Special award you say...
WICB President Dave Cameron @davec51 receives special award from @ICC Chairman N.Srinivasan at the annual conference pic.twitter.com/LSEkB6aaPo
— westindies (@westindies) June 25, 2015
Whycliffe "Dave" Cameron has not exactly had a stellar two years in the hot seat as President of the West Indies Cricket Board. But you'd never know it from his Twitter feed.
The Frank Worrell Trophy is settled for 2009. Australia 2, West Indies 0, with one draw. Sounds decisive on the surface of it, but the truth is that, for the two latter Tests at least, the Windies surpassed expectations. Australia played like a team hovering between third and fourth-best in the world.
On Thursday, day two of the WACA Test against the West Indies, Dennis Lillee was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Chris Gayle celebrated by smashing the ball onto the roof of his grandstand.
Michael Clarke, co-star with Tiger Woods in many an Aussie version of the Gillette ads, made less runs than Woods has paramours, but with the West Indian eleven lacking Chanderpaul and Barath, it is going to be hard to see them matching the eventual Australian score.
Australia, chasing 330 for the win, lost no further wickets as Michael Clarke, perhaps its most dependable batsman in this situation, dropped anchor in partnership with Brad Haddin. Still, it was a little surprising to see Chris Gayle call a halt to the match with five overs to play. Apart from surrendering that final (albeit unlikely) shot at going for the kill, this Test was Gayle's finest as West Indian captain, and not just for his own bat-carrying 165 not out in the second innings.
Monday December 7 2009 was the day when all criticism of Christopher Henry Gayle must cease. Gayle did everything that should be expected of an opening batsman-captain leading by example. Even if few of his team-mates did much to follow.
There's no honour in any Test team conceding 450 runs in an innings. The West Indians pushed on to 451 in their first innings, with some admirable work at the end by Brendan Nash (92) and Ravi Rampaul (40*). The feeling in recent years is that anything the visiting team could do, Australia can do better and in spades.
And so it was on Friday that for about two hours we had the exhilaration of simultaneously following: Day Three, India v Sri Lanka at Mumbai; Day Two, New Zealand v Pakistan at Wellington; Day One, Australia v West Indies at Adelaide. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Just exhausting. Three games of wildly varying textures, each one with that joyous "Let's See You Do That In The IPL" feel about them.
Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath. Cricket's players of the week. Both scored centuries on their Test debut. Both in losing causes. And significantly, both at the age of 19.