By Tony Becca, FROM THE BOUNDARY
MARSHALL... only batsman to shine. -
JAMAICA'S FAILURE to get into the semi-finals of the regional limited-overs cricket tournament has been the talk around town for the past few days and as usual in this country, when teams that are expected to win or at least to do well, fail to deliver, a number of excuses are being rolled out.
One of the early favourites, in fact, one of the two top favourites at the start of the tournament, Jamaica won two matches, lost three, and in one of their worst performances for a long time, finished a disappointing fifth in the six-team contest.
The question, therefore, is what went wrong in Guyana? According to what is being said, Jamaica may have or would have qualified had they prepared themselves, not on the pitches at Melbourne Oval or Sabina Park, but on pitches similar to those in Guyana; had more time been set aside for the preparation of the team; had more of the preparation time been spent in the nets than playing matches and, but for some umpiring decisions that went against them, and the slow pitches on which the matches were played.
PREPARATION
Remembering that the preparation process was no different from previous years, that the Jamaicans (the majority of them) were no strangers to the pitches in Guyana; that umpiring in the Caribbean is generally poor; that umpiring decisions must have gone against Barbados, the Windward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana who won through to the semi-finals; that all the teams played on the same pitches, and that Jamaica, who batted first in every match, played three matches at Bourda, at the Test venue, and lost all three, the result may well have been the same.
With pace bowlers Jermaine Lawson, Jerome Taylor and Andrew Richardson absent due to injuries, the Jamaica attack was not at its best and although there was a hope that with Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels to support all-rounder Gareth Breese, David Bernard and specialist bowlers Daren Powell, Evon McInnis, Dwight Washington and Nikita Miller, it would be good enough to restrict the opposition, the belief was that the batting was so strong that Jamaica would make it to the semi-finals and at worse, challenge for the title.
Although Powell was a disappointment and even though the Windward Islands scored 141 for three, with the Leeward Islands scoring 228 for eight, Trinidad and Tobago 209, Barbados 158, and Guyana 236 for seven, Jamaica's bowling did as well as expected.
The problem was Jamaica's batting.
In five matches, Jamaica scored 139, 245 for nine, 206 after going well at 182 for three, 165, and 234 for five.
To answer the question, therefore, what went wrong in Guyana was Jamaica's batting and it had nothing to do with preparation, with umpiring decisions, and with slow pitches, not when it is remembered that after failing to score in the first match, teenager Xavier Marshall enjoyed scores of 64, 88, 26 and 125 not out.
Lest it be forgotten, Marshall went through the same preparation time as all the other batsmen in the team, like the other batsmen, he played on the same pitches leading up to the tournament, while he was batting during the tournament, the same umpires were officiating, and he also played on the same pitches.
YOUNG AND ADVENTUROUS
Maybe it was that Marshall is young and adventurous; maybe it was that as a youngster looking ahead, he was hungry; maybe, as so often happens in cricket, it was his day, his tournament; maybe, as sometimes happens in the game, it was that the other batsmen, including Gayle, Hinds, Samuels to an extent, and Carlton Baugh Jnr., never got going; and maybe, as it appeared to have been the case, it was simply that while Marshall, demonstrating the qualities of a good batsman, adapted to the conditions, the others, despite their experience, did not.
That, in a nutshell, is why Jamaica are not in Barbados. Only one batsman - the youngest, the least experienced of the lot - performed in Guyana.
