Published:Saturday | November 17, 2018 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Some of the greatest or most successful visionaries in sport throughout the world were not successful players in their young days and definitely not great players.They were, however, players of a reasonable standard, young men who loved the game...
Published:Saturday | November 3, 2018 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Sandwiched between stars like George Headley, Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, and George Rhoden, and others like Lawrence Rowe, Don Quarrie, Michael Holding, and Merlene Ottey is Bunny Grant, one of the greatest boxers Jamaica has ever produced.As a...
Published:Monday | January 1, 2018 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Allie Binns, the former Jamaica and West Indies wicket-keeper /batsman, died in Fort Lauderdale on Friday after suffering from an earlier stroke.Binns, who was born on July 24, 1929, first played for Melbourne, then St George's College Old Boys,...
Published:Sunday | December 17, 2017 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Kingston Cricket Club, the home of Sabina Park, the country's world-famous cricket venue, has received a Christmas gift second to none.Minutes after enjoying a wonderful lunch on Friday at its annual Christmas get-together, and shortly before a...
Published:Tuesday | November 28, 2017 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
The West Indies, or the Windies, begin their Test tour of New Zealand tomorrow with one thing on their minds: to beat the Kiwis on the way to re-establishing their cricketing pedigree.For the West Indies, however, who were once looking down as kings...
Published:Tuesday | August 15, 2017 | 7:24 PMTony Becca
One of the delights of cricket is to witness the unexpected, to see the coming of a champion, or a champion team, and at the same time to bask in the surprise, the big upset if you are on the side of the upsetters. And apart of those...
Published:Friday | June 16, 2017 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Australia's sport minister, Greg Hunt, seems to be a man after my own heart.Australian cricket appears to be heading for a collision over a pay dispute in which Cricket Australia (CA) is proposing a pay structure in which there will now be a salary...
Published:Sunday | June 4, 2017 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Ever since 1967, when I became the honorary secretary of Melbourne Cricket Club, I started talking about an islandwide Senior Cup competition, and when I became a journalist in 1973, I started writing about it.In 1990, while I was the president of...
Published:Wednesday | April 19, 2017 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
The following is the second and final part of an article by columnist Tony Becca on great performances at Sabina Park. The venue will host its 50th Test this weekend.Because of all the run-getters, including Clyde Walcott, who scored 155 and 110 as...
Published:Tuesday | April 18, 2017 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
The following is Part I of an article by columnist Tony Becca on great performances at Sabina Park. The venue will host its 50th Test this weekend. Part II will be published tomorrow.The late, great English cricket writer Sir Neville Cardus,...
Published:Monday | February 27, 2017 | 3:47 PMTony Becca
When I was a boy, I heard of him, the same way that I heard of champions like George Headley, Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, and Alfred Valentine, and when I became a young man, I finally saw him play, although he had passed his best and retired by...
Published:Saturday | October 15, 2016 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
When first I saw Virat Kohli at bat, I thought he had everything to become a really top class batsman. When next I saw him, on the television screen, I realised he had become one of the best, probably the best batsmen of his time. Recently, however...
Published:Saturday | July 23, 2016 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
When I was a young man, selectors were seen as people who generally knew what they were doing and who selected people who knew how to do a good job – to make runs, to take wickets, and, all things being equal, to field as well as possible,...
Published:Sunday | June 5, 2016 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
It was a deafening noise. They were shouting and chanting something or the other. It was during the Cricket World Cup of 1987 and I was sitting inside the Hilton Hotel in Lahore, Pakistan, opposite the entrance awaiting the former Pakistan captain,...
Published:Tuesday | November 3, 2015 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Sandra Riettie, the former Jamaica table tennis representative, is now the first person in the world to hold four International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) coaching certificates.Riettie, a former women's singles champion of Jamaica on nine...
Published:Thursday | October 29, 2015 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
His name was Basil Williams - or to be more precise, Alvadon Basil Williams - but to Jamaicans and other West Indians, he was simply 'Shotgun'.He was a cricketer, an opening batsman, and as the sobriquet suggests, he was a no-nonsense, attacking and...
Published:Sunday | May 31, 2015 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
The decision not to select Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the Australian Test series must have been a tough one for the West Indies selectors.At 40, almost 41 years old, Chanderpaul, with 164 Test matches, is the West Indies' most capped player, and...
Published:Tuesday | April 14, 2015 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
Mustafa Kamal, the International Cricket Council (ICC) president from Bangladesh, resigned recently. In doing so, however, he failed to keep a promise...
Published:Friday | April 3, 2015 | 3:18 PMTony Becca
MusTafa Kamal, the ICC president from Bangladesh, resigned last week. In doing so, however, he failed to keep a promise.Kamal had promised to spill the beans about the ICC when, after criticising what he saw as a poor umpiring decision in a World...
Published:Saturday | March 21, 2015 | 12:00 AMTony Becca
The preliminary round of the cricket World Cup is now history, and regardless of what happens from here on in, it was enjoyable. It was enjoyable partly because of the presence and performance of the Associate members and some of their players.The...
Published:Saturday | February 21, 2015 | 2:44 PMTony Becca
Vester Constantine, the former Jamaica Defence Force, Cavalier, and Jamaica goalkeeper is dead.He died in Montego Bay on Saturday, February 7, and will be buried on Tuesday, February 24.A Grenadian who arrived in Jamaica in the 1960s as a member of...
Published:Thursday | February 12, 2015 | 1:52 PMTony Becca
The West Indies went through a rough time in South Africa recently. At the end of the three-match Test series, the count was two defeats and one draw, and the draw, more or less, was because of rain in Port Elizabeth.At the end of the one-day series...
