By Tony Becca, Senior Sport EditorJAMAICA OPENED their defence of the regional four-day tournament with an impressive batting performance against the Leeward Islands at the Ronald Webster Park in Anguilla in the first round of the Carib Beer Series and like captain Robert Samuels and coach Robert Haynes, Jamaicans are confident that the team will enjoy a successful season.
After dismissing the Leeward Islands for 357, Jamaica, led by two wonderful innings by David Bernard Jnr and Keith Hibbert who scored 91 and 81 respectively, batted well to reach 444, and with Leon Garrick, who scored 58 at the top of the innings, Samuels (45), Mario Ventura (37), and Donovan Pagon in the line-up, with pacers Franklyn Rose and Daren Powell and spinners Nehemiah Perry and Ryan Cunningham as the bowlers, they should be looking forward to taking on the Windward Islands at home this weekend.
Traditionally the weakest of the six territories, the Windward Islands, beaten at home in three days by Barbados, should be no match for Jamaica - especially as Jamaica will be at home and they will be away.
The Jamaican players, however, are not the only ones who should be looking forward to this weekend's contest. The fans love winners and after the confident start by Jamaica, they too should also be looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, however, a number of them will not be able to attend the match - and it will not be their fault. It will be the fault of the Jamaica Cricket Association.
Over the years, the JCA has organised the domestic competitions so that that there are no JCA matches whenever Jamaica are playing at home. This year, however, that is not so.
Contrary to tradition, the JCA has scheduled the start of the Junior Cup competition for Saturday and Sunday, and as a body that complains regularly about poor attendance at regional matches, that does not make sense.
As the governing body for cricket, the JCA should be doing everything in its power to encourage the fans - including those who play the game - to attend Jamaica's home matches.
By playing matches while Jamaica are at home, however, it is doing the opposite. Apart from the fans of the teams involved, the players, officials and staff of the clubs and parishes will not be able to support the Jamaica team.
There is one other important reason why a competition organised by the JCA, and particularly so the Junior Cup competition, should not be played while the Jamaica team is in action at home.
In order to improve their skills, young players should watch good players in action, following a rule by the JCA, there must be at least seven players under 19 in every Junior Cup team, and by forcing them to play on a day when they should be watching, the JCA which, to its credit, has been doing so much recently as far as the development of youngsters is concerned, is shooting itself in the foot.
Jamaica may not need the support of the home crowd to defeat the Windward Islands. The fans, however, want to see the match, for their development, youngsters should see first-class players in action, and the JCA should not rob them of the opportunity.
The JCA, in fact, has a responsibility to support the Jamaica team, to expose young players to quality cricket, and unless that is not so, it should postpone this weekend's games.
Jamaica, after all, will only be playing three, possibly five, matches at home.
