Finally……I have picked back up on the story behind how this cricket journalism thing evolved. As mentioned, I discovered the Caribbean Cricket website while in cold cold Nottingham. Very soon, I was on the message boards very regularly. No my schoolwork did not suffer :). West Indies was playing Australia in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. With my enthusiastic and ever optimistic self, I felt that with some dogged determination, West Indies could have won the match. So I was drumming up support. Then one of the original posters, Lawrence Romeo, said that the website accepted articles from random posters. I got to work.
So on Tuesday April 22, all the way back in 2003, I wrote my first cricket article on CaribbeanCricket.com. Scroll below to read it.
I am a lady and I’ve never played a game of cricket in my life, but those two ‘handicaps’ don’t prevent me from being a Fan. Capital F. And Fan-tastic is how I would describe the second Test so far. Four days of intriguing cricket have seen batsmen from both teams dominating bowlers and I?m looking forward to the last day with glee.
I’m not going to go through and tell you about what strategy Brian Lara must adopt to ensure a West Indies victory…I’ll leave that to the men! But like a good lady, I’m going to invite you to stand behind your men, the men of West Indies cricket, and get on board the Wednesday West Indies Wagon…The 3 Ws.
Cricket is not for the faint hearted, that’s why the West Indies team dominated world cricket for so long, because as a people, West Indians are fearless, full of spunk, gutsy and we like challenges. So does our captain. Still at the crease at the end of Day 4 having scored 52 and surviving a caught-and-bowled chance, Brian Lara seems to be relishing the challenge that getting another 300 runs provides.
He is not unaccustomed to being in this position. We remember Kensington Oval in 1999 against the same opponents. We remember the magnificent, unbeaten 153. A similar effort is required on Day 5, and with him is vice-captain Sarwan, equal to the task of getting a big score.
300 runs isn’t a lot of runs to get in a day when at least 90 overs have to be bowled. And the men tell me that we will have approximately 110 overs. The men also tell me that the wicket still playing ‘ok’, a few balls keeping a little bit low and so on. However, our young brigade to come — Samuels, Bernard and Baugh — are eager to come out, make the most of the wicket and show us the stuff of which they are made. We saw glimpses in the 1st innings, now is time for the full show.
This here lady says a victory is more than possible. Although it?s up to the cricketers, I’ve always been told that the people around us can give off positive energy and vibes to help the process along. So naysayers, hold your tongues. The Wednesday West Indies Wagon is rolling along with positive vibrations and Skipper Lara in the driver?s seat.
No pot holes, no tyre problems, just steady, nice and easy with West Indian supporters helping to drive it along to victory at Queens Park Oval. Get on board now.
Raaalllllyyyyyy.