HOME

Published Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Digicel, the largest sponsors of football in the Caribbean, on Friday, December 7th announced details of the ‘Digicel Kick Start Football Clinics’, which will offer talented young footballers a once in a lifetime chance to learn invaluable football skills from arguably the Caribbean’s greatest ever football player, while at the same time being afforded the chance to realize their dream of becoming professional footballers. Led by former England and Liverpool star John Barnes, who takes on the role of Head Coach for the clinics, the Digicel Kick Start Football Clinics begin in early 2008 and take place in Guyana, Barbados, Haiti, Antigua, Suriname, Trinidad, St Kitts and Jamaica. Six of the most talented young footballers to participate in the clinics will be chosen by Barnes to travel to the UK to spend a week at a top English Barclays Premier League football club, where they will take part in an intensive training session with the club. Speaking at the photo shoot for the Digicel Kick Start Football Clinics, Barnes said that he is looking forward to the clinics and to seeing the level of talent amongst the next generation of Caribbean footballers. He compared the Caribbean's untapped market to Africa 20 to 30 years ago when a lot of people were slow to recognize the talent.  Barnes said that talent in the Caribbean needs to be harnessed and given an opportunity and the clinics developed by Digicel are an opportunity to do just that.  The clinics, which are run in association with the Caribbean Football Union, were developed by Digicel, with the support of FIFA Vice-President, Jack Warner, who has been a huge assistance to Digicel in helping raise the profile of football in the Caribbean.
 

Australian cricket coach John Dyson says he needs to sit down with the West Indian players and quickly discover why they are underachieving in world cricket.  The former Test opening batsman coach leaves for the Caribbean on Monday to take up his appointment as the successor to compatriot Bennett King for one of the most challenging jobs in international cricket.   The West Indies have won just three of their past 40 Tests with their victories coming against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and a Pakistan side missing five leading players. Dyson, the former Sri Lanka coach, says he is not sugar-coating the task of coaching a team currently ranked eighth in both Test and one-day cricket. He said that over the last 10 years, by anyone's standards, the West Indies have been playing some pretty average cricket.  He states that when he was coach of Sri Lanka team, he followed their performances closely, and realized that the West Indies team was a squad underachieving.   Dyson says that at the moment there is only one player in that squad who is playing up to their potential, and that is Shivnarine Chanderpaul.  Dyson says he doesn't expect a return to the glory days of the 1970s and '80s, but will insist on is personal accountability among the players.
 

In Jamaica horse racing, 'Distinctly Irish' cemented his claim for 'Horse of the Year' honors at Caymanas Park on Saturday, December 8th when storming home in the 36th running of the $1.25 million Gold Cup graded stakes feature over 1400 meters, this under the crushing impost of 60.5kg. Installed as a 5-2 second favorite with customary rider, leading all-time jockey Winston Griffiths on board for 14-time champion trainer Philip Feanny, the 2004 Derby winner and 'Horse of the Year' overcame a slow start (outpaced) in a star-studded field of 11 to catch and beat this year's Derby winner, THE BOMBER (4-1), under in-form Dane Nelson, by three-quarter length. Finishing third, another three part of a length adrift, was the recent MegaFone Caribbean Sprint champion MUSICAL MAESTRO, who was sent off the 2-1 favorite under title-chasing jockey Trevor Simpson by virtue of having won four consecutive races. Fourth was the lightly-weighted filly LA REINA (10-1), who prompted the pace for a long way before fading up the lane.  Bred by Ken Gooden, the six-year-old bay gelding by Irish Quest out of the 1990 Guineas and Derby winner Distinctly Native, chalked up his fifth win from nine starts this season and his 18th from 33 career starts with lifetime earnings of $16.9 million.

CARLOS TEVEZ scored twice to help Manchester United move within one point of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a 4-1 win over Derby on Saturday, December 8th.  Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo also scored for the Red Devils who moved to 36 points. Arsenal, who have 37, play Middlesbrough today. Chelsea also kept pace with a 2-0 win over Sunderland, giving them 34 points for third. But Liverpool lost 3-1 at Reading. Also on Saturday,  Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored a hat-trick in Everton's 3-0 win over Fulham; Sulley Muntari scored twice for Portsmouth in a 3-1 win over Aston Villa, and Newcastle scored an injury-time winner to beat Birmingham 2-1.