Red Stripe Bowl batting poor

The 2000 Red Stripe Bowl is over, and congratulations to the Windward Islands who, although not listed as one of the favourites to win the title at the start of the tournament, walked away with the honours.

Winners of Zone B after defeating the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands put away defending champions Jamaica in the semi-finals and then, with the Leeward Islands knocking off Zone A winners Barbados in the other semi-final, defeated the Leeward Islands in the final.

It was, without a doubt, a wonderful performance by a team which hardly any one in the rest of the region even gave a chance, and which, despite a good bowling attack, was lacking in quality batsmen.

The Windward Islands bowling attack of pacers Nixon McLean, Cameron Cuffy and McNeil Morgan, right-arm legspinner Rawl Lewis, left-arm spinner Roy Marshall and, despite a suspect bowling action, offspinner Shane Shillingford was better than the rest - no question about that.

With not even one batsman in the West Indies team or in contention for a place, with veteran and overweight Dawnley Joseph batting at number number three, Junior Murray at number four, the resurrected John Eugene at number five and Marshall at number six, their batting was no comparison to that of the four favourites - Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and the Leeward Islands.

As it turned out, however, that was not the case. The Windward Islands batting was poor, but the batting of the other teams was just as poor if not worse, and that is why even though it was a tournament to celebrate as far as the new champions are concerned, Red Stripe Bowl 2000 was certainly not something to remember.

The batting all around was embarrassing - so much so that the 12 days from start to finish are best forgotten.

In 23 matches, in 46 innings, all of which, certainly in Jamaica, were played on good pitches, there was not one instance of a team approaching 300 runs, only six times did teams score 200 runs, and on four occasions it was the so-called big boys versus the little boys - Jamaica versus the United States of America, Jamaica versus Canada, Guyana versus the Cayman Islands, and the Windward Islands versus Bermuda.

On top of that, in a tournament in which the USA embarrassed Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago looked no better than Canada, only one century was scored - 100 not out by Junior Murray versus Bermuda.

What was really embarrassing was not so much the low scores, but the poor technique, poor concentration, and based on the loose strokes which led to the dismissal of so many batsmen at crucial stages, either the lack of discipline or proper understanding of the game.

The batting, particularly by the region's leading batsmen, was such that had someone been looking on who did not know who is who, he would not have been able to distinguish between a West Indies batsman and the rest. In fact, based on either performance or skill, a team selected from Red Stripe Bowl 2000 would, properly selected, not include a West Indies batsman - probably not even one who, at some stage or other, has represented the West Indies Test team.

It was, however, not all gloom and doom. There were a few youngsters who, at one time or the other, played well and looked really promising. Marlon Samuels of Jamaica is undoubtedly specially gifted, and he was one - so too Brenton Parchment and Keith Hibbert of Jamaica, Dale Richards and Ryan Hinds of Barbados, and Devon Smith and Romel Currency of the Windward Islands.