'Shorty' keeps check of score

He is the least-known and the smallest person among the West Indies squad. But his job is the most time-consuming and the most state-ofthe-art.

And Garfield Smith, affectionately called Shorty by those who know him and even those who don't, loves it to the fullest.

A little more than a year ago Smith had never even put foot outside Jamaica and he was no more than a basic computer user.

In the last 14 months, however, he has travelled throughout the Caribbean and visited England and Australia with the West Indies team.

He has developed his technological skills to the extent that he is the squad's analyst for the current Cable & Wireless series.

It represents a major progression from the days when he was just a scorer for his secondary school.

One just has to watch the 23-year-old with the computer and television monitor for a few minutes to see the commitment he has.

It is very challenging. You have to be concentrating as all scorers do, but it takes extra concentration, he said of his job.

But while doing it, you need to have some fun. If you don't have fun doing it, you're going to make a lot of mistakes.

There are times when it gets difficult, but there are times when it's fun and you enjoy it.

So what exactly is his task?

For every single ball that is bowled in a day, he records the video and outlines on the computer exactly what happens where the ball pitched, what it did, what type of shot the batsman played, if it was played off the front foot or back foot, if it came off the middle of the bat or the edge or whatever else might be relevant.

When the action in the middle is over, he puts data on compact discs for coach Roger Harper, who analyses the information and uses it for whatever purpose he might see fit.

When Smith first started working with the West Indies team, his role was scorer/statistician, but now there is no need for pens, paper and scorebooks.

In the middle of the tour of Australia that ran from last November to February, Smith went on a training course to familiarise himself with the Pro Systems Stats Master programme.

Pro Systems is an Australian-based company which specialises in developing statistical programmes for most sports.

Before I started using this, I was just a basic computer user, Smith said.

In Australia after the second Test match, while the team went to Canberra for a One-Day match against the Prime Minister's XI, (assistant coach) Jeff Dujon and I went to Melbourne for training in this programme.

It took us about a day to learn. We took it to Adelaide for the third Test match and that's where we first tried it out.

There is a slightly amusing story about how Smith first got involved in scoring.

It all started a day at school when he was part of an Under-16 team opposing the Under-19s in a practice match.

I was batting down the order and the coach asked who would volunteer to start scoring and I volunteered, he said.

When my turn came to bat, I did not make a lot of runs and I went back into the pavilion and finished what I started.

There are no records to suggest that he was a world-beater, but Smith said a knee injury, which has bothered him for some time, prevented him from making his school's Under-16 team that year.

He, therefore, became the school's regular scorer and during a final, media personnel were so impressed with his work that it landed him an opportunity at the famous Kingston Cricket Club.

Radio stations also went after his services in commentary boxes and he has often been one of the official scorers for Jamaica Test matches since 1995.

Having not gone outside of Jamaica until last year, the Harbour View, Kingston resident cherishes the experiences he has gained since working with the West Indies team.

That's what I've always wanted as a young kid meeting people, making new friends. That is part of my nature, he said.