A waste of money and time

Tony Becca, Contributor

The regional one-day tournament got under way on Thursday and, for a total of 11 days and 15 matches, the hunt will be on, not so much for the little money up for grabs, but for the coveted title and the bragging rights.

Jamaica, winners of the title in 2007, and Trinidad and Tobago, champion in 2008 and 2009, are the early favourites, and without doubt, they appear the ones to beat, even though Jamaicans are becoming fed up with their team almost always starting, probably by their own fans or in their own minds, as favourites and ending up losing.

Will Jamaica make it this time around? I will not bet on it, but they have the team to do so, and they can do so, at least on paper, and although they lost to outsiders, the Windward Islands, on the opening day.

It could depend on how well they bat.

If they bat well; if Chris Gayle, in particular; Xavier Marshall; Marlon Samuels; Danza Hyatt; Brendan Nash; and Carlton Baugh bat as well as I remember they can bat, the bowling, particularly of the lefthanders Nikita Miller and Krishmar Santokie, can be dangerous.

My bet, however, is on Trinidad and Tobago.

Almost unbeatable

Their team of batsmen Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, and Daren Ganga; bowlers Ravi Rampaul, Imran Khan, Dave Mohammed, Samuel Badree; and all-rounders Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, and Sherwin Ganga seems almost unbeatable.

Of the other teams, only Barbados, with Ryan Hinds, Dale Richards, Kraigg Braithwaite, Dwayne Smith, Jason Haynes, Kemar Roach, and Tino Best, seem capable of a challenge.

Guyana, surprisingly, conquerors of Trinidad and Tobago in the T20 tournament, and despite the presence of Ramnaresh Sarwan and the return of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, do not possess a team capable of doing damage this time around, even though it is the unpredictable limited-over cricket.

The Leeward Islands, despite their attack of pacers Gavin Tonge and Lionel Baker, and spinners Omari Banks and Anthony Martin, are not expected to be in the running, but the Windward Islands, following their surprise victory over Jamaica by the Duckworth/ Lewis method, are not in the thick of things.

The Windward Islands still have the Combined Colleges and Campuses (CCC) to play.

With the CCC and High Performance Centre (HPC) numbered among the teams, there are some players present who should not be there but who, with a little luck, may add to the fun and excitement of those who really want fun and excitement, instead of those interested in the development of West Indies cricket.

Floyd Reifer, the former West Indies player, has already scored 99 off 108 deliveries, and he should be happy.

The primary purpose of this tournament, however, is to develop West Indies cricket - to bring together players from the respective islands, to test their skills in competition, and to select the best for the West Indies.

In recent times, however, that has not been the case.

In recent times, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) decided to bring all the teams together in one island to play all the matches, mostly before empty stands, and that meant playing the entire competition in less than two weeks and in the same conditions.

More than that. The powers that be decided that students at the university and at the HPC should be allowed to play in the tournament. In other words, students who cannot get into their country's team are allowed to play in the competition by representing the CCC team and the HPC team.

Apart from the added cost to the WICB, this just seems a waste of time. On top of every thing else, we should not be asked to pay to see learners play cricket.

Once upon a time, when the West Indies were on the road to becoming champions, when they were the champions, the four-day and the one-day tournaments were played together. The WICB stopped it, and they stopped it because the sponsors of the one-day competition complained that they were not getting value for their money.

No sponsors

Well, West Indies is so weak today that there is no sponsor for either the four-day or for the one-day so why cannot the board play the two competitions side by side?

For the time being, that, along with scrapping the CCC team and HPC team, along with playing the matches in each man's territory, would be the best scenario.

By playing in each man's territory, it would provide different pitches, it would ensure bigger crowds, it would offer a longer tournament, thus making it worthwhile, and it would be played in a wider range of playing conditions.

By taking out the CCC and the HPC teams, it would make the tournament more meaningful and competitive, and that would be best for West Indies cricket, unless the idea is for a carnival of cricket without any meaning - to play as much as possible in as short a time as possible, and to play as many players as possible, even if they do not measure up.