'Winds' of change

Kingston: For so long the Cinderellas of West Indies cricket, the Windward Islands were trans-formed into Supermen here yesterday.

When their captain Rawl Lewis accepted the Red Stripe Bowl in front of excited teammates and a handful of even more overzealous sup-porters, it was the first time in 11 years the Windwards were touching a piece of senior regional silverware.

The Windwards took the title with a hard-fought victory by five wickets over the Leeward Islands in front of almost empty stands at Sabina Park that was surely influenced by Jamaica's elimination by the Windwards the previous day.

It was, however, a result that might have been predicted after the impression Lewis' team created in the preliminaries and the semifinal.

They lost the toss, but their very deep and varied bowling attack restricted the six-time champions to a modest 163 in spite of a half-century opening stand.

When the match appeared to be delicately poised after Most Valuable Player Junior Murray was run out at 110 for five in the 33rd over, Lewis and Roy Marshall maintained level heads until the target was reached with as many of 7.1 overs remaining.

Marshall, an elder statesman of Windwards cricket, finished the match in grand style with a powerful off-drive that carried him to 36 runs.

'This is a new era in Windwards' cricket,' the 25-year-old Lewis said.

It was comment also made against the back-ground that only two months ago the Wind-wards' youth cricketers lifted the regional Under-19 trophy for the first time.

'The Under-19s showed us that they could win, so we came out here and put our all into it. '

'We are going to get more respect from the public, the board and from everybody. It's good for Windwards cricket,' added Lewis, who finished on 23 not out to add to his three crucial mid-innings wickets.

He lauded the entire team, which featured three young players new to this level and who all played key roles throughout the tournament and in the Final Four.

Teenaged openers Devon Smith and Rommel Curreny set them on course and by the time they departed to the economical off-spinner Anthony Lake, the Windwards had posted nearly 50 on the board.

It was a vital contribution in light of a generally low-scoring tournament in which the Leewards were appearing in their fourth successive final.

'We did not make enough runs,' their captain Ridley Jacobs conceded. 'We put our bowlers under too much pressure and that contributed to us not winning the game.'

They made a solid start of 61 between Stuart Williams and Wilden Cornwall, but the Windward Islands never once wavered.

Their bowlers stuck to the task throughout and their fielding was splendid after a few pieces of ragged ground fielding.

Wicket-keeper Murray set the tone with his smart stumping that accounted for the dangerous Williams, but John Eugene was the outstanding man in the field and he was backed up by fine catches from Smith and Marshall.

The accuracy of the Windwards' bowling in the middle and latter stages of the innings was reflected by the fact that Lewis did not call on Cameron Cuffy until the final over in spite of him conceding just six runs from as many overs the with the new ball.

The three spinners did a splendid job after left-armer Marshall was hammered for 16 from his first overs.

The last 30 overs produced 105 when the attack was chiefly shared among Marshall, Lewis and the new find Shane Shillingford.

Shillingford is an off-spinner who shares many similarities with the famous Sri Lanka Muttiah Muralitharran. He gains sharp turn from a somewhat debatable action and no one was able to get after him in his 10 overs that cost 31.

Lewis did an even better job by removing the key scalps of Cornwall, Dave Joseph and Carl Tuckett from his 10 overs off leg-spin in which he gave away 33 runs.

Cornwall might not be the most technically correct batsman around, but his unorthodox methods have always been valuable at this level and his 53 was his second significant contribution with the bat in the Final Four.

It was not enoughfor the Leewards that is.