Trinidad and Tobago cricket causing concern (22 April 1998)

Wednesday, April 22, 1998

T&T cricket causing concern

By GARTH WATTLEY

THE 1998 regional cricket season has just ended. But even before Guyana and the Leeward Islands crowned themselves joint winners of the inaugural President's Cup, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board was demanding answers. For another season gone sour.

The 16 points earned from the nail-biting one-wicket final round win over 1997 champions Barbados last week promoted the national team to penultimate place on the six-team table, effectively ahead of only the Windwards.

But the season's sobering statistics have prompted a concerned T&TCB president and CEO Alloy Lequay to call for a detailed report on the 1998 season.

"Even before the Barbados game," Lequay told the Expressyesterday, "we wrote to Bryan Davis. I told him that we were very disappointed in the performance of a team which had seven West Indies players. All our national teams-including U-15 and U-19-are causes for concern." Davis, a TTCB appointed coach who travelled around with the team, is expected to submit his report soon.

And in it, he will attempt to explain why individually and collectively his team was below par.

Only once in five matches-in the first innings of the final game against Barbados where they totalled 332-did the seniors score three hundred runs in an innings.

That lack of production is reflected in the averages: no T&T batsman managed an average of 40 or better.

Only three men-middle-order batsmen Richard Smith (39.87) and Daren Ganga (39.83) and opener Suruj Ragoonath (34.60)-averaged over 30. For Smith especially, and national Under-19 skipper Ganga who played three matches in only his second season, the efforts represented career-best returns.

But the more senior, established players had far from flattering results.

Ragoonath's average was nearly 20 down from his outstanding 1997 season. Team captain Brian Lara (a three-match aggregate of 119, average 23.80) and Phil Simmons (254 at 28.22), who led the side in Lara's absence, were also both below par. Wicketkeeper David Williams, who contributed important runs in the 1996 and 1997 campaigns, did not come close to repeating those feats in 1998.

In the bowling department, pacer Ian Bishop and leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine each captured 16 wickets. But Bishop's 16 cost 30.81 each-one of his most expensive regional returns. And collectively, T&T failed to dismiss the opposition on three occasions.

But for Lequay, the main problem is the inconsistency of the batting. "But to say that," he says, "is not to understand why that is so. If they are scoring (occasionally) at that level, it can't be technique." Chairman of selectors Rangy Nanan is also nonplussed.

"When the season started," he says, "we had five players on the senior West Indies team and three on the "A" team. With that combination, we were expecting to win the President's Cup." "Looking at those averages," he added, "we now have to do something about it."

But Lequay sees no need for fresh blood in what is "a fairly young team".

Lequay also felt coaching-or at least technical assistance-was not the problem.

"At that level, as far as we are concerned, we do all that is possible to put the fellows in a proper frame of mind for the competition," he insisted.

Nanan, however, is more concerned about the absence of ready replacements.

He notes that "one cannot want to replace another if he himself is underperforming."

Not enough players, the former coach notes, have followed the example of Smith who scored over 650 runs in the trials and a respectable 319 in the Cup, including his maiden first-class century.

"Maybe the preparation was not tough enough," Nanan says, "Maybe there were not enough senior players around at trials. But batsmen cannot be happy with an average of 20."

Perhaps when the Richard De Souza-led technical committee meets to peruse the Davis report, a way will be found to boost the numbers.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)