West Indies cricket’s loss has clearly been athletics’ gain. Usain Bolt was said to be a handy cricketer before he concentrated on sprinting and during a charity match on Sunday he proved just how capable he was. Bolt not only struck Chris Gayle for a straight six but, as this Youtube video shows, he went on to bowl Gayle after welcoming him to the crease with a rising bouncer.

Reuters reported that Bolt brought the crowd to their feet when, “taking a long run up and bowling at a respectable pace, [he] had given Gayle a traditional West Indian welcome with his first ball". "I told Chris to watch out I was going to give him one but he didn't really believe it," Bolt said after the game.

Bolt batted with his brother Sadeeki and made 13 but reportedly looked more rusty with the bat than with the ball. His technique even impressed Curtly Ambrose, who was taking part in the match and said he was pleased to see Bolt’s “short and very surprising” opening ball to Gayle.

"I was pretty good as a kid and my cricket coach said I should concentrate on bowling because I was pretty quick running in," Bolt said. "I also used to open the batting for the school team but I haven't batted for a long time. The six was a brilliant feeling though. I shouldn't have got out so early but that six was a brilliant shot."

The West Indies squad arrived in Johannesburg on Monday morning for the Champions Trophy. Half a world away, those left behind were serving up a reminder – as if any was needed – of just why the mess in the Caribbean needs to be sorted out ASAP. While Floyd Reifer was leading his boys off the plane, his predecessor Chris Gayle was blasting out a typical innings – 75 off 59 balls – for a CARICOM Superstars XI against Guyana. The match, attended by Bharrat Jagdeo, the Guyana president and head of CARICOM who recently had charged the WICB with undermining the talks, was part of the President's Premier League Twenty20 series. It also featured other stars out in the cold: Ramnaresh Sarwan, Xavier Marshall, Kieron Pollard, Daren Ganga and Darren Bravo. So Ricky Ponting, who’s said he doesn’t want to face a second-string West Indies side later this year, knows where to find the real thing.

There isn’t much that Brian Lara hasn’t done on a cricket field but taking part in a Twenty20 match is one of them. He played 131 Tests and 299 ODIs but no Twenty20s – international or domestic. That will change next month when Lara leads a Trinidad & Tobago side against a West Indies XI in a charity Twenty20 match.

The West Indies XI will be led by Chris Gayle, who had opted out of the series against Bangladesh because of a dispute over player contracts with the West Indies board. The proceeds from the event will go to the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation, West Indies Players Association's Development Fund and other players' charities.

	© The White House

George Bush tried – and failed – to swat a tennis ball with a cricket bat on a trip to Pakistan in the dog days of his presidency, but the meeting between Brian Lara and President Barack Obama in Trinidad was an altogether more successful affair.

Obama took time out from attending the Fifth Summit of the Americas to meet with Trinidad’s most famous cricketer. While his sport of choice is basketball, Obama was given a brief batting lesson by Lara, although attempts to teach him to drive were slightly less successful that his lesson in playing the forward defensive.

Obama greeted Lara by saying that he “always wanted to meet the Michael Jordan of cricket”. Lara repaid the compliment by presenting the president with a signed bat.

“It was beautiful,” gushed hotel manager Ali Khan. “You could see the expression on [Obama’s] face and his daughter’s. He was truly emotional and touched as were all of us.”

Following on from being named Guyana's sport personality of 2008, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has again been shown the love of his countrymen by having a street named after him in Georgetown.

	Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive (see map) © Google / DigitalGlobe

Last night, New Garden Street - just outside Bourda Cricket Ground - was renamed Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive in honour of their favourite son. "He is an outstanding son of the soil and he has done us proud," said Hamilton Green, the mayor of Georgetown. "He is recognised all over the world as an outstanding cricketer and we in Guyana are truly proud of him."

It's a good job the mayor didn't decide to make mention of some of Chanderpaul's eccentricities at the crease, choosing instead to name it a "drive." Though there is still time for a fish restaurant - The Chanderpaul Crab - to be opened in honour of his awkward, yet remarkably effective stance.