Jamaica well behind in T20 game, says Francis

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Courtney Francis, manager of Jamaica's team to the just-concluded Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, is calling for a review of the structure and management of local Twenty20 cricket in light of the team's fourth-place finish at the inaugural event.

According to Francis, who along with members of the team returned from Trinidad on Sunday, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) needs to look at how it organises local Twenty20 competitions, national selectors needs to look at the criteria they use to choose Twenty20 players, and coaches and managers need to work harder at identifying and developing specialist Twenty20 players.

"There needs to be a partnership with our national selectors, cricket technical committee and players to come up with a template as to the way to go forward regarding Twenty20 cricket," said Francis, who expressed disappointment at the team's final placing.

Represent the region

Guyana won the tournament ahead of Barbados, and will represent the region at this year's Airtel Champions League in South Africa, which hand out US$11 million in prize money.

"We went wrong both on and off the field at the tournament, and this was not by accident. We weren't prepared enough and, as a result, we had to be playing catch-up cricket, especially in the final round in Trinidad," he added.

One of the favourites heading into the tournament, Jamaica cruised through the first round in Barbados with a perfect two-from-two record following big wins over Canada and the Leeward Islands, respectively.

However, in the tournament's final round in Trinidad, things fell apart as they went down to the hosts in the group's final first-round fixture, and to Barbados in the semi-finals.

They then had to settle for fourth after going down to Trinidad a second time in the third and fourth-place play-off, which was labelled as a consolation final.

"Our local Twenty20 competition needs to be restructured. Currently, it is played in a knockout format, which is not enough to properly develop and test the skills of players," Francis opined.

"For example, outside of St Catherine players, who played four matches in the T20 competition, a number of players played only one or two matches. This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.

"Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana have viable Twenty20 competitions, which means that of all the major teams in the region, we are the worst off."

"Another area which needs to be addressed is the matter of player selection. T20 cricket is a much faster, shorter, explosive form of the game and we need choose players who can effectively deal with the demands.

"Additionally, the game calls for a lot of specialist players, and national technical committee, coaches and managers need to identify these players locally and streamline them for this form of the game.

Describing addressing his areas of concern as a win-win situation, Francis also pointed to the potential benefits of a greater focus on the development of Twenty20 cricket locally.

"T20 cricket is also important for the development of cricket in Jamaica, as at present it is the most lucrative of all JCA competitions in terms of sponsorship. We therefore we need to treat it with priority," he said.

Francis is in the process of writing and submitting a report regarding the team's showing at the tournament, after which it will be discussed at the JCA's executive level.