Brathwaite, Holder, Brooks hit fifties on opening day
Ex-FIFA vice president Warner loses appeal against extradition from Trinidad
(CMC) – Captain Kraigg Brathwaite tasted form on the tour of Australia, one of three players with half-centuries on day one of West Indies’ opening tour match against the Combined NSW/ACT XI yesterday.
The right-hander top-scored with 75 while Shamarh Brooks added 56 and all-rounder Jason Holder, an unbeaten 50 as the tourists gathered 297 for five in their first innings at the close at Phillip Oval.
Test vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood weighed in with a patient unbeaten 42, capping off a strong performance
by West Indies in the buildup to the first Test in Perth starting in a fortnight.
West Indies were given a positive start after choosing to bat first, Brathwaite facing 114 deliveries and counting ten fours and Brooks – in an unfamiliar opening role – punching five fours in a 116-ball knock as they posted 133 for the first wicket. They fell in close proximity to each other with 16 runs added in the space of 14 deliveries, and when Raymon Reifer (21), Nkrumah Bonner (15) and Kyle Mayers (17) wasted starts, West Indies found themselves stumbling at 205 for five.
However, Holder and Blackwood then combined to rescue the innings from further decline, putting on 92 in an unbroken sixth wicket stand.
Holder, the Test captain on the Caribbean side’s last tour Down Under seven years ago, counter-attacked with ten fours in a 79-ball knock while Blackwood provided support, facing 141 deliveries and hitting four fours. Leftarm spinner Riley Ayre, who accounted for both openers, was the best bowler with three for 70.
(Reuters) - Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner can be extradited from his homeland of Trinidad to the United States to face corruption charges, a London court said yesterday.
Warner’s lawyers argued that his extradition was unlawful but London’s Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for many Commonwealth countries, unanimously dismissed his appeal.
Suspicion and rumours have surrounded the 2010 votes by FIFA’s executive to hand the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar.
In 2020 a U.S. Department of Justice indictment said bribes were paid to soccer officials to secure their votes for hosting rights.
The DOJ alleged that then FIFA vice-president Warner was paid $5 million through various shell companies to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.
His role as president of
CONCACAF, which organises soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, gave him enormous influence as a powerbroker for former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter.
A former member of the FIFA Executive Committee and former CONCACAF president Warner was suspended by FIFA in 2011 and in 2015, charged with wire fraud, racketeering and moneylaundering by the U.S.
FIFA banned him from all soccer-related activity for life in 2015. The 79year-old has always denied any wrongdoing.