ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – As has been the case in each of the last three seasons, the longest rivalry in the game in the West Indies will again take centre stage in the eighth round the Digicel Regional 4-Day Tournament.
Strong second-placed contenders Barbados Pride face current leaders and reigning champions Guyana Jaguars, starting tomorrow at Kensington Oval, under a unique set of playing conditions.
A day later, Leeward Islands Hurricanes will look to use the boost of confidence they gained from a win last weekend to try and topple Windward Islands Volcanoes at Warner Park.
At the same time, the round gets into full swing, when Trinidad & Tobago Red Force and Jamaica Scorpions meet at Queen’s Park Oval, trying to recover from demoralising defeats in their previous match.
In Bridgetown, Barbados: This match between the Pride and the Jaguars could be the primary decider this season in the destination of the Headley/Weekes Trophy, symbol of R4Day supremacy.
A comfortable victory over the Volcanoes in the previous round have left the Pride 15.8 points adrift of the Jags, whose equally convincing win over the Red Force made them the first team to crack the 100-point ceiling this season.
These two teams have more or less been the two most consistent over the last three seasons, when the franchise format has come into play, and another absorbing contest between two sides that seem evenly balanced on paper.
The West Indies might not be winning Tests and One-Day International matches regularly, but several measures have been implemented by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) over the past three years that should halt the team’s decline in international cricket, says WICB director Conde Riley.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY Riley was adamant that the fortunes of the West Indies team will be turned around as the policies implemented start to take root. He suggested that there have already been a few signs of things to come in the future.
“About three years ago the board took the decision to employ Richard Pybus (former director of cricket) to look at the rebuilding of West Indies first-class cricket. One of his first initiatives was the expansion of the first-class season from five to ten matches. The regional one-day tournament was also expanded. We also professionalised regional cricket by contracting 15 players in each of the six territories,” Riley stated.
He added: “The contracting of these players in my view was a revolutionary development in our cricket. It allowed 90 cricketers from throughout the region to go to work on a daily basis with cricket as their main focus. They could train, get fit and prepare themselves fully for the task of playing cricket. I think that this will lead to the better development of our young cricketers in the future.”
It only took his second match in charge for Kyle Hope to come to grips with the realities of life down at the bottom of the Professional Cricket League. League leaders and defending champions Guyana Jaguars put his team under pressure from the very first day and never really lost their grip on a match which ended within the first hour of the final day.Hope’s Trinidad and Tobago Red Force dug a deep pit for themselves by only scoring 202 in their first innings.
For the record, all of the first seven Red Force batsmen reached double figures and all but one of those got 20 or more, yet none got further than Isaiah Rajah’s 41.In assessing that performance, the skipper said: “A lot of us got starts and we did not carry on but I guess that is where the inexperience showed a little bit. It was a difficult day, batting-wise. It was difficult to score quickly and we did try to apply ourselves. We were 60-odd for one going into lunch; that showed we did fight but we did not carry on,”
In the second innings, the pattern was the same, more or less. Rajah got into the 40s for the second time, Yannic Cariah got into the 30s again, West Indies opener Evin Lewis reached the 20s once more and all-rounder Imran Khan got 28 to go with his 36 from the first knock. I hear the skipper venturing “inexperience” as a factor for the first innings failure. Maybe he needed to check his figures.Of the top seven in the order, only Rajah could really be classified as a newcomer to first-class cricket with five games behind him.
Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq on Wednesday announced the 16-member One Day International (ODI) team and 15-member Test and T20 squads for the upcoming tour of West Indies.
Addressing a press conference at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the chief selector said that all factors were taken into consideration when selecting the team.
When asked whether the squad was selected based on their fitness level, Inzamam responded saying "32 players had passed the fitness test but we cannot select a 32-member team".
"Umar [Akmal] was the only player who failed the fitness test," he added. "Of course, fitness is important but performance is the main factor."
When asked about the exclusion of former ODI captain Azhar Ali from the squad, the chief selector said, “Azhar is a very good player. We wanted to give opportunity to the younger players to play the one-day matches.”
