By Tony Becca, Contributing EditorTHE REGIONAL Red Stripe Bowl limited-overs cricket tournament moves into high gear at Kaiser Sports Club today with the first of the two semi-finals.
It is Jamaica, winners of Zone A, versus Guyana, runners-up in Zone B, and with the fancied, popular home team in action, all roads lead to Discovery Bay.
Tomorrow, it will be defending champions Barbados versus Trinidad and Tobago and after Saturday's rest day, Sunday will be showtime with the two winners contesting the final at the same venue.
Billed as the showdown of the final four after 20 matches in the preliminary round, the semi-finals bring together the four top teams in the region and although, according to the sponsors, each day is "one day you'll never forget", with the best now up against the best, with each team boasting the majority of the region's leading players and bubbling with confidence as they bid to lift the magnificent trophy and to pocket the US$12,000 first prize, the final three days, starting with today, should be the ones the fans are likely never to forget.
Hot favourites to win the title at the start of the competition, Jamaica, boasting a perfect record of four from four and probably feeling invincible after their thrilling, comeback victory over arch-rivals Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, are confident that they will go all the way this time that they will make up for the disappointment of 2001 and 2003.
In 2001 they failed to get past the semi-finals when they tied the match with Guyana but failed to advance due to Guyana's superior performance at the group stage, and last year they fell at the final hurdle when they lost to Barbados.
One reason for such a confidence, a confidence shared also by the fans, is the fact that they believe that as strong as they were last year, they are stronger this year.
Counting captain Robert Samuels who last played in 1997, Jamaica possess 10 West Indies players including some of the region's most exciting and devastating batsmen and two fiery fast bowlers.
Another reason is that with Christopher Gayle and Brenton Parchment at the top of the order, followed by Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell and then Robert Samuels, David Bernard Jnr., Carlton Baugh Jnr., and Gareth Bresse, the batting goes right down to number nine, and with fast bowlers Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor supported by medium-pacer Bernard, and offspinners Bresse, Gayle and Samuels, the bowling, even without counting medium-pacer Hinds and offspinner Ricardo Powell, is far from thin.
REALLY LOOK GOOD
With so many batsmen and so many bowlers, Jamaica, ten-time finalists and six-time champions, really look good. In fact, with the quintet of Gayle, Parchment, Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell, they really look awesome.
In comparison, Guyana, man for man, do not appear as powerful.
In Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, however, they possess two quality batsmen, in legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo and left-arm legspinner Neil McGarrell, the seven-time winners and three-time runners-up have two good spin bowlers, and in the likes of opening batsmen Sewnarine Chattergoon and Ryan Ramdass, middle-order batsmen Narsingh Deonarine and Lennox Cush, allrounder Travis Dowling and fast bowlers Rayon Griffith and Esuan Crandon they have support for their stars and could be dangerous, really dangerous.
Who will make it to Sunday's showdown? As dangerous as Chanderpaul and Sarwan, Nagamootoo and McGarrell are, although Jamaica lost some of its aura of invincibility on Sunday when their big bats fell like ninepins against Trinidad and Tobago, although the spinners, but for the late finish, looked so innocuous, it should be Jamaica particularly if two or three of Gayle, Parchment, Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell are in the pink of form.
