Cricket
Jamaican, the three-time champion of the WICB Regionals, struggled with its batting in a match versus Windward Islands. The Jamaicans achieved 177 for six in the first innings in the second round match at Queen’s Park stadium. Marlon Samuels led the visitors with 40, while Tamar Lambert, Jamaican captain, had 35. Later, the Jamaicans have been victorious in three of four regional first-class matches with the Windwards.
Jamaica kept its position at the top of the rankings of the Caribbean Football Union with its highest FIFA ranking in the past six years. The Reggae Boyz rose 11 spots in the rankings to the 48th level. Cuba, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti round out the region’s top five.
Jamaica obtained a third-place finish at the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, due in part to the batting efforts of Danza Hyatt. Also, Dave Bernard had three wickets for 25 runs in four overs, while Odean Brown had three for 34 from his four overs. The third place ranking was an improvement over the team’s performance in 2010, when it finished in fourth place.
Nikita Miller joined the members of Jamaica’s senior cricket team at the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) final in Barbados. Miller was a member of the West Indies team that left the ICC World Cup at the quarter final. Miller will replace Akeem Dewar, 19, as a member of the 13-man team.
Football
Reggae Boyz – Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz were ready to face their opponents from Venezuela in a friendly international game at the end of March in Montego Bay’s Catherine Hall stadium. However, higher-than-usual ticket prices for fans were possible, since the stadium seats only 7,000. Limited gate receipts could mean a price hike to obtain future revenues.
The Reggae Boyz managed a win against El Salvador in March despite questionable decisions by the referees and the expulsion of one of their players in a hostile game environment. The Boyz obtained a victory of 3 to 2 in what might have been the first friendly international victory in Central America. Theodore Whitmore, the head coach, said the team was organized and in control and gave an overall good performance.
The Reggae Boyz, the Under-20 team, showed how impressive they can be when they defeated the Brazilian counterparts, the Sociedad Esportive Palmeirihna, at the Traffic Football Academy in March. The Jamaicans began the scoring with an effort by Marvin Morgan after 35 minutes. The Boyz won the match with a score of 2-0.
Olivia “Babsy” Grange, Jamaica’s Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture, issued her congratulations to the Young Reggae Boyz, the nation’s youth football team. The team qualified for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup with a victory over Honduras at CONCACAF in Montego Bay. Grange said the team showed how Jamaica’s youth can accomplish any goal as long as they receive appropriate guidance.
CONCACAF
The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) has the right to raise its allotment of slots in the World Cup competition from 3.5, according to its executive committee. CONCACAF wanted a guaranteed fourth spot in the World Cup match to be held in Brazil in 2014. A decision on the matter will be forthcoming from the FIFA executive committee in March 2011.
After months of anticipation, the CONCACAF Under-17 Finals, the last before the FIFA World Cup in Mexico, finally began in February with a double-header at Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall. Two favored teams, Costa Rica and the United States, participated in the games. Four of the 12 teams in the two-week tournament will join Mexico as CONCACAF representatives in the World Cup.
The Under-23 football team from Jamaica began their efforts to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London with a match against St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the first round of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) phase in Suriname. According to head coach Alfredo Montesso, the team had very productive training sessions and expected to perform well.
JeVaughn Watson, a member of the Reggae Boyz, said that the Premier League clubs in Jamaica should target United States Major League Soccer (MLS) as a transitional market for players, rather than sending them to Europe. Some 14 Jamaicans currently play in the MLS, and three of them are involved in this season’s championship game. Watson believes the U.S. developing status makes it a better fit for Jamaican players than Europe.
Women’s Football
FIFA and the Jamaican Football Federation (JFF) were co-hosts of the Women’s Football Com-Unity Seminar in Kingston. The meeting was held to develop girls’ and women’s football across the island. Horace Burrell, JFF president, said he had listened to the participants at the seminar and the coaches and decided that the development of women’s football would be a good thing for Jamaica.
Organizations like the Jamaica Football Federation provide a lesser degree of support for female football players than for their male counterparts. Female football teams continue to struggle with lack of support and lack of funding. However, Jamaican women in football have a high level of enthusiasm and commitment, reflecting the fact that the sport is the fastest growing female sport in the world. Some 26 million females play the sport worldwide. Sherwin Williams West Indies Ltd. has been the only firm in Jamaica for the past ten years to make a tangible investment in women’s football programs.
Track and Field
Although American Tyson Gay won the men’s 100-meters in Clermont, running the fastest time in the world thus far in 2011, Jamaica’s Nickel Ashmeade ran a personal best time of 9.96 seconds, compared to Gay, who ran the distance in 9.79.
Nickel Ashmeade won the men’s sprint championship at the Ponce Grand Prix in Puerto Rico. He is the first man to break the 20-second barrier in the 200-meter event this season. Ashmeade ran the 200 meters in 10.05 seconds.
Yohan Blake was named as the top male athlete of 2011 by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA). Bolt was named the World Male Athlete of the Year, but the JAAA felt that Bolt did not do enough to best Blake in this competition. Blake won the World 100 title in South Korea after Bolt’s false start disqualified him from the race. Blake also had the second-fastest 200-meter performance of all time at 19:26 seconds.
Yohan Blake, Jamaica’s IAAF World Championships 100-meter gold medal winner, became the second Jamaican nominated for the Laureus Sports Award in the category of World Breakthrough of the Year. Blake took advantage of Usain Bolt’s disqualification in the finals of the Daegu, South Korea, competition to become the youngest winner in history.
Yohan Blake achieved a personal best in the 100-meters to clock 9.82 seconds in Berlin. Blake, 21, easily defeated Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis. Blake took the world title in Daegu after Usain Bolt, his training partner, was disqualified.
Yohan Blake upstaged Usain Bolt at the Van Damme Memorial competition. Bolt ran the 100-meters with the season’s fastest time, but Blake, his training partner, ran his race with a time that was just .07 seconds off of Bolt’s world record. Blake surprised many at the meet by winning the 100-meter world title in Daegu after Bolt was disqualified for a false start. Blake himself was surprised by his time of 19.26 seconds.
Usain Bolt ran the 100-meters at a track-record speed of 9.85 seconds in Zagreb. With this time, Bolt smashed the recording of his rival, the American Tyson Gay, who had set the bar at 9.92 seconds in 2010.
Usain Bolt was disqualified from running the 100 meters due to a false start at the world championships race at Daegu, Korea. He was disappointed, but told reporters that there would be no tears. However, the disqualification means Bolt will not be able to win the “golden triple,” a gold medal in each of the 100, 200, and 4×100 relay competitions, which he had wanted to accomplish. Alan Bell, the starter who is responsible for disqualifying Jamaican champion sprinter Usain Bolt in the 100-meter race at the World Championships in South Korea, has been forgiven by Bolt’s mother, Jennifer. She told Bell that she and Wellesley, her husband, understood his decision. Bell, 60, said the decision was the easiest one he had ever made; the hard thing was dealing with the media.
Jamaica’s sprint champion Usain Bolt easily won the 200-meter race in Daegu. Bolt was disqualified from running in his signature 100 meter competition when he produced a false start in the race. Bolt redeemed himself by winning the 200-meter race with a time of 19.40 seconds.
Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter and world record holder decided to run in the 100-meter race in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia at the Golden Spike meet in May. Bolt holds the world record in the 200-meters says he will compete in the 50th edition of the event, but only recently announced the distance he would run. This will be Bolt’s fifth time at the meet.
Usain Bolt decided to miss the Jamaican National Track and Field Championships, according to Ludlow Watts, treasurer and chairman of the competition’s organizing committee. Bolt is not entered in the meet, and his manager issued a statement announcing that Bolt’s next competition will be in Paris in July.
Usain Bolt announced his plans to retire in 2016. Bolt, who holds the world record in the 100-meter and 200-meter distances, said he wants to use his time well and would like to end his career in 2016 before it becomes “tedious to do the same thing and win.”
Usain Bolt decided to run the 100 meters at Louis II Stadium in Monaco on July 22. According to Bolt, he looked forward to running in that nation for the first time. Bolt accepted a personal invitation from Monaco’s Prince Albert II, who is president of the Monaco Athletics Federation.
Jamaican sprint champion Usain Bolt wants the false-start rule to be changed. He believes that the authorities should reconsider the decision to disqualify an athlete for making a false start in a race. Bolt himself fell victim to the rule in the 100-meter race at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu and was disqualified.
Jamaica’s Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt was named World Athlete of the Year for the third time by the International Athletics Foundation. The award was made in Monaco. Bolt is now the second man in history to have won this major award three times.
According to Christian Maximilian Voigt, the head of global sports marketing and sports law for PUMA, Jamaican Usain Bolt represents a perfect partner for the company. Voigt believes that PUMA is very lucky to have the talented Olympic champion sprinter as a representative of the global shoe firm. Bolt is one of many internationally recognized sports legends that represent the 87-year-old firm.
Veronica Campbell-Brown received the 100-meter women’s championship at the Jamaican Nationals. Campbell-Brown achieved her victory in the 100 meters with a time of 10.84 seconds to defeat Kerron Stewart, Olympic 100-meter silver medalist.
Veronica Campbell-Brown, defending Olympic champion in the 200-meters, continued to perfect her performance to get ready for the Jamaica National Championships. She hoped for a season’s best of under 10.92 seconds in her final race at the Ostrava Golden Spike competition in the Czech Republic.
Sykes Facey and Kishka Kay O’Connor Anderson, two Jamaicans at the Chicago Marathon, turned in an impressive performance. Both runners finished the race with a high placement among the 15,500 female runners participating. Sykes Facey was injured at the start of the 26.2-mile race but finished in three hours, 30 minutes and ten seconds. O’Connor Anderson finished in three hours, 30 minutes, and 16 seconds. The marathon was run in temperature that reached the mid 80s, a factor for both runners. Sykes Facey placed 491st in the field of 15,500 females runners, while O’Connor Anderson place 494th. Both were in the top nine percent.
Usain Bolt took a first place finish in the men’s 200 meter race at the Diamond League in Stockholm, Sweden. His time was 20.03 seconds. Ainsley Waugh, another Jamaican team member took third place in the 200 meters with 20.56 seconds. Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer, Melaine Walker, and Nickiesha Wilson took first, second, and third places, respectively in the women’s 400 meter hurdles.
Fedrick Dacres was the first Jamaican to win a gold medal in the discus event at an IAAF athletics championship. He threw the discus 67/05 meters for a world record at the IAAF World Youth Championships in France. Dacres is coached at Calabar High School by Julian Robinson.
Vonette Dixon had one of her best performances of the 2011 season on the final day of the Senior Central America and Caribbean Championships in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Dixon took the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter hurdles final, clocking 12.77 seconds. Her win opened the way to a Jamaican sweep of medals in the sprint hurdles.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce brought up the last position in a field of seven runners in the 200 meters at the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League competition in New York. She ran the race with a time of 23.52 seconds, over half a second behind the winner, Allyson Felix, who clocked 22.92 seconds.
Jamaican Korene Hinds became the second winner from her country at the Bermuda International Race Weekend 2011. She ran the women’s 10-kilometer race in 33 minutes and 56 seconds to take the title. Hinds, who is 34 years old, took second place in the 10K in 2010. Kenia Sinclair from Jamaica won the women’s mile competition.
The Jamaican team participated in the 2011 World Masters Championships in Sacramento, California, and hoped to win medals after reaching two finals. Benson Ford was in fourth place in the Men’s 80-84 100 meters with a time of 17.66 seconds. Karl Smith withdrew from the men’s 50-54 100 meters when he suffered a possible hamstring injury.
Jamaica was officially named the host of the Carifta Games in 2011. The games were held in Montego Bay at Catherine Hall Stadium. The North America, Central America and Caribbean organizations (NACAC) announced the choice of Catherine Hal and said the 40th annual games would be held from April 23 to April 25, 2011. The arrangements were approved by the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA).
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce completed a six-month ban for using a prohibited drug as treatment for a toothache. She is the current 100-meter Olympic and world champion and returned to competition after her ordeal. She was concerned about the reception she would receive running in the Penn Relays, but has decided to focus on running as fast as she can.
Rosemarie Whyte, Davita Predergast, Novlene Williams-Mills, and Shericka Williams achieved a new national record in the women’s 4×400 meter race at the IAAF World competition in Daegu, South Korea. They clocked 3:18:71 and obtained the silver trophy.
The 117th Penn Relays represent one of the largest and most important sporting events for Jamaicans. Jamaicans have always had a major role in the success of the event, and Grace Foods, top food producer and distributor in the Caribbean, will continue its proud sponsorship of the 2011 games. Jamaican athletes compete with those from U.S. high schools and colleges, and yearly, many Jamaicans travel to the games to support the island’s high school track heroes.
Carrie Russell of the University of Technology led three Jamaicans who were victorious in individual college events at the 117th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four Jamaicans won the college women’s 100m championships, and Leaford Green won the men’s 400 m hurdles. Former St. Jago High School star Melissa Ogbourne won the college women’s triple jump.
Jamaica’s Asafa Powell has announced that he is withdrawing from competition in the 100 meter race. He suffered a groin injury in Budapest and had hoped it would improve enough to allow him to compete in the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace. However, he decided to withdraw from this meet in order to concentrate on preparations for the World Championships in Korea in three weeks. Asafa Powell said that a recent groin injury prevented the “break through” he had hoped for at the World Athletics Championship. Powell had to forego running at Daegu in South Korea, but will run in the Diamond League Competition, held in Zurich, Switzerland.
Asafa Powell sent a warning to his competition, notably Usain Bolt and other rivals for the world title, with the fourth-fastest 100-meter run in the history of the Diamond League. Powell ran 9.72 seconds on the same track in 2008, but achieved a world-leading time of 9.78 seconds at the meet. Powell, 29, was in excellent physical condition and says his goal is to maintain his training and to run faster.
Asafa Powell won an easy victory in the 100 meters at the Diamond League event held in Birmingham, England. The wet conditions at the race caused Powell to turn in a time of 9.91 seconds. He had reached a world-record time for 2011 with 9.78 in Switzerland ten days before. Powell said he only ran hard enough in Birmingham to win that particular event because of the damp, cold weather.
Kenia Sinclair ran three 800-meter races in under two minutes each, including her win at the Prefontaine Classic. She clocked 1:58:29 in that competition. The Jamaican focused on running more 1500-meter races in order to make her 800-meter performances stronger. As a side result, Sinclair is finding that she is a formidable mile runner. She also won the Grete Waitz 1500-meter in 4:08:06 at the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League competition.
Jamaican Kaliese Spencer ran a personal best in the women’s 400-meter hurdles at the Samsung Diamond Meet at Crystal Palace in London with a time of 52.79 seconds. This run put Spencer in ninth place on the all-time list and ranks her as the second-fastest Jamaican in history. Spencer is now favored to win a gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
The win by Kaliese Spencer in the 400-meter hurdles, eclipsed victories for Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown at the International Association of Athletics Association (IAAF) Diamond League meet. Spencer, the defending champion, ran the race in 54.20 seconds. Campbell-Brown, 29, won the women’s 100 meters, on her birthday, with a time of 10.92 seconds.
The USA vs. Jamaica Challenge will see the repeat of one of the great women’s sprint rivalries of the first decade of the 21st century. The meet will pit three Americans against three Jamaicans in both men’s and women’s 60-meter sprints. Lauryn Williams, the 2005 World 100-meter champion will return in 2011 to face her rival, Jamaican sprint champion Veronica Campbell-Brown. Brown beat Williams in 2007 in a photo finish for the 100-meter world title. The men in the USA vs. Jamaica Challenge will feature Mike Rodgers, 60-meter silver medalist, Trell Kimmons, and Ivory Williams Jamaican Nesta Carter will also compete in the Challenge.
Jamaican sprint champion Usain Bolt took a break from his running schedule to help young runners in southern California. Bolt says he always has fun with kids and enjoys teaching them and inspiring them. Bolt is also making additional appearances in Los Angeles before returning to Jamaica.
Melaine Walker won a silver medal for Jamaica in the women’s 400-meter hurdles in Daegu. She ran a personal best of 52.73 seconds. Walker was the defending champion going into the competition, but finished second behind Lashinda Demus of the United States, who clocked a world-leading time of 52.47 seconds.
Other Sports
Jamaica could be the host of the 2012 Scottish Highland Games. A feasibility study conducted by Lord Jamie Sempill of Edinburgh said it would provide an opportunity for Scots to visit Jamaica and for Jamaicans to reconnect with their Scottish heritage. The historical relationship between the island and Scotland goes back some 400 years, and evidence of it is found in place names and surnames throughout Jamaica. The games would coincide with the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence.
Deaf athletes from all over Jamaica met at Manchester High School to participate in National Sports Day. This was the second year of the event, which was organized by Deaf Sports Jamaica (DSJ). The event included netball, basketball, recreational table tennis, six-a-side football, and athletics, and all competitions were conducted fairly and with fun. Some 350 athletes participated in the event, most coming from Kingston, Brown’s Town, May Pen, and Mandeville.
Damion Robb, Jamaican musher, finished the six-mile and four-mile sprint races in first place at the yearly Marmor SnoFest. Robb, who lives in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, enjoys the “absurdity” of being a dogsled racer from Jamaica. Robb, 24, is a full-time musher and receives lots of support when he races in Canada and the United States. He has been racing for five years.
Olivia Grange, Jamaican Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, praised the performance of the Jamaican team at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece, as “inspirational.” The team came away with 31 medals, 12 of which were gold, 14 silver, and 5 bronze. At a luncheon to celebrate the victories in St. Andrew, Grange said everyone on the team was a winner, since they overcame a variety of challenges to achieve their victories.
Jamaican gymnast won a Level 8 team trophy at the Whitlow International Invitational competition in Orlando, Florida, achieving a score of 218,400 points. Locally based Nishida’s Gymnastics and Fitness Center in Cross Road was represented by Daniel Williams, Jiovanna Jackson, and Jamin Melbourne. The Jamaican team won four of six events to win the team trophy. They won the floor exercise, vault, parallel bars, and high bars. A second place was achieved in the pommel horse, and a third on still rings.
Shane Hudson received a silver medal for his 49.43 second performance at the Parapan American Games in Mexico. This is the first medal for a Jamaican Paralympian in an international track competition. Sylvia Grant, also a Jamaica, earned a silver medal in the women’s javelin with a throw of 20.36 meters.
Carl Whyte, Jamaican golfer, is one of the participants in the reality series “Big Break” on the Golf Channel. The series plays golf professionals against each other for the ultimate prize: playing in the PGA tour, plus over US$50,000. Whyte, who is from Green Mount in Manchester, now lives in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Knox College.
Jaida Lawrence and Toni-Ann Williams placed 152nd and 167th, respectively, during the individual all-around qualification at the 43rd Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Lawrence finished 30th overall in the vault, 185th in the uneven bars and balance beam, and 181st in floor exercise. Toni-Ann had her best performance ever on the balance beam despite tearing out the middle of the palm of her right hand during the competition. She placed 86th in the competition. Physicians taped up her hand and she went on to compete in all four events.
The ten members of the “Y” Speedos Swim Club in Jamaica came in third at the Mike Lockwood Memorial Invitational Swim Meet in Grand Cayman. The club received three individual age-group championship trophies as well. Angara Sinclair won in the girls’ 11-12 age group, Michael Bradshaw won the girls’ 9-10 age group, and Cameron Brown won the boys’ 9-10 group trophy. The team as a whole received over 35 medals.
Shacquille Sinclair and Oshana Williams, professional cyclists participating in the Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada in July, performed well, according to Iona Wynter Parks, first vice president of the Jamaica Cycling Federation. The two riders were the only ones in the race from a Caribbean island. For five of the seven stages, Sinclair was in the main field, 3.33 minutes behind the leader on General Classification.
Five Jamaicans are ready to represent the homeland in the two-day Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships in Puerto Rico. Shacquille Sinclair and Oshane Williams will lead the Jamaican contingent in the time trials and 17-to-18 road race age category. Also racing will be Dervin Myers, Jermar Brissett, and Owen Cardoza Jr. All are competing in the championships for the first time.
Jamaican Newton Marshall rose to prominence in 2009 when he entered the Yukon Quest dogsled race in that year. He finished in 13th place, a respectable showing for a rookie racer, and fans acknowledged that the Jamaican was a real competitor. He is a favorite with the media and with fans, but he has come up from extreme poverty, bad education, and overcome personal obstacles to get to where he is. His story is told in a new book by John Firth called “One Mush,” which examines the events that brought Marshall to international fame.
Jamaica handed Zimbabwe a defeat at the second Tri-Nation Ladies Polo Tournament at the Kingston Polo Club in St. Catherine. Jamaica won 4 goals to 3.5 goals. A star of the match was Jamaica’s Rachel Turner, who scored two goals from 40-yard penalties. She then scored a full field goal, which gave Jamaica its first international victory.
The Jamaica Surfing Association’s National Governing Body is partnering with the Jamnesia Surf Club to look for sponsors for the first professional surf contest in Jamaica. The contest will highlight the top surfers in Jamaica in multiple events. The series will take place at the island’s prime surfing locations. The top six Jamaican surfers chosen for the series are Icah Wilmot, Inilek Wilmot, Ackearn Phillips, Shane Simmonds, Luke Williams, and Jason Pusey.
Controversies/Penalties
Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), says that the record-breaking performances of Jamaican athletes during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were the result of doping. He believes that Usain Bolt and other Jamaicans may have utilized illegal methods to obtain their gold medals. Conte says that he was told Jamaicans were using testosterone and other substances he used during his tenure at BALCO to achieve their wins. Conte says he does not have proof to back up his suspicions, but believes Bolt’s record-breaking results and those of others prove his point.
An up-and-coming sprinter who was expected to represent Jamaica in Daegu, South Korea, at the IAAF World Championships in three weeks has had a positive drug test. The test was administered at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association/Supreme Ventures National Senior Championships at the end of June 2011.The test revealed the presence of a masking agent, generally used to prevent the detection of banned or illegal substances like anabolic steroids or stimulants. The athlete in question has been notified and must face a disciplinary hearing, ruling him out of the championship competition.
Max Alce, Haiti’s Charge d’Affairs, was recalled for consultations following the expulsion of Haiti’s national football team under 17 (U-17) by authorities in Jamaica. The decision was made after several Haitian team members were hospitalized with fever and suspected of suffering from malaria. Authorities from Haiti sent protest notes to Jamaica about the discrimination faced by its U-17 members. The Haitian Chancery plans to bring the matter before CARICOM, informing the organization that this behavior could harm relations between the two nations.
Football players who do not inform the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) when they decline national call-ups will find themselves sanctioned by the government entity in the future. The JFF and the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) confirmed a meeting in which they decided to make the technical infrastructure of football much stronger. The agencies also want to improve the coordination between them. Unless they have a good reason, players must respond “favorably” to the national call-ups.
Executives from the Bahamas 2011 Carifta team claimed that Jamaican representatives have challenged the field, suggesting that no other nation will be winning gold medals at the junior track and field meet. According to Harrison Petty, BAAA sponsor and president of the BAAA Parents Association, Jamaica has “dared” the Bahamas to win gold and noted that this “trash talk” will be used as a catalyst to motivate the Bahamian team.
Directors of the WICB met to decide whether or not Chris Gayle will be featuring in the Test series against India. The Jamaican batsman has caused some controversy with comments he made during an interview with an island radio station. Gayle’s future is uncertain, and he is not scheduled to play in the first Test against India at Sabina Park on June 20. The WICB said his comments created “ill will” with the team’s management.
1Chris Gayle could take the position of captain of Jamaica’s national team for the WICB Regional Super50 Championship tournament in Guyana. He has been recommended for the post and is waiting for ratification from the Jamaica Cricket Association. He has not led the team for the past three years, but would still offer considerable experience to the role after acting as a former West Indies captain. His presences on the team would be a major batting boost and could help Jamaica’s chances to win.
American Chris Gayle defeated his former franchise Kolkata Knight Riders and achieved a nine-wicket win with his new team Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gayle took some time to gauge conditions and bowlers, but ultimately unleashed an excellent performance that appeared to have a note of revenge in it, according to some observers.
According to Fritz Harris, secretary of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), the request from Chris Gayle for clarification from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is reasonable. Gayle has asked what comments of his offended the board and prompted a request to withdraw them. The WICB asked for the retraction of comments Gayle made in regard to the board and its officers.
Steve Mullings, Jamaican runner, tested positive for drugs ahead of the world championship meet in Daegu, South Korea. Mullings was rated as the third-fastest man and could face a lifetime ban from the sport as a result of testing positive for the masking agent furosemide. This drug is generally used to hide the presence of banned substances. This was Mullings’ second drug offense. He was sentenced to a lifetime ban from athletics for his second doping offense. A three-man disciplinary panel of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission found him guilty of using a banned substance.
Lawrence Rowe, legendary batting star for the West Indies, started a legal action against the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA). He is fighting the organization’s decision to withdraw his name from the Players’ Pavilion in Sabina Park. Rowe’s name was withdrawn after he made remarks during an interview that were seen as controversial by the JCA. He was one of several players to defy international sanction and played in South Africa during its years of apartheid; he was subsequently banned from cricket, and his international career ended.
The International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body of cricket, has cleared Marlon Samuels, the West Indies batsman, to play again in international matches. It has been over three years since Samuels was banned from competition for an illegal bowling action. Samuels, 30, said it felt good to be able to bowl again in international competition.
