball.

When India surprised the Mighty West India in 1983 World Cup

Item in Outlook India, May 2019 with this title “Howzzat! Clive Lloyd’s West Indies Vanquished! Thr Fascinating Story of India’s First Limited Overs victory”

March 29, 1983 is a milestone in Indian cricket. India defeated the mighty West Indies by 27 runs in the second outing of a three-match series to register their maiden victory in the limited-overs format. This fantastic win helped India believe that it could play this format. Effectively, Kapil’s Devils went on to win the Prudential Cricket World Cup in 1983 at Lord’s. Veteran journalist ASHISH RAY remembers this epic win in his book “Cricket World Cup: The Indian Challenge”.

Kapil’s Devils beat heavy favourites West Indies in the final of Prudential Cricket World Cup in 1983 at Lord’s to effectively change the history of the sport ….File Photo

One-day cricket was introduced domestically in England in 1963 to arrest falling gate receipts. In 1975 this format evolved into the inaugural World Cup. But the BCCI was indifferent to limited overs cricket and public interest in India in the shorter version of the game was also lukewarm. More crucially, Indian cricketers experienced very few one-day internationals and were not inclined towards these either. Indeed, they performed disastrously in the first two World Cups. So, what triggered the dramatic transformation in ability and mindset in the third World Cup in 1983? Here’s the intriguing, little known story in CRICKET WORLD CUP: THE INDIAN CHALLENGE, an eye-witness history of the tournament from an Indian perspective by ASHIS RAY, the world’s senior-most still active cricket broadcaster, just published by BLOOMSBURY. (Complete Cricket World Cup 2019 coverage)

Appraissal of the Ten World Cup Teams …. In Brief

Item in OUTLOOK INDIA, 16 May 2019, with this title “ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Strengths And Weaknesses Of All Ten Teams”

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will be played in the United Kingdom from May 30 to July 14. Ten teams will play a round-robin league with the top four advancing to the semifinals. Australia are the defending champions. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of the teams.

All the 10 teams competing in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 are fully prepared. While the Indian cricket team players were busy fulfilling their IPL commitments, hosts England are busy playing a ODI series against Pakistan while Ireland is hosting a triseries with West Indies and Bangladesh. (FULL ICC WORLD CUP 2019 SCHEDULE)