Simmons' tenure as West Indies coach uncertain six months into job

Phil Simmons has been suspended with immediate effect as West Indies coach, two days after he expressed his unhappiness with the ODI squad selected for the Sri Lanka tour. Simmons was caught unawares by the decision, which was communicated to him in an email from WICB chief executive Michael Muirhead, as he was in the UK preparing to join the squad in London on their way to Sri Lanka.

Simmons will now not travel with the team, and former West Indies fast bowler Eldine Baptiste, who is also a national selector, will take up the position of interim coach for the tour of Sri Lanka. The series, which begins on October 14, is the new Test captain Jason Holder's first assignment.
"The West Indies Cricket Board has learnt of the comments from head coach of the West Indies team Phil Simmons in the print and electronic media which appear to question the legitimacy of the selection process of the one-day international squad for the tour of Sri Lanka. As a result, the management of the WICB has taken action to suspend the head coach, pending an investigation into the issue," the board said in a statement. "The head coach will not now travel with the team on the tour of Sri Lanka."

Though West Indies' limited-overs squads for the tour had not been announced, Simmons revealed that "interference from outside" at a selection meeting on September 23 had kept all rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard out of the ODI side. Simmons said that he, as coach, and chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd had voted for their inclusion, but were outnumbered 3-2 despite Holder also wanting Bravo and Pollard in the team.

"I think it's disappointing from the fact that I haven't got the best 50-over ODI squad that we can select in the Caribbean," Simmons had said at a media conference, at the conclusion of the West Indies training camp at the 3Ws Oval in Bridgetown. "The chairman, Mr Lloyd, he came and he gave an exceptional speech saying that he thinks it is time they are back in the squad and he gave exceptional reasons for them being back in the squad. Unfortunately, when we went into the selection [meeting] we lost it 3-2. Him and myself - the captain [Holder] doesn't have a vote in this - but the captain also gave his views as to why they need to be back."

Bravo and Pollard have not been considered for ODI selection since they were dropped for the series in South Africa in January this year, and their omission from the World Cup squad generated plenty of debate. At the time Lloyd had said he had spoken to the two players and explained to them that the selection panel wanted to move on and give youngsters more chances.

Yaadboyz beat Florida Lightning by 5 wickets in Round 5

Yaadboyz CC managed another win in Round 5 of the SFSCL when they beat the Florida Lightning team at the Yard.

Lightning batted first and were bowled out for 99 with the wickets being shared around by Terry 3 wkts, Amar 3 wkts, Bayo 2 wkts, and Zaheer 2 wkts all within the 21 overs.

The Yaadboyz batsmen were under no serious pressure to make the 99 runs required but some good bowling from R Seepersaud with 4 wkts for 7 runs made sure the Yaadboyz batsmen applied themselves to get the score for the win.

Ravi 21 , Altaf 18, Basil 12 no, and Cliff 12 all chipped in with runs to gain the 6 points for their 4th win of the season.

Next week is a bye week for the Yaadboyz team with their next game scheduled in 2 weeks time against Starllite CC.

Division 2 Standings

1 Yaadboyz	5	4	0	0	0	27pts
2 BreakAway	4	4	0	0	0	24pts
3 Berbice	4	2	0	1	0	18pts
4 Lehigh	4	2	1	1	0	15pts
5 Warriors	5	2	2	1	0	15pts
6 Florida Lightning	4	2	2	0	0	12pts
7 Wild Fire	4	1	3	0	0	6pts
8 Lehigh Indians	4	1	3	0	0	6pts
9 Starlite	2	0	1	1	0	3pts
10 Miami Royals	3	0	3	0	0	0
11 Krishnar Tigers	3	0	3	0	0	0

Yaadboyz CC beat Lehigh Indians by 7 wickets Round 4

The road trip to Lehigh was again another journey full of fun from start to finish and more importantly another victory for the Yaadboyz CC in round 4.

The pre planned setoff time from Hibiscus was scheduled for 9am sunday morning but after heavy partying from all of the senior players from the Yaadboyz team the night before, the 15 seater setoff a little later than anticipated. Let's just say 10 20am was the about the correct departure time with some players arriving looking like they had drunk enough to last them a lifetime.

The funniest early morning sight even before we had setoff was watching certain thirsty players trying to manoeuvre their enormous triple story come dinner table family sofa cooler into the 15 seater. After a lot of planning, pushing and shoving  it sat itself nicely down on one of the primetime $20 front row seats for it's entire journey where it stayed happily until the journey end.

On the next trip we will all get one of these to make life easier for all concerned.

The game itself  was an easy victory for the Yaaadboyz as opening bowler Zaheer took out the first 5 Lehigh batsmen within his first 3 overs. He bowled superbly and claimed his first hat trick for his new team and was unlucky not to get a second hat rick which would of made history in the SFSCL. He infact claimed 5 wickets in 8 balls consecutively delivered. It was a dynamite opening spell from Zaheer who seems to get better every game he plays. The call went out of "Give him the nut cracker special" by one of his team mates later in the game which brought a smile to the Yaadboyz fielders faces and maybe a tear or two for the unlucky batsmen.......

Lehigh ended their innings after 25 overs with a score of 103.

When the Yaadboyz openers John and Cliff went to bat they knew a solid start was required in their own run chase. The time Cliff 37 was out the game was all but done and dusted as they reached the 103 score within 15 overs. It was a great team effort by all the Yaadboyz with solid contributions coming from Bayo, Retesh and Amar with the ball collectively.

After a few celebratory drinks and sampling  of the local cuisine hosted by the Lehigh team, we headed back to Ft Lauderdale with the hangover specialists sleeping off their 2 day headaches in the comforts of the 15 seater.

Once back in town the few die hard thirsty ones still standing headed into Hibiscus to drink a few more before wandering off into the darkness trying to remember where they lived and catch their beds.

All in all it was a successful trip for us with a win and the 6 points on offer as we now take full advantage of the next 7 days to recover and get ready for Florida Lightning at the Yard in round 5 next sunday.

Highlights and lowlights of the day.

Zaheer 5 wickets including a hat trick
Cliffy 37 sweeping innings
Johhno a fluent chanceless curing insomniacs innings of 24 not out
Skipper going off the field of play not injured but hungover
Retesh winning hit for four
English retiring from the field with a bad case of groin strain and the weather being too hot to play cricket syndrome.
Ravi appearing in body only. His spirit was drunk out the night before.


Other Results from Div 2

• Starlite - Bye
  
• Lehigh CC def. Florida Lightning
  
• Wildfire vdef. Krishnar
  
• BreakAway def. Warriors
  
• Berbice def. Miami Royals
  

Div 2 Current Standing

Team	Mat	Win	Lost	Tie	NR	PL	Points
Yaad Boyz	4	3	0	0	1	0	21
BreakAway CC	3	3	0	0	0	0	18
Lehigh CC	4	2	1	1	0	0	15
Berbice CC	3	1	0	1	1	0	12
Florida Lightning	3	2	1	0	0	0	12
Warriors CC	4	1	2	1	0	0	9
Wild Fire CC	3	1	2	0	0	0	6
Lehigh Indians	3	1	2	0	0	0	6
Starlite CC	2	0	1	1	0	0	3
Miami Royals CC	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Krishnar Tigers	3	0	3	0	0	0	0

PCL simulation match… Shiv Chanderpaul, Reifer turn in useful performances

Veteran Shiv Chanderpaul’s unbeaten 34 and a three-wicket haul from left-arm pacer Raymond Reifer highlighted the final day of the three-day simulation match for the Guyana team preparing for the 2015/2016 WICB’s Professional Cricket League (PCL) Four-Day First Class Franchise which ended at Bourda yesterday.

Resuming on 64-3 with Skipper Visual Singh (45) and Kemo Paul (4) Singh’s X1 lost Paul who was run out by the length of pitch in a terrible mix-up with Singh and once the captain was caught off the impressive Reifer, who produced ‘both way’ lateral movement off the seam, wickets tumbled in a heap on track which offered some help for the bowlers.
In Sunny conditions, Steven Jacobs (2) was LBW to medium pacer Chris Barnwell before left-arm Test spinner Veerasammy Permaul, accounted for Anthony Bramble (7); bowled with a ball that did not turn and Kemol Savory, caught at short-leg for a duck. Paul Wintz (6) was then caught behind off left-arm spinner Ray Nanan who bowled with consistency while Reifer had his fellow Bajan Jevon Searles (2) caught at second slip as he edged one that moved away from the right-hander as the innings folded for 124.

When Assad Fudadin’s X1 began their second innings they lost their Captain caught behind off Steven Jacobs, who troubled the batsmen yesterday with some quick turning off breaks. Taignarine Chanderpaul played in subdued fashion before, in rare showing of aggression, the left-hander clobbered Motie for six over long-on but he generally played with responsibility before an inexplicable swipe, which was skied to mid-on, accounted for his demise.
Taignarine’s father, 41-year-old Shiv Chanderpaul joined West Indies under-19 batsman Tevin Imlach and after a shaky start showed his son how it should be done by effortlessly flicking Motie way over the square-leg boundary.
The senior Chanderpaul demonstrated the value of 164 Tests and 345 First-Class matches experience, working the ball easily into the gaps while pouncing on every bad delivery as he flicked Anthony Adams to the mid-wicket fence and swept Motie disdainfully for four more.

Imlach (10*) looked a model of defence while showing a delightful repertoire of sound stoke-play. He offered excellent support to Chanderpaul in their unbroken partnership as Fudadin’s X1 reached 76-2 when played ended.
Next week will see more physical training along with ‘nets’ sessions before two three-day practice games are organised next month. The Guyana franchise begins the defence of their PCL title on November 6. The South American side will play their first three matches at home before playing Trinidad & Tobago at the Queen’s Park Oval and Jamaica at Sabina Park in their last two games for the year.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Lara Pad up For Injured British Soldiers

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag will be in a team that will be led by former England captain Andrew Strauss and managed by two legends of the game - David Gower and Michael Holding.

The who's who of world cricket will descend on The Oval in London on Thursday for a T20 match whose proceeds will go for the Help for Heroes Foundation in the United Kingdom. The Foundation takes care of wounded British soldiers

India's ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be part of the Heroes team that will be managed by David Gower and Michael Holding. Dhoni's team will be led by former England captain Andrew Strauss. Virender Sehwag, Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi and South African ace Herschelle Gibbs will be part of the star-studded line-up.

Dhoni told SKY Sports: "I am delighted to be joining so many cricketing superstars supporting such a worthy cause. I've always enjoyed playing cricket in England and I would urge all sports fans to support Help for Heroes and watch some truly world class performers in action."

Brendon McCullum will lead the Rest of the World team that will be managed by Sunil Gavaskar and Gary Kirsten. Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Mahela Jayawardene and Brian Lara will be part of McCullum's team. Afghanistan's Shapoor Zadran is also in the Rest of the World team.

LANDMARK.........30,000 Hits to our Site

Thanks to all the 30,000 visitors to our site so far.

30,000 hits to our site is probably the same amount of drinks our team have consumed since this site began.

We really do appreciate all the input and posts from our many visitors.

Thanks,

Yaadboyz CC

Yaadboyz CC beat Warriors Round 3

After a long vacation,retirement and born again reincarnation procedure by the British Admin, Yaadboyz CC blog is back, bigger, better, and still not sober for more reporting on our recent Fall season escapades in the SFSCL.

The first 2 games of the Fall season saw us beat Wildfire in round 1 and share the points against Berbice CC in a rain interrupted game in round 2.

Round 3 saw the Yaadboyz up against the unpredictable Warriors CC team who themselves had started the Fall season well.

Skipper Basil won the toss and invited Warriors to have a bat first in sweltering conditions with the temp in the high 80's. Not only was this a masterstroke decision by the captain but it also proved a major factor in allowing the beers to chill longer than normal. It was a great call by our skip as the beers went down a treat later in the afternoon at the perfectly chilled correct temperature.

Warriors found the express bowling of Zaheer too hot for them to handle and lost wickets upfront regulary. Retesh and Bayo bowled accurately to stifle the run flow and Ravi bowling his deceptive legside long hops took a decisive wicket to see Warriors all out for  low score of 70 in the 16th over. The outfielding showed signs of improvement with good catches taken and a run out that Johnno did well to complete.Cliffy, always with plenty of constructive ideas to voice to the bowlers and skipper, showed glimpses of his youth returning back with excellent stops in the outfield. Altaf remained on the mid wicket boundary all day keeping the fence company as hardly anything ended up near him. I guess he enjoyed the view from the boundary edge thinking about his first beer for the day instead to keep him busy.

One Warrior batsmen, (who shall remain anonymous to save face), decided batting against the hostile Zaheer was not a good idea and was better off retiring hurt rather than facing another nut cracker. He did make an appearance after the game end with normal colours returning back to his face. He seemed well enough to take a beer or two to ease his pains even though he was still walking leaning to the right side. Presumably it was his left side that got cracked. Zaheer 1 Nuts 0 !!!!

Use your bat next time......that's what it's meant for !!!!

The Yaadboyz knocked the required runs off with no issues. Johnno and Ravi batted sensibly as they scored 24 and 17 each. Some solid hitting at the end by Slim and Altaf saw the Yaadboyz take the win and start the celebratory drinking early o'clock.

We would like to thank Sal and his team for hosting us and enjoyed the food he provided as well as a cooler that we did our best to polish off for him. We would like to wish his team all the best for the remainder of the season. Sticking together when you lose regulary is hard but we have been doing that for many years now. Play together, win together, lose together, but more importantly have fun together. If you can follow these simple steps, then the rewards will come eventually, if not then it's best you go find an alternative sunday hobby.

Thanks again to our scorer Satti for a job well done as per usual.

Next week we are off to Lehigh against the Indians looking forward to a fun filled roadtrip and catching up with the Lehigh gang in round 4 of the SFSCL season.

Other Results in Div 2

• Berbice- Bye
  
• Florida Lightning def. Starlite
  
• Lehigh CC def. WildFire
  
• Indians def. Krishnar
  
• BreakAway def. Miami Royals
  

Division 2 Points Table 

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	PLost	Points	NR
Yaad Boyz	3	2	0	0	0	15	-
BreakAway CC	2	2	0	0	0	12	-
Florida Lightning	2	2	0	0	0	12	-
Warriors CC	3	1	1	1	0	9	-
Lehigh CC	3	1	1	1	0	9	-
Lehigh Indians	2	1	1	0	0	6	-
Berbice CC	2	0	0	1	0	6	-
Starlite CC	2	0	1	1	0	3	-
Krishnar Tigers	2	0	2	0	0	0	-
Miami Royals CC	1	0	1	0	0	0	-
Wild Fire CC	2	0	2	0	0	0	-