 |
Jamaica,
Barbados Share Busta Glory |
parentage. It also included a new points system, whereby an outright victory ensured the team 12 points instead of 16, six points for a first innings gain and three points for the other team in the event of a draw (instead of eight and four) and four points for the losing team who had surrendered first innings points (instead of five).
With the tournament slogan 'It All Starts Here', which indicated the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)'s rebuilding mission, the championship consisted of two stages, the Busta Cup, which could have be won only by a traditional
West Indies territory, and the Busta International Series, contested by the four top teams in the Cup.
But, after nine weeks of intense competition, Barbados emerged victorious in the Busta Cup, earning a jackpot of US$7,000 and Jamaica took the inaugural Busta International Shield, walking away with US$10,000.
At the semi-final stage, Jamaica trounced a lack-lustre Barbados squad by 243 runs at Sabina Park while Guyana, paced by a haul of 7/89 in the second innings by Reon King and 110 from Ramnaresh Sarwan, defeated England 'A' by seven wickets at the Bourda Oval.
A protest by the Guyana Cricket Board to allow the final to be staged in the 'Mudland' failed and Jamaica, powered by first innings centuries by Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds, collected the Shield in front of their home fans at Sabina after the match was called off as a draw.
It was a tremendous all-round performance by the Jamaicans which earned them the Shield, but their stars throughout were opening batsmen Gayle and Leon Garrick, as well as Hinds, Gareth Breese, Nehemiah Perry, Ryan Cunningham
and Keith Hibbert.
Contrasting in technique and physique, Gayle, 21, and Garrick, 24, created a regional opening record stand of 425 against the West Indies 'B' team in their Cup clash at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, and the 12th largest in the history of first-class cricket.
Even though Gayle scored 208 not out from 336 balls with 19 fours, and Garrick smashing an unbeaten 200 from 386 with 21 fours, they eclipsed the Jamaican record of 258, set by Allan Rae and Easton McMorris against Trinidad and Tobago in 1959 and the West Indian first-class record of 390 achieved by Leslie Wight and Glendon Gibbs for British Guiana (now Guyana) against Barbados at Bourda 50 years ago.
Gayle earned another stint in the Test arena after tallying a mammoth 945 at an average of 63 with three centuries and four fifties. The tall opener improved as the tournament went along, smashing the bowling to all parts with his flowing offside drives. And the minute Garrick, overcoming a disciplinary record which included his earlier omission due to failure to practice and an off-field incident before the season started, made two hundreds and four half-centuries en route to 801 runs at 50.06.
Breese, a former West Indies youth team skipper with an excellent all-round track record, justified the selectors' faith in him with 220 runs in the middle order and a wicket-haul of 36 at 15.11 with his tidy off-breaks. In the spin department he was supported by veteran off-spinner Perry, who took 31 at 20.9 and also scored 289 runs with the bat, and left-armer Cunningham, who chipped in with 22.
While his run-tally was modest (262 at 18.71) Hibbert emerged as the best of the wicket-keepers, earning 30 dismissals in his first full tournament. But there was little to talk about with the fast bowling, with an injured and disinterested Franklyn Rose the best of a poor lot with 13 wickets.
Ex-WI captain Jimmy Adams and Jamaica's leader for the first six matches Robert Samuels, who were both dumped from the West Indies team after tours to Australia in 2001 and 1997 respectively, delivered little with the bat in
addition to Brenton Parchment, who had an excellent Red Stripe Bowl a few months earlier. Samuels was even dropped from the final, as well as Breese, as the West Indies players returned from Australia. Walsh, in his swansong,
Ricardo Powell, Marlon Samuels and Laurie Williams were average at best but Hinds' Busta tally of 261 at 65.25 featured two hundreds and a fifty.
The headline act in the tournament was the comeback trail of Carl Hooper, who was later appointed as the West Indies skipper. With a regional best run-tally of 954 at 95.4 with four centuries and four fifties, Hooper prospered against mediocre bowling throughout, scoring virtually at will at every innings. But young strokemakers Ramnaresh Sarwan and Travis Dowlin were not far behind, Sarwan making 606 at 67.33 while Dowlin registered 422 at 52.75.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul had an unbeaten 49 in the final, but was clearly weakened by an elbow injury, while Azeemul Haniff's 62 in that match was his only noticeable innings in a poor tournament for the highly-touted player. Lennox Cush, Nicholas deGroot, Keith Semple and Neil McGarrell did little but Siewnarine Chattergoon offered a glimmer of hope for the future.
McGarrell eventually reaped 32 wickets with his slow left-arm spin, while diminutive but hard-working pacer Keith Darlington took 25, Hooper 25, Mahendra Nagamootoo 17 upon his return from Down Under and the tiny teenaged
debutant leg-spinner Ron Matthews 15.
As experienced as their squad was, fielding as much as 11 players who played for West Indies youth and senior teams, Barbados won the Busta Cup on the basis of their four round-robin victories ahead of Guyana's three, but they were clearly a shadow of their former self.
Their batting never clicked, with Ian Bradshaw, who led the team until embattled opener Sherwin Campbell returned from Australia, and ex-captain Roland Holder being their only century-makers. Those two, as well as Ryan Hinds and Shirley Clarke, were their only batting sparks, while Shawn Armstrong faded after a consistent start, and veterans Campbell, Floyd Reifer, Philo Wallace, Adrian Griffith and Courtney Browne offered little scope for future West Indies recalls.
With a regional record of 15/102, including 9/68 in the first innings of their match against the Leeward Islands in Grove Park in Nevis, Hinds stamped his claim as the most talented young all-rounder in the region. He was head and shoulders above the rest, with 27 wickets, even though pacer Hendy Bryan also took 27 victims in the series. Corey Collymore, in another comeback trail due to spinal malfunctions, was rewarded with 26 scalps while Bradshaw, despite wayward spells, took 18 and Trinidad-born Ryan Austin, the second Barbadian representative of Indian descent, collected 12 with his steady off-spin.
With a seven-wicket victory over Jamaica in Sabina Park being the highlight of their stint in the Caribbean, England 'A' answered the critics with a favourable impression, before being ousted by Guyana in the semis. Their batting revolved around the dogged opener Ian Ward, who compiled 769 runs at 64.08 with three centuries and four half-centuries, captain Mark Alleyne, who improved as the tournament went on and totalled 370 runs, and vice-captain John Crawley who made 373 runs.
Their varied bowling were all among the wickets, with leg-break bowler Chris Schofield spinning away with 22 victims, lanky pacer Alex Tudor 19, off-spinner Graeme Swann, a replacement for Jason Brown who earned a senior team call-up to Sri Lanka, grabbing 18 wickets and pacers Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwood 16 apiece.
The Leeward Islands had very little to shout about, after a convincing 183-run thrashing of hosts Trinidad and Tobago in their first match. Captain Stuart Williams, who scored a century in both innings of that match, finished with 522 runs at 58.0 but diminutive batsmen Junie Mitchum and Alex Adams each starred at times.
For a team laden with fast bowling history, Goldwyn Prince (19 wickets), Kerry Jeremy and Ricky Christopher (26 apiece) enhanced their claims as future West Indies prospects while Carl Tuckett, Wilden Cornwall and the new
off-spinner Omari Banks produced satisfactory all-round efforts for a team missing the retired Curtly Ambrose, as well as Ridley Jacobs and Sylvester Joseph for most of the series due to their stints in Australia.
Trinidad and Tobago were downright poor in their batting, with the recalled duo of Suruj Ragoonath, who was the captain for the first four matches, and Phil Simmons, and the highly-touted youngsters Denis Rampersad, Imran Jan,
Gregory Mahabir and Leon Romero all failing miserably. Lincoln Roberts and Richard Smith were average at best but the biggest impression was created by Andy Jackson, a swashbuckling opener in the mould of a Roy Fredericks.
While their fast bowling was non-existent, leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine, with a tournament's best 41 wickets, earned a recall to the West Indies team, but another of their conveyor belt of spinners emerged with Dave Mohammed, a back-of-the-arm lefthander, bowled with tremendous control, accuracy and variations to take 13 scalps in the last two matches.
The West Indies 'B' team lost six out of their seven matches, including a 224-run beating in their first match against England, 10-wicket defeats to Barbados and the Leeward Islands, a crushing innings-and-24-run whipping by Guyana and a 166-run hammering in their last match in Jamaica. Those hindrances aside, the team members sparkled at times, and even gave indications of their class for the future. Tonito Willett, David Bernard, Kurt Wilkinson and Andrew Gonzalves can blossom into aggressive strokemakers and, conversely, left-handers Narsingh Deonarine, Zaheer Ali and
enthusiastic keeper Wayne Phillip have the potential to evolve into compact batsmen with the penchant for long innings.
Most of their players, including captain Richardson, were among the wickets, but those creating the biggest impressions were Sulieman Benn, an ebullient and competitive left-handed batsman and finger-spinner, speedsters Jermaine Lawson and Reon Griffith.
The Windward Islands returned to type this year, with outright losses in all seven matches, including a humiliating 162-run hammering by the West Indies 'B' team at Arnos Vale. The squad lost the services of recalcitrant all-rounder Roy Marshall before a ball was bowled, due to disciplinary reasons, but welcomed back John Eugene, who, despite his ins-and-outs with the team, was their leading run-getter with 406 and their only century maker in the tournament.
Evergreen wicket-keeper Junior Murray scored 405 runs and captain Rawl Lewis 338, but the young players who made an impact in their victorious Red Stripe Bowl campaign a few months earlier, all averaged under 20, openers Devon Smith and Rummel Currency, John Sylvester and Keston Casimir.
Their bowling fared a little better, and it culminated with off-spinner Shane Shillingford being removed from the attack on the first day of their fourth round game against Leeward Islands in Grenada when international umpire Steve Bucknor called him on three occasions for 'throwing'. While Shillingford copped 20 scalps in his debut season, another newcomer, leg-spinner Orlando Jackson, was their only bowler to take 10 wickets in a match, on his way to 25 victims.
With reports that both Kenya and India reserves are being included in next year's version, the 2002 edition will again be devalued with West Indies scheduled to tour Pakistan in February. But, on the basis of this year's returns, the regional cricketing tournament may once again be on the way up.
| P | W | L | D |
Points |
||
| 1. | Barbados | 7 | 4 | - | 3 |
57 |
| 2. | Guyana | 7 | 3 | - | 4 |
57 |
| 3. | England 'A' | 7 | 3 | - | 4 |
54 |
| 4. | Jamaica | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
51 |
| 5. | Leeward Islands | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
48 |
| 6. | Trinidad & Tobago | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
38 |
| 7. | West Indies 'B' | 7 | 1 | 6 | - |
20 |
| 8. | Windward Islands | 7 | - | 7 | - |
0 |