Tony Becca
JAMAICA'S CHANCES of winning the Carib Beer Cup all but disappeared at Sabina Park on Monday afternoon when they lost their third-round match in the Carib Beer cricket series to defending champions Barbados.
After squeezing out a first innings lead, Jamaica, set 245 to win, lost by 40, and although there are four more rounds to come, although statistically they still have a chance, with Barbados on maximum 36 points from three matches, Jamaica, on 19 also from three, are really up against it.
Looking back at the match, Jamaica must be kicking themselves not only for failing to reach the victory target, but after easing to 161 for four and falling for 205, for not chalking up a good lead on first innings after dismissing Barbados for 198, and with Barbados on 187 for nine in the second innings, especially for allowing the visitors' last pair to add 64 runs.
Although victory for Jamaica would have left them in a wonderful position and although they must be disappointed, there were as it was against Guyana, some fine performances by Jamaica one each from spin bowlers Ryan Cunningham and captain Gareth Breese, one from David Bernard Jnr, one by fast bowler Andrew Richardson and one by wicketkeeper Keith Hibbert.
Between lunch and tea on the opening day, left-arm spinner Cunningham and offspinner Breese bowled well, Bernard's batting in the first innings was a gem, and Richardson bowled well after lunch on the third day when his four wickets swung the match Jamaica's way as Barbados skidded from 178 for five to 187 for nine before Tino Best and Sulieman Benn turned the tide.
The best of them, however, was Hibbert.
In one of the most brilliant performances by a Jamaica wicketkeeper for a long, long time, and certainly the best since the days of Jeffrey Dujon, Hibbert took nine catches and made one stumping for a competition record of 10 dismissals in a match.
What was impressive, however, was not the number of catches, not that he was flawless, but that he went for some of the catches way to his right on the offside and way to his left on the legside.
He was so good that with Carlton Baugh Jnr. available, the selectors must be having sleepless nights thinking about the wicketkeeper for tomorrow's match against Kenya.
As a Test player, as the reserve wicketkeeper on the West Indies team, Baugh normally should be the man. Such was Hibbert's performance against Guyana in the previous match, however, such was his performance against Barbados that he should continue behind the stumps especially as Baugh, Test player or no Test player, West Indies reserve or not, has never performed as brilliantly as Hibbert is now performing.
There are those who will say that that would be an embarrassment to Baugh and to the West Indies selectors, but although Hibbert was then not as good as he is now, if that would be embarrassing for them, so was it for Hibbert and the Jamaica selectors last year when with Hibbert as the Jamaica wicketkeeper and the standby wicketkeeper for the previous tours by the West Indies, the West Indies selectors plucked Baugh out of the West Indies B team and put him in the West Indies team.
Baugh is promising, no question about that. Hibbert, right now, however, is brilliant, he is at the top of his form, and remembering that he too has ambitions of playing for the West Indies, there is no just reason why, as some are saying, he should be sidelined in an effort to protect Baugh.
Baugh, it should be remembered, was selected to the West Indies team even though he had never kept wicket for Jamaica, and that suggests that even if, as it should be, he plays in tomorrow's match or in the following match only as a batsman, it should not affect his selection to the West Indies team as a wicketkeeper certainly not if the selectors are satisfied with his performance in the West Indies team.
The only other way it can affect Baugh is if Hibbert, also a fair batsman, continues to be as brilliant, as flawless, as he was against Guyana and Barbados.
