Turning point for Windwards

There was something vastly different about the Windward Islands in the just-concluded Red Stripe Bowl.

The records will show they won a regional senior cricket title for the first time since 1989.

But, no scorebook can ever measure the purpose, tenacity, commitment and resolve that went into the effort.

It is no secret that the men from Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica and St. Lucia have been sometimes an embarrassment to regional cricket.

Repeatedly, they were offenders of the most irresponsible batting collapses and teams would go into a match against them expecting nothing fewer than maximum points.

No one could take them for granted this time around.

The Leeward Islands, the most consistent team in the shortened version of the game, found that out in the preliminaries in which the Windwards surprised everyone by emerging as Zone 'B' winners.

By the time they came to Jamaica for the Final Four, they were playing with the type of confidence that has hardly been associated with their cricket.

'This year the guys really felt that we could win the tournament,' captain Rawl Lewis told NATIONSPORT after Sunday's triumph in the final against the Leeward Islands at Sabina Park.

'Over the years, we have not been doing well. Everybody knows that, but this year, the Under-19s showed us that they could win, so we came out here and put our all into it.'

Only two months ago, the Windwards youth team staged a shocker by winning the regional Under-19 tournament for the first time.

'This is good for Windwards cricket. We are going to get more respect from the public, from the board and from everyone,' Lewis added.

They will also gain respect from those watching the Final Four who would have been anticipating the usual collapse.

In both matches, their targets were hardly demanding (188 and 164), but they never folded in the fashion that we had come to expect.

Their bowling was impressive throughout the tournament in which Jamaica's 187 was the highest total made against them.

They fielded a varied attack, which for the final, was made up of two right-arm fast bowlers, a left-arm medium-pacer, a left-arm orthodox spinner, a right-arm leg-spinner and a right-arm off-spinner.

In the batting, MVP Junior Murray produced the only hundred of the tournament and the returning John Eugene also chipped in with vital runs.

The biggest revelation, however, was teenaged opening batsman Rommel Currency.

The solid, 18-year-old Vincentian was often the hub around which the Windwards built their innings and he finished the tournament with the very good average of 48.50.

Another teenager, Shane Shillingford, created an equally big impression as an off-spinner who gained appreciable turn from a contentious action that held some similarities to that of Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan.

The 17-year-old Dominican sent down his full quota of 10 overs in the last four matches in which his economy rate was 2.70 runs an over.

Currency, Shillingford and 19-year-old opener Devon Smith, the MVP of the regional youth cham-pionship, came in for high praise from Lewis.

'These youngsters are very gutsy players. We try to instil in them that it's a game of cricket and you go out there and give it your best shot,' the captain said.

'From the first game, they showed that they were tough players and they matured tremendously through the tournament.'

The success did not stop at the young trio.

'Everybody chipped in. It was a team effort,' Lewis said.

'After beating the Leewards in Antigua, we said to ourselves that we're not going to look back from there.

'In the team meetings, everybody came with their ideas. We put them together, went out on the field and played as a team.'

For Lewis himself, the experience of captaincy was still something relatively new to him at this level, but he handled it with some aplomb.

'I think I am capable of doing it. I got a lot of help when I was on the field, but most of the times it was very easy,' said Lewis, the 25-year-old Grenadian who made his regional debut in 1992.

'The bowlers did a very good job and we were never put under pressure. It was a good thing for me.'

Lewis was one of the first to acknowledge that the double success of the Windwards was not a signal to rest on their laurels.

'We've got to remember some of the right things that we did and go back home and don't sit on it,' he said.

'We've got to work on our game and try to keep our standard of cricket up in the Windward Islands.

'For now, we have been victorious in both tournaments. That says that Windwards cricket is on the up.'

No one can argue with him.