The Jamaica Cricket Association's SuperCricket League is over, and but for the brave attempt of the association to put together a semi-pro league, and the batting of Kingston CC's Chadwick Walton, probably also the bowling of Manchester's Krishmar Santokie, it was a big disappointment.

In batting, bowling, fielding, and even in captaincy, the standard was poor.

The standard, generally, was so poor that it was hardly any better than that of the Junior Cup competition up to 36 and 37 years ago, when good young players had difficulty getting into Senior Cup teams - when Jamaica Youth representatives like Vincent Hartley, Donald Spencer and Ronald Findlay, along with West Indies Youth reps like Carlton Baugh and Colin Fletcher, were members of the Melbourne Junior Cup team.

In two months of competition, in 28 matches of two innings each, the records show that only 11 centuries were scored, that five wickets were taken in an innings only 19 times, six wickets nine times, seven wickets two times, and that the team totals, most times, were disappointing.

poor pitches

Kingston Tigers' Chadwick Walton. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

There were some poor pitches, and no one can question that. They were, however, not so poor to justify so many totals below 100, including 89 by Westmoreland, 82 by Westmoreland, 80 and 79 by St Elizabeth, 74 by Westmoreland, 63 by Manchester, 61 by Trelawny, 30 by St Elizabeth, and 16 and 32 by Hanover while losing by an innings and 20 runs to Manchester in the final round of the contest - the same round in which Melbourne dropped first innings points to St Catherine before, after 'dismissing' the home team for 84 in their second innings, winning the match early on the first day.

Although it is difficult to see how the JCA hopes to maintain it and, more important, how to improve it, the only good memory, apart from Walton's batting and probably Santokie's bowling, of the SuperCricket League 2009 was the move to go semi-professional - to put some money into the pockets of the players.

Apart from the fact that some of the players are simply not good enough to be paid, and apart from the fact that Jamaica and West Indies cricket is finding it difficult to find sponsors, not even semi-pro sports can survive without spectator support, and right now, but for a few diehards who turn up every Saturday and Sunday, there is no spectator support for the competition - not in the city, and not in the rural areas.

Unless the players, with help from the clubs and parishes, improve their skills and start to perform, there will be no support - unless, of course, the JCA can find a way to attract the fans, like the parish of St Elizabeth does for its domestic matches between districts.

Even if we do not count his six wickets for nine runs against Hanover in the last match of a season spoilt by the quarrel over points, Santokie bowled well. His left-arm swing was vastly improved and in taking 41 wickets, including three five-wicket hauls in an innings and one 10-in-a-match performance, he looked dangerous with almost every delivery.

The man of the season, however, was Walton - the 23-year-old right-handed Kingston Club batsman who, in seven matches, in eleven innings, scored 637 runs, including two centuries - 136 and 179 not out, and two fifties - 84 not out and 95, at a table-topping average of 79.50.

Walton's best was his glorious attacking, undefeated innings of 179 against Melbourne at Melbourne Oval towards the end of the season. It was an innings which showcased an ability that could and should take the Munro old boy and the University of the West Indies student beyond the first-class game.

It was an innings of quality.

Five years earlier, at the tender age of 18 while still at Munro but representing Lucas, Walton came to Melbourne and cracked a century before lunch on the opening day of the match.

This time, on Sunday, June 7, with his team batting a second time after losing first innings points, Walton went to bat, and with his bat flashing in the brilliant sunshine of the day, lifted Kingston to such an extent that Melbourne were under pressure at the end.

But for left-arm spin bowler Nikita Miller, the Melbourne attack is far from great. That, however, did not detract from the quality of Walton's innings. The stroke play was simply superb and powerful.

A back-foot pull for six off pacer Sheldon Smith earlier in the innings left Walton's bat like a bullet and landed on the metal roof of the church beyond the midwicket boundary with the sound of an exploding bomb, and with 13 more strokes sending the ball beyond the boundary - a number of them never to be seen again - with seven others racing to the boundary in a 192-ball showpiece, it was the innings, the spectacle, and one of the few happy memories of a season best forgotten.