The "best performing" West Indian this summer has not been on the cricket pitch but in the commentary box, with Fazeer Mohammed "offering insightful analysis of the game in the Caribbean on the national broadcaster's radio coverage," according to Barrett & Wu of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. However, it "appears some of the Trinidadian's robust remarks about the lowly state of affairs have been a little too close to the bone for some." Broadcasting in the outfield before play with his ABC colleagues at the MCG, Mohammed was told by a West Indies official that "their players would no longer be participating in interviews with him here." West Indies Head Coach Phil Simmons is "understood to have made the call, taking exception to questions Mohammed raised about the team's preparation for the Boxing Day Test in an interview with a Barbados radio station last week." The "irony is that Simmons himself was suspended from his duties -- by the West Indies Cricket Board -- in September for public comments he made, questioning selections for the one-day leg of their Sri Lanka tour that preceded this series against Australia." A West Indies spokesperson "declined to comment when approached" (SMH, 12/28).
