Tony Becca

After seven years in the wilderness, including three successive years in which they finished fifth out of six and even failed to get to the semi-finals, Jamaica enjoyed the sweet taste of victory on Sunday when, under top batsman Chris Gayle, they won the regional one-day tournament at the Three Ws Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

In fact, they not only won it; they dominated it from start to finish.

After boasting probably the best team in the tournament on certainly the three previous occasions, after starting each time as one of the favourites and disappointing their fans, Jamaica turned up this time around, and even without West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels and discarded West Indies batsman and former captain Wavell Hinds, destroyed the opposition with a perfect record of five from five.

In the preliminary round Jamaica defeated the Leeward Islands by six wickets, then they brushed aside the weak and over-matched West Indies Under 19 by nine wickets, and then they eased past Barbados by six wickets, before taking out Guyana by seven wickets in the semi-finals and then knocking off defending champions Trinidad and Tobago by 28 runs in the final.

Although, with the West Indies team doing so poorly in the international arena and ranking so low, some could, and with justification, look at Jamaica's success in the regional tournament as similar to the status of a one-eyed man in a blind man's country. It was a good performance, one apparently highlighting good team spirit, one in which most of the players played a part, and one deserving of cheers and handclaps.

Although winners, deservedly or not, are always praised and losers always criticised, it was certainly wonderful and refreshing to hear fast bowler Jerome Taylor saying, minutes after the victory, that he thought things were more organised this time - just as it was good to hear captain Gayle saying well done, not only to his team, but also to the management and to the coaching staff.

Happy in victory

According to Gayle, everyone played a part, and if that is really true, if that is not just some nice words coming out of the mouth of a winner happy in victory, and being generous to everyone involved, that, for a change, is good news for Jamaica's cricket.

The captain, however, the man who seems to have the knack of getting along with his players and getting the best out of them, certainly deserves high praise, and certainly for their performance on the field, not for making hundreds of runs and for taking dozens of wickets but certainly for their consistency, so too batsmen Brenton Parchment, Shawn Findlay and Danza Hyatt, and bowlers Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Brendan Nash.

Nash, the Australian-born Jamaican who is primarily a batsman, did not make a lot of runs. His bowling, however, which was highlighted by his miserly spell of 10 overs for 11 runs against Barbados, and his four for 20 off nine against Guyana, was a blessing, and so too was his fielding.

There is no question that the left-handed Nash can bat, and there is no doubt that he will make a contribution to Jamaica's cricket.

Talking about fielding, Findlay was a revelation.

Based on the reports, his two catches - a one-handed blinder at long-off to get rid of Kieron Pollard and a diving, unbelievable one in the covers to get rid of Rayad Emrit, and his direct hit from cover to remove Lendl Simmons, were brilliant and unforgettable.

It seems as if he is as good in the outfield as he is in the slips, and with his batting getting better and better every day, he, who, as a young teenager, was a promising footballer, seems destined, like Parchment and all things being equal, to serve Jamaica's cricket for a long time.