Can anyone cut the WICB a check?

http://content.cricinfo.com/wiveng2009/content/current/story/397177.html

The West Indian team is threating to boycott the fifth ODI against England this Friday, unless the West Indian Cricket Board comes to an agreement with the West Indian Players Association about payments for previous overseas trips the team has made. The WICB is clearly in dire straits along with the rest of the world, although even moreso since the Board decided to jump head first into the cookie jar Allen Stanford offered them that quickly came apart at the seems. At the same time, I don't blame the players in the least. Just like everyone else who got trapped in a Ponzi scheme, there were sure to be other investment oppertunities available, they just happened to take the easy way out. And it's not like the West Indies are bad, although they lost game four, they took the Test Series, and have been doing a remarkable job in the last 5 plus months, and they deserve to be rewarded for those efforts. I hope there is some kind of conclusion that makes it easier for both sides and leaves no lasting hard feelings, because it's a slippery slope for both sides.

So I'm not sure if yesterday's post was clear enough, it doesn't really look that clear to me, I've been sick this week, so my writing is not really at its best. With that in mind, I thought I might turn to what I find to be a very reliable source when it comes to unraveling complicated news like this Sri Lankian Cricket Team attack, because really, it's not just about Sri Lanka and Pakistan, it's about all of the Indian Sub-Continent Cricket Playing nations, can we really be sure that any team can be safe in any of those countries now? With all that said, I turn it over to NPR, who had a terrific report this morning explaining exactly what happened, and what kind of effect it will have on the game.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101408045

Edit: So I failed to mention, you should click that listen now link to get it to play.

I Can't even belive this happened

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-pakistan-cricketersattacked&prov=ap&type=lgns


The Sri Lankian Cricket Team was attacked outside of the stadium in Lahore Stadium today. Clearly this was an attempt to strike deep into the heart of Pakistani culture and security. It's baffling upsetting news that goes to the root of how important cricket can be around the world. It would be like if one of the World Baseball classic teams was assulted outside of the RN Centre. It's sad, and I for one hope the criminals are brought to full and swift justice.

Allen Stanford Faces Fraud Charges: BLNAH Wonders How Stupid He Could Be

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090220/ts_nm/us_stanford_41

Not that you know who Allen Stanford is. I won't lie, it was supposed to be part of a suprise, the Stanford 20/20 is my favorite tournament, in fact, it's the tournament that introduced me to cricket in the first place. Now with these charges leveled against him by the SEC, plus other issues that arose from the Super Series, it all comes to question wether or not we've seen the last of the Stanford 20/20, and what it means for West Indian Cricket as a whole. Personally I find myself very disappointed by all the developments, I had to read the first story I found mentioning it in the paper twice before it sunk in. I still find myself in a "Say it ain't so Joe" way of thinking, I'd like to hope the best, because really, I think Allen Stanford was the best chance we'll see in a while to have Cricket come through in America

For a look at the shooting star story of Allen Stanford, I'd recomend this story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090220/ts_afp/cricketwisengusfinancefraudstanford_20090220100551

Well so much for that liveblog..

Turn out the lights and go to bed people, there is nothing left to see of the English Test Cricket Team. They must really like snow ball fights, because they layed an egg against the West Indies today, to the tune of 51 all out. Their highest scoring batsmen had 24 runs...let that soak in... two centuries, a 96....and the best they could come up with when it mattered most was...a twenty-four. 2009 clearly looks like it's going to be the year of The West Indies, as they are not slowing down from the manhandling they gave New Zealand last November-December. There is an ODI next weekend, it might be much of one, but I might try to get something up for that. Other than that...enjoy the rest of your weekend...the English sure won't.

Catching you up on England-West Indies

It's the middle of day three as I write this (they're taking their tea break in about an hour) In England's first Innings, which took all of day 1 and most of day two, they went 318 all out, which is a half-way decent score, given the Jamican heat (and leaving Snowy England) and since the late afternoon of yesterday, it's been the first Innings of the West Indies who currently stand at 235/4 which is looking like a very good pace, Chanderpaul and the youngester Nash (only in his 4th test) are at the stumps and Flintoff and Panesar are doing the bowling are doing the bowling (with Flintoff and his two wickets doing most of the work) We'll be sure to keep you up to date as things progress.

There will be Cricket at a decent hour! (as long as you don't live on the west coast)

Well, since I picked up a nice reference (Thanks Schultzie!) I thought it might be a good idea to you know...write something, and just in the nick of time! We have cricket that doesn't start at 11 at night and go to 4 in the morning! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the first Test (For this season) between The West Indies and England, at Kingston Jamica, will be starting this Wednesday the 4th of February, and go on as neccessary, ending no later than the 8th of February, each day will start at 15:00 GMT (which goes from 10-7 in the morning in the mainland US from east to west, 5 in the morning in Alaska, and 4 in the morning in Hawaii, but I don't think I have any Hawaiian readers) with these decent starting and ending times, I will do my best to get as much up to date information to you as possible, heck if it goes all the way to the 8th, maybe I'll do a live blog. For those who don't know England is one of the top teams in the world, and the West Indies have been up and coming lately, and battling for ground with New Zealand on the ICC rankings, so this should be a great match. And hey, maybe Brian Lara will be there.