CRICKET Glorious Cricket!  Cricketers and cricket followers all over the world are following the Pepsi Indian Premier League 2013. While we are witnessing the outstanding performances of several world class players, it cannot be denied that West Indies’ Chris Gayle is the most outstanding player in the IPL Championship. Gayle’s magnificent 175 not out is certainly the best batting display that we have ever seen in the history of World Cricket.  
He is currently the batsman with the best aggregate in the tournament and he is also the batsman with the highest individual score. He also scored the most boundaries in a single innings. Gayle’s 175 was indeed spectacular and will live with those of us who saw it, forever.
The IPL is giving rise to many world class young cricketers in India. The Indian cricketers are benefiting from playing cricket and socialising with the best in the world.
Vivian Richards’ words of wisdom to Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli were indeed motivating and are yielding positive results. Richards’ mere presence in the playing area is a source of inspiration. Sir ‘Viv’ must be closer to our players in the Caribbean. He is such an influential person that a few words from him can motivate and make players gain the necessary confidence to perform better.
Test Cricket is a Must! While the West Indies can count their blessings that they are the World’s T/20 Champions and boast about their victories in the early days of the World Cup, Test Cricket is what counts.
Our players will only be involved in four Test matches this year. Our cricket administrators must wake up from their slumber and put systems in place for our cricketers to play Test cricket more regularly. Imagine some countries will be playing nine and ten Test matches annually and our players will only be playing a mere four Test matches.  
The entire Caribbean and Guyana, in particular, will be looking forward to see the West Indies oppose Pakistan in Test cricket.  With this poor Administration, the in-form ‘Golden Boy’, the ‘Tiger’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul, seems to be struggling to get the opportunity to play Test cricket.
It is Garfield Sobers’ 364 and Brian Lara’s 375 and again Brian Lara’s 400 after he regained his record from Matthew Hayden that really count in the annals of cricket.
Playing a Test match over a period of five days brings out the best from our cricketers when playing as a team. After all cricket is a team sport and it is the team’s performances that count at the end of the game.
The just concluded four-day and one-day tournaments were serious failures. Our batsmen failed to score consistently and heavily and except for a very few bowlers, they were all unimpressive. While more serious was the poor quality of umpiring during both tournaments.
Certainly, the Caribbean desperately missed the maturity and high standard of umpiring that we enjoyed from Steve Bucknor and Clyde Duncan. Today the umpires in the Caribbean seem to be very insular. Our young players must benefit from fair play.
The Caribbean Premier League is highly anticipated. Our players in Guyana are not clicking. Our batsmen are not scoring runs.  Our bowlers are not taking wickets while our fielding is far below expectations.  
Guyana will certainly need better leadership than Veersammy Permaul. Hence, the selectors must seriously elevate Ramnaresh Sarwan to captain the team. We are most likely to benefit with the spinner Sunil Narine. However, Guyana needs a genuine fast bowler to partner our young Ronsford Beaton.
Guyana also needs a better wicketkeeper-batsman. It will be interesting to see the four overseas players – a powerful opening batsman, genuine fast bowler along with a wicketkeeper/batsman to be with Narine.
Narsingh Deonarine is a utility player and he will have to be fully fit and ready for such a tournament, while Sarwan and Chanderpaul must be at their best, as consistency and leadership must come from these two senior players.
Guyanese are certainly looking forward to the Caribbean Premier League.