By: CPL, Press Release

Barbados Tridents (186-2) beat St. Lucia Zouks (157-4) by 29 runs

Wednesday 23rd July 2014, Bridgetown, Barbados   — The Barbados Tridents made the most of home advantage against the St. Lucia Zouks as they scored the highest total of this year’s Limacol Caribbean Premier League to set up a comprehensive victory. A century from local man Dwayne Smith was the star performance, the second hundred of this edition of the tournament. Having been set such a daunting target, the Zouks never looked like reaching it under the Kensington Oval lights. The Tridents’ victory keeps them in touch with the leading teams, but the Zouks’ third successive loss leaves them struggling.

Smith was in fine form from the first over, destroying the left arm spin of Roelof van der Merwe, as he hit 18 runs off the South African to give the Tridents an excellent start. The second over saw Sohail Tanvir pick up the wicket of Shane Dowrich for a golden duck before rain took the teams off the field. A relatively short delay saw no overs lost, and when the game got back under way, Smith was joined by Shoaib Malik.

An excellent over from Darren Sammy at the end of the power play checked the progress of the home side slightly, but not for long as they reached 78 for one at the half way stage. A platform had been put in place for a big total, with Smith looking to make the most of the base he had set. The Bajan opener reached his half century of just 39 balls and he always looked like going very big.

Smith’s partnership of 110 with Malik was the perfect contrast in styles. While Smith is booming bat and big shots, Malik is about glides and touches that he times to the boundary. With his team mate going so well, Malik was more than happy to give the strike to Smith, but the Pakistani was capable of finding the ropes. One cut shot off Tino Best travelled so fast, it was a blur as it left the bat. The next ball was a slower one that was just as sweetly timed by Malik for another four.

** That over cost Best 16 runs, but also brought him Malik’s wicket. This was not without controversy as the two men shared some angry words as the batsman headed back to the dressing rooms. A timely intervention from Zouks captain, Sammy, helped to calm things down as he explained to his bowler that he was crossing the line.

[** Cozier on Cricket below for detailed account of Malik and best incident]

While the kerfuffle took place, Smith carried on as before, bringing up his century with a six over mid wicket off the 68th ball he faced, the penultimate delivery of the innings. He repeated the feat off the last ball to finish on 110 not out. It was Smith’s highest score in T20 cricket and the first ever hundred in this format at the Kensington Oval. He was ably supported at the death by his captain, Kieron Pollard, who finished on an undefeated 18.

A target of 187 was always going to be difficult for the Zouks, but Johnson Charles made a good fist of it in the opening exchanges. In the second over, he hit a “helicopter” shot for six that India captain, MS Dhoni, would be proud of. If the Zouks were going to get close, they would need one of the openers to bat for the majority of the innings. A bullet throw from Ravi Rampaul that hit the stumps from well over 40 yards away ran out Charles by a few feet, so ending his hopes of fulfilling that role.

That left the responsibility of managing the chase with Henry Davids, and he was lucky not to depart inside the power play as Jonathan Carter failed to hold on to a difficult catch off the bowling of Jason Holder. The South African opener failed to make the most of his life, hitting the ball straight into the hands of Dwayne Smith on the leg side boundary for Holder to claim his wicket for 22. It was a stop start knock as he struggled to dominate the Tridents bowling in the way Smith had managed in the opposition’s innings.

The Zouks players struggled to go at better than a run a ball as some excellent Tridents bowling first from Holder, and then from Rayad Emrit, meant that a climbing required rate and falling wickets made victory a forlorn hope. When Darren Sammy departed second ball without scoring, even forlorn hopes were missing.

A very expensive over from Akeal Hosein that went for 20 gave the Zouks a glimmer, but it was always too little, too late. Keddy Lesporis played a mature innings of 50 not out, and an entertaining cameo from Tanvir of 38 off 18 balls gave the visitors something to cheer, even if it didn’t give them victory.

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COZIER ON CRICKET: CPL’s hot potato slip

By Tony Cozier From Caribbean American Passport

WHEN Shane Warne, the legendary Australian leg-spinner, and Marlon Samuels, the stylish if not so legendary West Indies batsman, angrily fronted up to each other on the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January 2013, Cricket Australia’s chief executive officer James Sutherland saw it as “something that only inspires a greater rivalry between two Melbourne teams and creates interest in the Big Bash League”.

It is presumably not a view publicly shared by other officials regarding the subsequent high-profile, on-field clashes between players; they would rather deal with such matters promptly and move on.

So it was when Barbados and West Indies fast bowler Tino Best and Pakistani batsman Shoaib Malik fronted up to each other after Best had knocked back Malik’s legstump in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL) match between Best’s St Lucia Zouks and Malik’s Barbados Tridents at Kensington Oval on Wednesday night.

Television coverage beamed, according to CPL chief executive Damien O’Donohue, to over 200 million sets worldwide, showed Best’s feisty celebrations carrying through until he was within touching distance of Malik. Whatever was said, it prompted Malik to turn back and meet Best face-to-face.

Umpires Gregory Brathwaite and Joel Wilson, two of the West Indies’ best, stepped in and later made a report to match referee, the Jamaican Denovan Hayles. Zouks captain Darren Sammy intervened to placate his rampant bowler.

That was not the end of it.

There was a further flare-up between Best and the Tridents’ captain Kieron Pollard on the teams’ return to the Hilton hotel, their base for the Barbados leg of the tournament

Credible eye-witnesses said that it was so heated they feared it would come to blows. Eventually, as the media reported, the two were separated by Sammy.

Again enhancing his standing as a strong leader, Sammy then escorted Pollard onto the beach and met with Best separately to cool them down.

It would not have been a straightforward task. As their records show – Best’s more clearly than Pollard’s – both are combustible characters in the heat of the contest.

The issue was further intensified by tweets from Malik’s wife, the Indian tennis player Sania Mirza, and Lendl Simmons, the Trinidad and Tobago batsman with the Guyana Amazon Warriors franchise.

Mirza raised the always contentious issue of race. Simmons simply taunted Best against whom he has had his battles in regional cricket over the years.

Mirza’s message read: “Racial abusing on a cricket field? Disgusting. I know [Shoaib] didn’t hit him but now I wish he would have.”

It was a serious charge at a time when all sporting bodies, among them the International Cricket Council (ICC), have introduced strict anti-racism regulations.

Here was an opportunity for the CPL, in its second year of operation, to publicly state in unequivocal terms that it would not stand for such behaviour in its tournament. It would have been a precise, positive message to players and public alike.

Instead, citing the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Code of Conduct, the governing code for the CPL, it announced simply the following day that both players had been fined for their on-field clash.

It also stated that it was investigating the “incident” at the team hotel but dismissed it as “minor and no one was hurt”.

Malik was docked 50 per cent of his match fee for breaching the code relating to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play”; Best lost 60 per cent of his match fee for two separate offences.

The second was far more serious and cost him 50 per cent. It charged Best with violating the clause in the code relating to “using language or a gesture(s) that is seriously obscene, seriously offensive or of a seriously insulting nature to another player.”

So was this what Malik’s wife meant by “racial abusing on a cricket field”?

It was a question the CPL left unanswered. It stated only that both players pleaded guilty to the charges against them so that the match referee was not required to hold any hearings into the incident.

Surely, it was its responsibility to undertake a thorough examination of what is a sordid issue with the potential to tarnish the reputation it has established in just two years.

O’Donohue asserted on the tournament’s website on Friday: “We take our responsibility to ensuring that we protect and promote the integrity of the tournament and the game itself very seriously.”

His comment was in relation to the arrest of three unnamed individuals for “suspicious behaviour at CPL games over the course of the tournament so far”.

Behaviour on and off the field of play is even more critical to ensuring the integrity of the tournament.

Not that the CPL is alone in its approach to controversy.

When Mitchell Starc, the left-arm Australian swing bowler, and Pollard engaged in an ugly confrontation in an Indian Premier League match in Mumbai last May they were penalised by match referee Andy Pycroft with match-fee fines – 75 per cent for Pollard, 50 per cent for Starc – and things moved on.

This was no ordinary spat. Starc, of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, had peppered Pollard with short-pitched bowling. “Words were exchanged”, to use the accepted jargon after Pollard had to hurriedly evade one bouncer. As Starc was on his approach for the next ball, Pollard pulled out of his stance. The Aussie responded by hurling the ball past him to the keeper, prompting a furious Pollard to throw his bat towards Starc.

They paid their fines and played on – as Best and Malik will do here.

• Tony Cozier is the most experienced cricket writer and commentator in the Caribbean.

Read more http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/cozier-on-cricket-cpls-hot-potato-slip/

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Three arrested for suspicious behaviour’

From Trinidad Express

Three individuals have been arrested for suspicious behaviour at Limacol Caribbean Premier League games over the course of the tournament so far.

This was announced by the CPL in a media statement yesterday which said the arrests came as a result of ongoing monitoring by representatives of the CPL and the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The CPL also confirmed to the Express that the arrests were not related to match-fixing and that no CPL representatives or any players were involved.

The arrests were made in Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad. However the persons arrested were not from Caribbean territories.

In its release, the CPL also stated its “commitment to running a clean tournament and operating within the set ICC rules and regulations.”

“In line with this commitment, CPL has ensured that its staff are well able to identify any instance of corrupt or illegal behaviour by providing extensive training to them on what to be aware of,” the release added.

CPL CEO Damien O’Donohoe said the CPL will not tolerate any illegal activities.

He said: “We take our responsibility to ensuring that we protect and promote the integrity of the tournament and the game itself very seriously.”

“Put simply, we have a zero tolerance policy towards any forms of corruption or illegal activity and will deal with it quickly and effectively through the appropriate channels.

“We are working closely with all our partners —the ICC, the police and ground security in each of the Limacol Caribbean Premier League venues —and would like to thank them for their efforts on our behalf,” O’Donohoe added.

For more on this story go to: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Three-arrested-for-suspicious-behaviour-268678182.html?m=y&smobile=y