Secrets of Jamaica's U-19 Success

"The Jamaica team performed disastrously in both competitions as the players looked out of their depth and woefully 'out of sorts'. The team's performance reflects the need for the Jamaica Cricket Association to urgently review its related programmes and where necessary, amend or even implement new strategies, appreciating the need for adequate and effective preparation."

Compare the above ? taken from the report submitted by Manager Fritz Harris last year after the TCL U-19 tournament ? with the results this year being Jamaica winning the 3-day championship and before that ending up beaten finalists in the limited overs competition. It's like night and day isn't it? What contributed to this turnaround in Jamaica's performance? What strategies did Jamaica use this year to win the TCL trophy?

According to the report, two of the major problems last year were "inadequate preparation of players and insufficient match preparation of a demanding and challenging standard". This year, in addition to David Bernard Snr working on the team's fitness, the squad of players were included in the domestic Senior Cup competition. This meant that they played approximately 10 competitive matches. In reviewing that strategy, Harris said "a squad of 23 was used, but what we learnt from this process is that what we need to do is to have only the actual 14 playing in this competition because we recognized where we suffered from that. We had people coming in at the back end who were basically new to the programme and it showed". Next year they will correct that.

After the Senior Cup, the team went into a three week camp in July. The match preparation, coupled with this camp meant that come game day, they were much better prepared for both tournaments, and it showed. Jamaica beat Trinidad & Tobago in the semi-final of the one-day competition but lost to Barbados in the final. Undaunted from that huge defeat, they came back in the three-day tournament with convincing victories against Rest of Americas and Trinidad & Tobago, as well as first innings honours over Barbados.

Both the Manager as well as Coach Junior Bennett acknowledged the hard work put in by the team. But hard work alone doesn't do it. You must have a plan. Harris said "we tried as much as possible to analyze the people we were playing against to see their strengths and weaknesses and if you notice in our game, we attacked particular players in a particular way because that's how we felt was the best way to do so". The best evidence of this was in the semi-final of the three-day tournament against last year's champions Trinidad & Tobago.

Jamaica won the toss and batted, making a paltry 119. By the end of the first day however, they had Trinidad & Tobago tottering on 116 for 7. What was Jamaica's strategy after that horrific performance? "What we said to the players was simple. If you restrict these people, ensure they do not get a large lead, anything under 50 would be ok, and then bowl them out in good time, the first innings would not have mattered" explained Fritz Harris. The visitors went on to post a 33 run lead with a first innings score of 152. The Jamaican team was sticking to the game plan.

The batsmen then backed that up with some fine performances in their second innings. Opener Xavier Marshall made a century and middle order batsman Albert Gopie stroked an unbeaten 96 to put Jamaica's score at 295 for 7 at the end of the second day. Declaring on this overnight score on the morning of day three, Jamaican leg spinner Alton Beckford, spun Trinidad & Tobago out of the competition with a career best eight for 33.

Beckford's success was no fluke. Harris said "Beckie is one of our leading bowlers but he was just back from a broken finger. He played this tournament not 100% and was short of match bowling practice but he did well under the circumstances. In that second innings he really stuck to the instructions. He got specific instructions from the Coach, how to bowl to each and every single player".

The entire team was involved in strategy meetings. If you interviewed Albert Gopie, who many thought should have been allowed to get the four runs required for his first century at this level, he would not have been aggrieved. Disappointed maybe, but not aggrieved. Why? The team plan, of which he was aware, was to bat until 40 minutes before the close of play on day two and then put the visitors in. Tropical Storm Earl was approaching, and enough time would have been needed to bowl the Trinidad & Tobago team out. However, as Gopie picked up his scoring rate, a decision was made to bat until the close of play and Gopie was aware that wherever he finished at the end of the day would be his final score.

Now you can have the best game plan in the world, but if the Captain does not stick to it, and ensure that his players do, then it all comes to nought. Jamie Trenchfield, fresh from his success as captain of the winning U-15 team last year was commended by Coach Bennett who said "I have to give credit to our young captain Jamie Trenchfield. He is a young man, he has about 2 ? 3 seasons at this level so I expect good things from him".

Trenchfield played a captain's knock when it mattered, scoring a century to push Jamaica's first innings score to 300. The diminutive captain had a goal. "I just came the day and planned to bat the whole day and I did that and I know that from I bat the whole day I would have made a century" said Trenchfield. The successful Jamaican captain then warned the region that eight of Jamaica's players are going to be playing next year, "so next year you can look for us winning again".

There are lessons to be learnt here. Lesson One: You will be successful if you prepare adequately, adopt a tactical approach to planning each game based on sound technical knowledge and play according to instructions. Lesson Two: You'll also reap the rewards if you have a Board who uses reports from previous tournaments to effect the changes recommended by those closer to the action. Of course you must also believe that you can win, as Junior Bennett and his team did.

When you think about it, it's really a simple plan, but one that so many can't seem to grasp.