THE 2004 regional limited overs cricket tournament ended at Kensington Oval on Sunday and as expected, it was a close and exciting contest in which a number of matches ended in nail-biting finishes.
Contrary to expectations, however, the winners were not Barbados, they were not Jamaica, and they were not defending champions Guyana. The winners, the champions, were Trinidad and Tobago.
In a contest in which every team lost at least two matches in the preliminary round, Jamaica did not even make it to the semi-finals, Barbados did not make it to the final, and although Guyana contested the championship match, they were beaten by Trinidad and Tobago in a showdown that was a tit for tat shoot-out.
5.4 OVERS TO SPARE
It was so until, with the scoreboard reading Guyana 160 and Trinidad and Tobago 83 for six, Imran Jan, batting at number four, and Richard Kelly, batting at number eight, swept their team to victory without the loss of another wicket and with 5.4 overs to spare.
It was a great victory for a team that was not rated one of the favourites. In fact, all things considered, it must rank as the greatest team performance
dating back to 1966 at the start of the regional competitions.
Never before has a team so weakened by absent players and up against teams which but for a player or two were at full strength done so well, and no praise is too high for captain Daren Ganga and his band of fighters.
Jamaica were without their three young fast bowlers Jermaine Lawson, Jerome Taylor and Andrew Richardson who were injured.
Although it is likely that they would not have played, Barbados were without their injured young fast bowlers Fidel Edwards and Tino Best, and Guyana were without batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan.
Trinidad and Tobago, however, were without bats-
men Brian Lara and Lendl Simmons, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, fast bowlers Mervyn Dillon and Ravi Rampaul and also left-arm spinner Dave Mohammed.
FIGHTING SPIRIT
To win without them,
especially as they had not won the title since 1996 when they were at full strength, demonstrated a character, a team spirit and a fighting spirit that should make the people of Trinidad and Tobago tip their hats to them.
"This will bring respect to T&T cricket and the cricketers," said captain Ganga. "This shows what team spirit and believing in yourself can do", and he is right.
Cricket fans around the region will never forget that Trinidad and Tobago, playing without half their team, without their best batsman and without their best bowlers, knocked off the best of the region to win, not a match, but a tournament of seven matches. And they did so in style while hanging on to win a few tight games and while coming back from the edge of defeat to win others.
In a glorious start, Trinidad and Tobago defeated Barbados by three wickets. After losing to Guyana, they defeated Jamaica when chasing 207, they recovered from 84 for six and 157 for eight to win with two wickets to spare; and after losing to the Windward Islands by one run, they clipped the Leeward Islands by eight runs for a place in the semi-finals.
NO CHANCE
Even then, not many gave them a chance to win the tournament, not even to reach the final.
To do that, they would have to defeat Barbados and although they had won the first-round encounter, with the match being played in Barbados not many believed they would have been good enough to win again to beat the Barbadians in their own backyard.
After looking down and out with Barbados chipping to 276 for five while blasting 107 runs off the last 10 overs, however, T&T produced some disciplined batting, scored 256 for five before bad light stopped play, and won the game on the Duckworth/Lewis system.
Remembering that they lost by five wickets to Guyana in the preliminary round, they were also underdogs going into the final.
Once again, however, they conquered, and as was the case against Jamaica, they did so after looking down the barrel.
Every victory is sweet. There are some, however, that is sweeter than others, and although they won the title on six previous occasions, after playing without their best
players, after starting as rank outsiders, this one, for Trinidad and Tobago, must be and should be the sweetest one of all.
'It was a great
victory for a team that was not
rated one of the favourites. In
fact, all things
considered, it
must rank as
the greatest team
performance
dating back to 1966 at the start
of the regional competitions.'
