Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
THE KFC one-day cricket tournament is over and, once again, congratulations to Jamaica not only for winning the regional title for the first time since 1999, but for also doing so in style with a perfect record.
After finishing fifth out of six in the previous three years, it was a wonderful performance by Jamaica and one highlighted by some sensible if not brilliant batting, by some good bowling and, most importantly, by some brilliant fielding on the ground and in the air.
On the whole, however, the tournament, despite the excitement of a tie between Trinidad and Tobago and the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and in spite of some good, accurate bowling and some good fielding which produced a few deadly throws and two or three brilliant catches, it was somewhat of a disappointment.
Batting is usually the heartbeat of one-day cricket and the batting, at best and but for a few exciting strokes here and there, was no more than ordinary.
With only three totals of more than 250 and only nine of more than 200 in a 50-over per side contest, with only two centuries, one by Floyd Reifer for CCC and one by Guyana's Travis Dowlin, and only 20 innings of 50 and above, the batting, regardless of the pace of the pitches and including that of the Under-19 team, was a disappointment.
The Under-19 team was not, despite the dreams of some, expected to produce any fireworks. In their three matches, however, they scored 18, 110 and 159, and certainly the first two were disappointing with the first one embarrassingly so.
Destroyed
Up against the swing of left-arm pacer Pedro Collins and the pace of Fidel Edwards, the youngsters were destroyed for 18 runs by Barbados with Collins taking seven for 11 and Edwards two for four in an innings that lasted for a mere 14.3 overs - an innings in which seven batsmen failed to score with one scoring one run, one seven runs, and with two coming up with two runs each.
And but for Reifer, the batting of the CCC team, which also included Barbadian representatives Shirley Clarke, Jason Bennett and Jason Parris, plus Romel Currency and Craig Emmanuel of the Windward Islands, was hardly any better.
With both teams losing five of their six matches - and easily at that, with the Under-19s losing all three, one by eight wickets, one by nine wickets and one by five wickets, and the CCC losing one by 99 runs and another by five wickets with one ending in a tie, neither team justified a place in the regional competition and certainly not at a time when West Indies cricket is looking towards a professional league.
Ability to compete
In a competition, teams will always lose and some times teams will lose all their matches in a competition. What is important, however, and especially so in professional sport, is the strength of the team and its ability to compete.
Neither the Under-19 team nor the CCC team demonstrated the ability to compete and unless West Indies cricket remains stagnant, unless there is no improvement in its standard, it does not seem that they will be able to ever do so.
The two main disappointments of KFC 2007, however, were the lack of radio coverage, certainly in Jamaica, and following the rained-out semi-final, Trinidad and Tobago's march into the final at the expense of Barbados.
Years ago, ball-by-ball coverage of cricket around the region was a given. Today, that is not so. Today it is on some times and some times it is not on.
This time, however, it was not on, an the semi-finals and the final were on television, it shows what has happened to West Indies cricket. It underlines the lack of importance of West Indies cricket to the society these days. When placed alongside the poor attendance at games below the Test and one-day level, the silence, the resignation of the people to the absence of radio broadcasts is an example of their lack of interest in the game these days, and that is one reason why the clubs are suffering and why West Indies cricket is where it is right now.
Another reason is what happened after the Trinidad and Tobago/Barbados semi-final match was rained out and the two teams played in different groups in the preliminaries, Trinidad and Tobago were allowed to walk into the final on the basis of a better run-rate.
With the two teams playing in different groups, it meant that they played against different teams. That meant that it was possible that one group was stronger than the other, an this is not the first time it has happened in West Indies cricket, that means it was unfair to one of them to use run-rate to decide which one moved on.
Why not a reschedule?
On top of that, there was a rest day between the semi-finals and the final, there was, therefore, no problem with hotel accommodation and/or airline seats, and the question for the umpteenth time, is this: why, in the interest of cricket could not the match be rescheduled to the following day - to the day before the final?
Based on the number of times something like this has happened, based on the number of times competitions around the region have ended with the titles shared after only one attempt despite no problems with hotel accommodation and/or airline seats, the answer, it appears, is that those at the head of cricket, in the territories and in the West Indies, care little about playing the game.
They care little about improving the skills of the players or the satisfaction of the players at the end of a season, at the end of a tournament.
Based on their approach in the past and this time around, it appears that they have little or no interest in playing the game - in finding a winner. Their only interest, it seems, is finishing a tournament - and the quicker the better at that.
