Tony BeccaJAMAICA CONFIRMED their place in the semi-finals of the Carib Beer cricket series on Monday but instead of playing at home they will be playing away.
According to the rules of the tournament, the teams that finish first and second host the semi-finals and Jamaica are not one of them.
The reason for that is because they lost their final match of the preliminary round, and although India A, who posted the highest total of the match in the fourth innings, deserve some credit for their effort, the reason why Jamaica lost is because they played some poor cricket.
With four simple catches popping out of their hands and so many fumbles on the ground, the fielding was a disappointment, and but for David Bernard's brilliance, so too the bowling on the final day.
In contrast to Bernard who consistently pitched the ball up, Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor bowled far too short, and with captain Robert Samuels surprisingly failing to put in a third man, tailender Avishkar Salvi simply backed away and steered the ball to the boundary.
The big disappointment, however, was the performance of Jamaica's batsmen, and although Gareth Breese scored 56 in the second innings, the exception was again Bernard.
With a fair amount of grass on it and the ball moving off the seam, the pitch was not perfect for batting. It was not bad for batting, however.
With the ball bouncing off it at a consistent height and carrying through to the wicketkeeper, it was nothing more than a test for the batsmen, and a team with Christopher Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Ricardo Powell, Robert Samuels and Leon Garrick, all of whom have represented the West Indies as batsmen, should have done better on it.
The truth is that apart from Marlon Samuels, their poor technique, which is obvious against the moving ball, was exposed by a set of seam bowlers who bowled a good line and length in both innings.
The real disappointment, however, was not so much that their lack of good technique to the moving ball. It was their attitude towards batting - and particularly so, the attitude of the four players who participated in the World Cup.
The impression from the boundary's edge was that Gayle and Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell, did not give 100 per cent - and that impression is shared not only by the disappointed fans, but also by ex-national players, ex-West Indies players, and by members of the Jamaica Cricket Association.
The general feeling is that the top players, the West Indies players, no longer have that burning desire to represent Jamaica, that they no longer try to perform at their best when representing Jamaica, and that if that is so, it is better to lose with those who want to represent Jamaica and who will give 110 per cent while representing Jamaica.
Maybe it is not so, may be they still try to do their best when representing Jamaica, and may be they did try to do their best against India A.
Looking at some of the strokes they attempted to play, however, looking at the strokes that led to the downfall of most of them, the impression was that they were playing because they were expected to play and in the interest of their careers they had to play, that they went to bat to play a few glorious strokes regardless of the pitch, the bowling and Jamaica's position, and that it did not matter whether they got a good score or not - whether Jamaica won or lost.
If that was so, the board must do something about it. Jamaica should only be represented by those who want to perform for Jamaica, who try, at all times, to perform for Jamaica, and who appreciate that as ambassadors of Jamaica, they represent the people of Jamaica.
The top players, the stars, must at least also understand that they have a responsibility to set an example for the young players in the team.
