President's Cup: Disappointing Jamaica (22 April 1998)

April 22, 1998

Disappointing Jamaica

Tony Becca

CRICKET: The regional four-day President's Cup cricket competition ended on Monday with Guyana and the Leeward Islands sharing the honours and Jamaica licking their wounds.

Going into the final round, Guyana, the Leeward Islands and Jamaica were locked on 40 points, and with Guyana up against bottom-placed Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands and Jamaica in a face-to-face battle, the odds favoured Guyana. The reading was that Guyana would knock off the Windward Islands and that the Leeward Islands/Jamaica contest would end with nothing more than first points for one or the other.

While Guyana, despite losing one day and one session plus 30 minutes, lived up to expectation in St. Vincent by nailing the Windward Islands by an innings and 51 runs after dismissing the home team for 54 in their second innings, the surprise was the result in Nevis where the Leeward Islands crushed Jamaica by nine wickets with an impressive 160 for one in their second innings.

In a disappointing performance, Jamaica, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, were bundled out for 142, and after a fine second innings performance which left them with a lead of 159, their bowlers were ripped to pieces - especially by Stuart Williams who smashed four sixes and 10 fours while blasting his way to 108 not out.

In many, respects, it was a repeat of the previous match against Guyana. At Bourda, Jamaica, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, were skittled for 148, routed Guyana for 114, posted 318 for four declared, left Guyana 353 to win off 76 overs, and were on the run when bad light stopped play with the home team on 335 for six off 73 overs.

As Jamaica count their losses, the fans are asking what went wrong in the home stretch to a team which, in the first three matches, led last year's champions Barbados on first innings, defeated the Windward Islands, and led Trinidad and Tobago on first innings.

The answer is nothing - nothing at all. The one match Jamaica won was against the Windward Islands - the team which lost all their five matches, and it should also be remembered that while top bowlers Courtney Walsh and Franklyn Rose were in action earlier on, they missed both the Guyana and Leeward Islands matches.

With Walsh and Rose absent, Jamaica needed to bat well and, regardless of what happened in the second innings of both matches, they did not. Although teams have failed to post good totals in the first innings and come back to win, the course of a match generally follows what happens in the first innings, and Jamaica did not bat well enough in either first innings - not even against Guyana who were routed for 114. A first innings total of 148 by a team of limited bowling against a team which included batsmen like Carl Hooper, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Clayton Lambert is nothing.

As disappointing as their first innings batting performances were, Jamaica probably slit their own throats before the start of each match. For Jamaica to have won the Cup they needed two victories and yet they went into both matches with only three specialist bowlers in pacers Laurie Williams and Oneil Richards and right-arm legspinner Brian Murphy.

The explanation may well be that the batting needed strengthening - and that was true. Quantity has never been a substitute for quality however, and remembering the number of occasions in the history of the game when weak batting teams have gone for additional batsmen and still failed to produce, remembering that bowling wins matches, Jamaica should have resisted the temptation of going for seven batsmen and only three bowlers.

Jamaica should have selected a full compliment of bowlers and, as the fans have been doing throughout the competition, pray for those selected as batsmen.

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