One of the most favoured and popular Cricketers for CPL season will not be playing this year.
A missed drug test is considered a failed drug test by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Andre Russell failed to file his whereabouts for missed tests in 2015 for 3 occasions. As a result, he is now banned for a year from playing All Cricket by the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission.
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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​Basil ‘Shotgun’ Williams played 7 tests for the West Indies between 1978 and 1979, that included two entertaining centuries. He had an impressive test average of 39.08 and an average of 36.02 in the regional first class game.
He continued with his career in local cricket, including his Captaincy of the Jamaica Cricket team.
HOME AND HAPPY: Jamaica’s victorious cricket team returned home on March 12, 1984 after their thrilling win over the Leeward Island in the Geddes Grant/ Harrison Line Limited over competition in Antigua last Saturday. Photo shows captain Basil Williams with the prized trophy (centre) and manager Bill Bennett (second left).
Shotgun retired from the Jamaica team in 1986 on a high note and remained involved in the sport as a Selector, Board member, Team manager and of course had a few knocks in Club Cricket before he migrated to the US.
Basil ‘Shotgun’ Williams died of a heart attack in Atlanta, Georgia on this day last year, October 2015.
Toni-Ann Williams has started off with a good vault just making a step outside the lines with her landing, scoring 14.1 but made a few mistakes on the uneven bars and another step on her landing, making her score a low 11.533. Hang in there Toni-Ann, more events to come and the top 24 Gymnasts make it to the All-Around. She is currently in 18th place.
Tennis
Venus Williams lost in the 1st round vs. Belgium’s Flipkens in a 3-set tie break yesterday. Venus allowed Flipkens to come back from 4-1 down in the 3rd.
Who won the 1st Gold Medal?
The USA, in shooting. Go figure.
Swimming
Our Alia Atkinson and Timothy Wynter will be in the pool today starting at 12:56pm.
CPL T20
Photo: www.cricbuzz.com
Russell made the fastest 100 in CPL history off of 41 balls to help the Tallawahs beat the Knight Riders into the final. They will face the Warriors who beat them the other day to claim their Finals berth.
Will the Warriors lose their 3rd final or will the Tallawahs make history and be the only team to win 2 CPL T20 titles?
The finals will be in St. Kitts today at 6pm Ja time and 7pm St. Kitts time.
Congrats to the Jamaica Tallawahs for winning 4/4 at home! Last night they beat the Barbados Tridents who opted to field first, by 36 runs.
Thank goodness Chris Gayle has a stronger team this time around, especially since he is injured. He was dismissed early again but Chadwick Walton was the one last night who stepped up and scored 97 with the support of Sangakkara and he won Man of the Match.
Photo: @cpl (Twitter)
The Tallawahs had an all around performance throughout the 4 games here. Well deserved victories.
It was a pleasure to see so many Jamaicans come out and support the Cricket, drinking or not drinking. Well done CPL. For those who actually follow the CPL, the Tallawahs leave home at the top of the table.
Photo: cplt20.com
There are more matches to be played in St. Lucia followed by Florida who does not have a team and then the Playoffs and Final will be played St. Kitts. The Final will be played on Sunday, August 7. Continue to support the Tallawahs by tuning in to TVJSN, Sportsmax, ESPN Caribbean or any other Sports Channel that may be showing the matches.
You can also follow CPLT20 (@CPL) on twitter to keep up and tweet your support.
The Tallawahs will play St. Lucia next on Saturday, July 30 in Lauderhill, Florida.
CPL T20 will be at Sabina Park starting today! The Guyana Amazon Warriors are on top but will the Jamaica Tallawahs who are just 1 spot away take over in Ja? Schedule:
Tonight at 8pm: Jamaica Tallawahs vs Guyana Amazon Warriors
Saturday at 6pm: Tallawahs vs. St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots
Monday at 8pm: Tallawahs vs. Trinbago Knight Riders
The West Indies men had a superb start to their innings with a wicket before England made any runs. Badree was on fire with both bowling and fielding and seemed to aggravate a shoulder injury towards the end of the innings after he made a lovely catch. Thankfully he had done all the work he needed to do already. England ended their innings on 155/9.
The pressure was then put on England. Even though their wickets fell quickly, pressure was still on the West Indies as well because the score of 155 was the second highest number of runs made in World T20 final history.
England responded well to the pressure and fought hard. They got 2 crucial early wickets, with Charles (1) and Gayle who just scored one boundary. Gayle has an issue timing the ball and needs to address it by being receptive to proper coaching for his shortfall.
Simmons went for a duck but Samuels was still there taking it easy with runs. There was a scare when he was called out for being caught by the wicket keeper but got called back as ‘not out’ when the umpires reviewed England’s wicket keeper scooping the ball off of the field into his glove claiming he caught it. Aussie tactics maybe? Thankfully justice was in our favour and Samuels had another chance to repeat or improve a possible game-winning performance as he did in 2012 when the Windies won their first T20 title.
England also dropped a crucial catch and missed running out Samuels as well, which definitely hurt them in the end.
Bravo stuck with Samuels for a little while and then he went. When Russell was caught for 1 and Captain Sammy came and went for 2, we knew this would end up being another nail biter for the West Indies and their fans. All of India who hosted the tournament were behind them as well, even though we booted them out in the semis.
Then we had the pair of Samuels and Brathwaite. It all came down to get 19 runs off of 6 balls!
What happened?! Strength, no weakness!
Watch “ICC T20 World Cup 2016 Final – Carlos Brathwaite Hit 4 Winning Sixes in Last Over” on YouTube here:
The West Indies won with the highest score in T20 history of 161/6.
Marlon Samuels was named Player of the Match with scoring 85* and was awarded with a Hublot watch. India’s Virat Kohli was named Player of the Tournament.
However, it was Samuels’s speech after he received his Player of the Match Award that was negative yet quite hilarious. At the end of answering his questions he made it a point to call out or send a message rather, to Australian Bowler, Shane Warne that he answers with his bat and not the mic.
On a more positive note, the West Indies now hold 3 titles this year with the Under 19 squad as World Cup Champions and the senior Men and Women teams as World T20 Champions.
With the Windies’ CPL T20 experience, their performance wasn’t perfect but they delivered.
Rally round the West Indies!
By: Gabrielle Williams (Daughter of Basil ‘Shotgun’ Williams)
The West Indies Women dancing and singing, ‘Champion, Champion….’
The West Indies Women have done it! They have won their first ICC World T20 final, beating the Defending Champs for 3 years, the Australians by 8 wickets.
The opening women stuck it out for the majority of their innings. 18 year old, Hayley Matthews won Woman of the Match with 66 runs and Captain Stafanie Taylor won Player of the Tournament with 246 runs at an average of 41. Today she made 59 runs.
It was a spectacular final. The Australian bowlers failed to find much dot balls (deliveries bowled without any runs scored off it, so called because they are recorded in the score book with a single dot) and most importantly, in the last over, they missed a crucial opportunity for a run out right by the wicket, giving the West Indies women the 2 runs they needed to win.
The West Indies men were there to show their support and the Captain for the men, Darren Sammy also sent messages of encouragement before the match and with various tweets.
Well done ladies, now it’s time for the men versus England!
England beat New Zealand impressively yesterday and have booked their spot in the ICC World Cup T20 Final. The New Zealand women also lost in their Semifinal to the West Indies women. The West Indies women won by 6 runs and have now made their first World Cup T20 Final! Good luck to the ladies.
In the other Men’s Semifinal today, West Indies will face India who have quite a balanced bowling line up for our inconsistent batsmen.
The West Indies Under 19 Cricket Team won the ICC World Cup vs India! Signs of a good future? Maybe not. They only scored 146 runs in 49.3 overs to win, however the bowling and fielding were impressive.
It is the first major title on any level that the West Indies has won since the senior team won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2012.
FOOTBALL
Photo: www.theguardian.com
Arsenal put a dagger in Leicester’s campaign to win the Barclay’s Premier League title yesterday with Welbeck’s header in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 victory.
Leicester’s only goal was from a penalty kick at the end of the first half that probably shouldn’t have been awarded. They got a red card at 54′ downsizing them to 10 men, then Walcott of Arsenal equalised at 70′.
Here is a look at the BPL table now:
There was exciting action in La Liga yesterday too. Lionel Messi had an unbelievable Penalty kick, where it was Barcelona 6-1 Celta Vigo! Watch it here!
BASKETBALL  – NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND
Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon put on a show for the Slam Dunk Contest! Zach LaVine reclaimed his title from last year with all 10s.
Klay Thompson defeated Splash brother, Steph Curry with 27 points in the final round to win the All Star Weekend 3-point shoot out competition. Thompson tied Curry’s score of 27 last year for the most points ever in the All Star 3-point shoot out competition.
The West beat the East, 196-173 with the record for the most points in a half, 92 and both sides surpassed the record for the most combined points in a half, 92-90.
Russell Westbrook got MVP for the 2nd straight year with 31 points.
Paul George of Pacers was on fire with 41 points, just 1 point shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 42 for the most points scored in an NBA All-Star game. Paul George also had the most 3-pointers in the game with 9.
This was also Kobe Bryant’s last All-Star game. All the greats were there to watch including the Greatest of all time, Michael Jordan a.k.a MJ. The commentator confirmed it saying, he IS still the greatest of all time. MJ sent his best wishes to Kobe. The other ‘MJ’, Majic Johnson also did a tribute. Kobe follows the 2 MJs with his level of skill and greatness. Kobe we salute you!
The WICB/WIPA 3rd Annual Player’s Award function was held last Tuesday, June 9th in the Ball Room of The Jamaica Pegasus with Cocktails at 6pm, Dinner and Ceremony at 7pm. Which function starts on time in Jamaica?! This one started before time! Kudos to the organizers and MC Michael Hall for keeping it flowing. He did his best seeing that there were no menus or programmes given to guests.
Special guests included Lady Allen, Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Dr. Wykeham McNeil, Sirs Richie Richardson, Curtly Ambrose, Andy Roberts, Everton Weekes and Clive Lloyd. Ambassador Courtney Walsh and WI Coach, Phil Simmons were also in attendance, along with members of the Australian team here for the test this weekend versus the West Indies.
Since guests were served on time and each course was in quick succession after the other, we were allowed to enjoy greetings by the Presidents of the WICB and WIPA, Dave Cameron and Wavell Hinds respectively topped off by a fabulous speech by Guest Speaker, past WI fast bowler, politician and minister of the church, Sir Wesley Hall in the mean time. His eloquence, use of vocabulary and ability to captivate the audience’s attention was sensational. He went over his time I am sure, but with his stories, humour and words of inspiration and encouragement to current cricketers, it was a pleasure to listen for more. He reminded players that talent alone doesn’t earn success, but work ethic and discipline as well. There is also no ‘I’ in team, the team wins and players contribute. Wise words by Wes. I surely hope the young and upcoming cricketers walked away from the function with a totally new, fresh, positive outlook. I surely would.
The West Indies Women’s Cricket team were congratulated for winning the ODI series, 3-1 on their Sri Lanka tour as well as the T20I series, 2-1 earlier in May this year. Good job ladies!
The event was aired live on Sportsmax and another channel. IGL, ICWI, Grace Kennedy and other sponsors were thanked for their support. It was a pity that a lot of invited or expected guests did not show, leaving many empty seats, as the event provided a pleasant reminder of the West Indies and quality players in its hay-day and highlighted current and upcoming talent. The Ashe Performing Arts Ensemble gave a vibrant, refreshing performance to close the night. As this event is young, Suga expects even better next year.
Some winners of the night were as follows:
Under 19 Team of the Year – Guyana
Under 19 Player of the Year – Shimron Hetmyer
First class Team of the Year – Barbados
1-Day Cricketer of the Year – Denesh Ramdin
Test Cricketer of the Year – Kraigg Brathwaite
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Samuel Badree
Emerging Cricketer of the Year – Jermaine Blackwood
Womens’ Cricketer of the Year – Stafanie Taylor
Men’s Cricketer of the Year – Sulieman Benn
Lifetime Achivement Award (WICB) – Chetram Singh
Lifetime Achivement Award (WIPA) – Renford Pinnock
