Tony Becca

Jamaica open their bid for honours in the four-day Carib Beer Series against the Leeward Islands at Warner Park in Basseterre today, and after winning the regional title seven times, after winning it in 2005, and finishing at the bottom of the standings last year, they will be hoping for a complete turnaround of their fortunes this time around.

And, there is no reason why, with a batting line-up of Chris Gayle and Brenton Parchment, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds, Tamar, Lambert and Lorenzo Ingram, David Bernard Jr. and Carlton Baugh Jr.; and a bowling attack to come from pacers Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell, Jermaine Lawson and Bernard, from left-arm spinners Nikita Miller and André Dwyer, and from right-arm leg spinner Odean Brown plus Gayle and Samuels, they cannot come out on top or very near the top.

According to Gayle, Jamaica possess the best team on paper and what is important is that they produce their best.

According to captain Hinds, indiscipline was one of the reasons why the team performed so miserably last year; and both men are correct.

What that suggests is that if the players lift their game this time around and if their discipline has improved, there is no reason why they should not win - despite the absence of Gareth Breese, their leading bowler in the last six seasons.

Should win

And they should win, or rather they can win, not because of the presence of batsmen like Gayle, Samuels and Hinds, and of pace bowlers like Taylor, Powell and Lawson, but also, and probably more so, because of the presence of Dwyer - a left-arm wrist spinner of great promise, a bowler who spins the ball, and a bowler who accompanies his leg-breaks with well-disguised googlies and flippers.

As a spin bowler in the regional tournament, Dwyer, based on the performance of other spin bowlers in the tournament, has a good chance of getting among the wickets; and as a wrist spinner, based on the outstanding performance of other wrist spinners in the tournament, on the performances of others like Willie Rodriquez of Trinidad and Tobago, Arthur Barrett of Jamaica, Inshan Ali, Rajendra Dhanraj, Dinanath Ramnarine and Dave Mohammed of Trinidad and Tobago who, apart from their orthodox leg-spin, also bowl googlies, wrong-uns, flippers and top-spinners, he has a great chance of enjoying a memorable season.

Someone special

Dwyer is someone special. He is so special that, apart from the right-handed Barrett who mixed his leg-breaks with googlies and top-spinners, Jamaica has never produced, or rather, has never ever paraded one like him - and definitely not since 1950.

But for Barrett and Roberts Haynes, and only so as a young man, not one of Jamaica's right-arm leg-spinners - not one of Alfred Scott, who also bowled a top-spinner, Francis Tulloch, Leonard Mullings, Lloyd Williams, Lawson Matthews or Samuel Francis bowled anything but leg breaks, and as someone who did not get the ball to turn, Linden Wright came on to the batsman more than anything else.

Brown, a member of the present squad, also bowls only leg breaks.

What is even more important is that all the left-arm spinners, including the great Alfred Valen-tine, including the outstanding George Mudie, Bob Maragh and Bruce Wellington, and including others like Robert Scarlett - the drifter, Lloyd Morgan, Neil Hosang, Wilfred Plummer, Donovan Malcolm, and Kirk Ebanks have been orthodox leg-spin bowlers.

So too is Miller of the present set.

Dwyer, however, is different. In his attempt to get the batsman out, he attacks him with everything, he is refreshing, he, like Mohammed and another Jamaican, Dave Bulli, represents the type of bowler that the West Indies need to support its pacers, and because of that, in the interest of Jamaica and West Indies cricket, we wish him well.

A bowler like Dwyer needs good leadership, good captaincy, and apart from ensuring that he plays, that he gets his fair share of bowling, hopefully captain Hinds will be knowledgeable enough to set his field properly - to know when to attack and when to defend, and wise enough to use him well - to know when to pull him and when to let him loose.