Jamaica: wanted, a spinner of class (16 Jan 1998)

January 16, 1998

Wanted: a spinner of class

Tony Becca

CRICKET: When the regional President's Cup cricket tournament comes to an end, Jamaica, with a little luck, could well be the champions. For the past few seasons, Jamaica's batting has been a disappointment, but there is no question that in Jimmy Adams, Robert Samuels, Tony Powell, Wavell Hinds, Leon Garrick, Mario Ventura and Gareth Breese, they have a set of batsmen which is as good as any in the region and which could find enough runs to enable pace bowlers Courtney Walsh and Franklyn Rose, Laurie Williams, Kirk Powell and Oneil Richards - a talent to nurture, and possibly Patrick Patterson to bowl them to the honours.

Jamaica's problem however, as was evident against Barbados in the opening-round match, is their spin bowlers.

On a pitch which was accommodating to spin, on a pitch of uneven bounce, and in comparison to their Barbadian counterparts, right-arm legspinner Brian Murphy and offspinner Nehemiah Perry were innocuous - so much so that while Winston Reid and Dave Marshall demanded respect, the Jamaican pair failed to make an impression.

On the third afternoon, for example, they not only failed to pick up a wicket in support of Walsh and Rose, but they were thrashed all over the place in a disappointing performance - a performance in which Murphy bowled far too short and too wide of the offstump, and in which Perry failed to spin the ball and to vary his deliveries.

Murphy's problem may well be one of confidence, and although he seems to have lost the ability to get the ball to bounce, although on that Sabina Park pitch the likes of Arthur Barrett and Robert Haynes would have made the Barbadian batsmen walk and talk to themselves, it is possible that in time he could come good.

Perry however, seems to have shot his bolt. He no longer spins the ball, he still does not flight it, and even on a slow pitch, even when the batsmen are scoring easily, he does not push it through.

Looking at Perry sometimes, with his easy approach of a few steps, his slow, low deliveries, it is as if he is in the nets at the start of a season.

Regardless of the type of pitch on which he is operating, Perry never ever seems to change the pace of his deliveries or to loop the ball, and the question must be asked, what has happened to Marlon Gibbs - the aggressive offspinner who started so well but who, it appears, has been forgotten?

Gibbs, it is true, has not been among the wickets at club level. It is also true that he is a poor fielder - except to his own bowling, and that as a batsman he is a genuine number 11. Jamaica however, could do well with an offspinner like him - an offspinner who, even if he cannot bat, can take wickets, an offspinner who, like Barrett and Haynes, probably would have licked his fingers on that Sabina Park pitch and against those Barbados batsmen.

It may well be too late for Gibbs - may be frustration has set in to the point where he no longer dreams. Gibbs or no Gibbs however, Jamaica need a spinner or two - either that or they do what Clive Lloyd did with the West Indies team in the late 1970s and 1980s when the Windies attack was all pace.

Lloyd once explained that it is not that he did not like spin bowlers - it was just that he believed in playing the best bowlers. In the long run, it may not be good for the development of spin bowlers and therefore for Jamaica and West Indies. Based on the performance of Murphy and Perry however, if Jamaica, if captain Courtney Walsh and the other selectors should follow Lloyd, the Jamaica attack, even without counting allrounder Williams, would be all pace bowlers. The time has come to go looking for a spin bowler.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)