Caribbean Premier League 2019 Review

The seventh season of The Caribbean Premier League concluded with the final on Saturday night, where The Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents contested the final at The Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad. It has been another great season where there was an emergence of young talent coming to the fore in Jamaican batsman, Brandon King, who opened the first time in his career, scoring a tournament-leading 496 runs and United States’ Hayden Walsh Jr. who led the wicket-takers with 22 wickets.

Bat and ball competed on a level playing field. There was drama throughout, which included a super over between Trinbago Knight Riders and St.Kitts Patriots. Going into the playoffs, I believed that  Guyana Amazon Warriors would break their duck and win the CPL for the first time. They were by far the best all-round team in the tournament, but momentum is everything, especially in sport. Barbados Tridents at one point in time, was struggling to make the playoffs, but believed in themselves and achieved second place in the league format and proceeded to achieve one of the biggest upsets in the CPL by beating the GAW in the final. As a neutral fan, that is what you for in a global tournament. Hollywood executives could not have written a better script. It would be boring that the clear favorite from ball one win. I always like rooting for the underdog.

Congrats to everybody who was involved in making CPL 2019 a success.

Club In Crisis

This year makes it twenty(20) years as a supporter of Manchester United football club. This is the worst squad of players ever assembled. Some of these players deserved to play in Major League Soccer not the premier league. The players should not be held responsible for all the problems at the club but instead, they should share the responsibility with The Glazers, Ed Woodward, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.


The Glazers is the root of the problem that exists in Manchester United because they are not knowledgeable about football and only care about making money. They hired Ed Woodward, an investment banker, to be responsible for the football side of the club. It is not a surprise that the recruitment of players and managers that were hired have been poor during his tenure, which in turn has resulted in poor performances, which will result in the Glazers selling the club because sponsors will leave.


I was overjoyed when Ole, a  legend of the club, took the wheel as the caretaker manager and adopted a 4-3-3 formation, which produced a more attacking style of football, that Manchester United fans' are accustomed too. I was excited to see the team performed like this, and like many fans, demanded that the club make him the permanent manager. The owners and the chief executive should have waited for the end of the season and then assess Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer's performance as a care-taker manager and whether he should be considered as a permanent manager or if the club has to look elsewhere. This wasn't done and soon after he was made official, the team played badly, where they failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. This poor performance has continued into the new season, where Ole has, for some reason, adopted a 4-2-3-1 formation, where the team is more defensive. The reason for this change has to do with a lack of investment in midfield and in the attack by the club. He had to over-compensate in defense, where the club recruited well in the summer.

 I can't comprehend that the club is in a RELEGATION BATTLE. It breaks my heart and pains me to see the level of performance. Manchester United no longer receive banter from opposing teams in the premier league but instead are offered sympathy on where the club is at this moment.

Who is to blame for Manchester United's worst start in 27 years?

Manchester United have their worst start to a season since the Premier League was formed in 1992. Who should be held accountable? The owners, the manager or players or a combination of all three?

The Glazers should be held responsible because they hired four(4) managers in seven( 7 )years since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement. They appointed an investment banker, Ed Woodward to oversee the football side of Manchester United. While Ed Woodward should be held accountable for the club's failings in the transfer market, remember Ed Woodward has to learn on the job. The Glazers should have appointed an individual who is experienced in talking to football agents, clubs and negotiating player contracts. They also have not supported Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer in the transfer market because Manchester United needed midfield reinforcements as they released Ander Hererra this season and sold Mourane Fellaini last season. They improved the defense by signing Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan Bissaka but the midfield remains weak. The midfield is not the only area of weakness, but upfront as well because they loaned out Alexis Sanchez for the season and sold Romelu Lukaku but didn't replace either.

The Glazers are the root of Manchester United's problems because they value making a profit and filling their pockets, rather than winning trophies which should be the aim of a club with the stature of Manchester United. The Glazers have not contributed to the club's profit margin, in fact, they brought debt into the club which, they have yet to pay off. Besides this, the club has made a profit under the Glazers. This is due to fans attending games and purchasing merchandise. The Glazers must sell because they have not improved Manchester United. The Glazers will only sell the club when they can no longer make a profit, which is all they care about. Manchester United fans' only hope is that they receive an offer to sell, that they just can't refuse.

How Manchester United lost their ambition?

Manchester United have not won the league in 6 years. Let that sink in folks. The Glazers are owners that are only driven by increasing their profit margins rather than winning trophies. A creative midfielder and a right-winger were needed at the club but through their henchman, Ed Woodward this wasn't forthcoming.  The Glazers must realize that if the team continues to perform poorly on the field, sponsors will pull out and the profit margins that they value so much will be diminished drastically. It doesn't matter if Pep comes to manage just like previous managers won't be backed in the transfer market. I have issues with Ed Woodward as C.E.O. but he is not to be blamed for poor buying in the transfer market because he doesn't have the experience of dealing with football agents and clubs. Even if he is removed from his post how do we know that the owners won't hire somebody similar to Ed Woodward? The Glazers need to change their mindset from making money to winning trophies which should be the goal of Manchester United. If they can't there will be a long goodbye for themselves.

Living on past glories

I have been a Manchester United fan for 20 years and a Los Angeles Lakers' fan for 22 years. Both of them are two of the iconic sport franchises in history but they are both in decline. Manchester United have not won the league since 2013 when Sir Alex Ferguson retired. I didn't make this up but the Lakers have not made the playoffs since Kobe retired in 2013. What a coincidence that both of them have gone through a similar period of a lack of success.


For Manchester United the root of their problems begin at the front office, where the owners, The Glazers appointed Ed Woodward, who is qualified as an investment banker to be in charge of football related matters. It is amazing that they appoint somebody with no experience on acquiring and selling of players. What were they thinking? A similar question can be asked about the Lakers. Why did Jeanie Buss hired Rob Pelinka, agent of Lakers' legend Kobe Bryant to the post of president of basketball operations. Not only did he have a reputation of being a liar among  NBA executives but he lacks experience as an executive. Did Jeanie hire him because he was Kobe's agent? You can't hire individuals, who are not specialized in their respective fields. If that wasn't bad enough, yes it gets worse, Linda Rambis, wife of former Laker, Kurt Rambis is who Jeanie consults. Again she is another individual with no basketball knowledge.


There is a common theme among the both teams where they appoint individuals who are not experienced in these high profile positions. Both clubs need to just hire based on experience. Its very simple not rocket science.

Manchester United 2018-2019 Season Review

To say that the season for Manchester United was shambolic and a disaster would be an understatement. First of all they had Jose Mourinho, who created a dressing room of players that disagreed with his style of play as well as his managerial style. The fanbase rejoiced when he was fired and hired Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer in his replacement. When Ole was appointed this same set of players who played under Jose was almost unrecognizable. They pressed, passed quickly and played like the Old Man United. It was not a surprise to me that they went on an unbeaten run. I knew it won't last but the poor run of results that followed was astounding to say the least. What is the reason for the team's poor form? Is it that the players are not fit enough or has Ole told a few members of the squad that they are no longer needed? It is a combination of both. The squad is just not fit enough and there are players that have been poor for a long period of time, like Ashley Young or players that don't fit Ole's system like Romelu Lukaku.

We as fans need to be realistic that the gap is wide between us and Manchester City/Liverpool. Manchester United are not in the UEFA Champions League and therefore it will be difficult to attract top tier talent. It is better for them to sign a combination of young promising players and players who can improve the team instantly. They have to move away from attracting players by inflating their wages. This is Manchester United! They should be attracting players based on the football and history but that's not the case because they are other teams whom history is not as rich as Man United are attracting top talent because of the style of football. Case in point the noisy neighbors, Manchester City. In the summer they have to realize that there is no quick fix and a rebuild is needed.

Lakers Drama

Going into the just concluded season, my expectation is that the Los Angeles Lakers make the playoffs. Before the trade deadline they were the 4th seed in the Western Conference. Lakers were exceeding my expectation and may even surprise a few teams in the playoffs but trade speculation of Lakers acquiring Anthony Davis for some of the young core as well as injuries to Lebron, Lonzo, Kuzma and Ingram played a part in Lakers not making the playoffs.

I see a bigger problem why they didn't make the playoffs. One reason only, direction. Direction starts at the front office. It seems there is a lack of cohesion among Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, which resulted in Magic resigning. I questioned from the start Pelinka and Magic's experience in running a NBA team. Magic is a former player while Pelinka was the former agent of Kobe Bryant. Going forward there need to be one goal, shared by all involved. They need to decide if they are going to develop the young core of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram or they will try to acquire superstar type talent to join Lebron James and help Lakers contend again. 

Fresh Start For West Indies Cricket

If a genie had to grant me three wishes in relation of fixing West Indies Cricket, my first wish would be getting rid of Dave Cameron as president of Cricket West Indies. Maybe genies do exist because that wish was granted, as Ricky Skerritt gathered the votes required to unseat Dave Cameron. In fact both Cameron and Skerritt to this day are still surprised by the margin of victory. Cameron had so much bad blood with current and past players that he needed to go. West Indies Cricket needs a fresh face and a fresh approach in order to compete with the rest of the cricketing world. What Skerritt needs to put as priority is to foster a better working relationship with W.I.P.A. and by extension the players. He has already lifted the selection criteria, where a player has to exclusively play in regional competition to get selected. That is an archaic system, where you exclude players who participate in leagues all round the world. I wish Mr. Skerritt all the best in developing and improving West Indies Cricket in the years to come. 

Big club with small club mentality

I was so thrilled when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hired as the permanent manager of Manchester United but it only tapered the cracks that have been gradually widening. It is absolutely shocking how business as it relates to the football side is conducted. They have allowed players' contracts to run down because they want to save money. Instead of negotiating a new contract, they agree to a 1 year extension. This kind of action indirectly signals to the player that we, the board want to save every cent before we agree to your contract extension.This can affect team morale because the squad of players could interpret that the board only care about their profit margins rather than the players' welfare. That is bad by itself but when they prioritize to which players get new contracts is even more shocking. What have Ashley Young, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones done to deserve new contracts. It can't be that they were with the club for a long time. That is a small club mentality. You know who is more deserving? Ander Herrera and David De Gea. They may end up leaving.  Just shocking! I don't know if the board is to be blamed or the Chief Executive Ed Woodward but somebody at the administration level, has no idea how to run a football club. Manchester United are a laughing stock to the football world, banter for days! I hope that a Director of Football can be hired to run the football business of the club and let good ole Ed conduct the business side