Campbell pleased with form, captaincy
Jamaica and West Indies opener John Campbell
Jamaica and West Indies opener John Campbell

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – West Indies opener John Campbell says he is pleased with his form in the Regional Four-Day Championship even though he did not achieve his personal targets.

The left-hander has so far gathered 491 runs at an average of nearly 33, hitting two centuries and a half-century for Jamaica Scorpions.

“Although I didn’t score the number of runs that I would have liked, to fall short of 500 runs by just nine runs is not bad,” the 26-year-old told the Gleaner newspaper here.

“I will take three scores over 50 with two centuries any day.”

Campbell, who has led Scorpions for the first time this season, struck 101 against Windward Islands Volcanoes in the second round fixture at Sabina Park here and followed up with 112 against Leeward Islands Hurricanes in the eighth round last weekend in Antigua.

He endured a run of poor form during the third, fourth and fifth rounds when he managed just 108 runs from six innings.

Campbell, who has played six Tests following his debut against England last year, said his captaincy had improved throughout the season.

“In terms of my captaincy, I think I did a decent job and I would say it was very smooth as most of the guys supported me and the decisions I made,” he noted.

“Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t, but overall we did well in the end.”

Scorpions are currently tied for third with reigning champions Guyana Jaguars on 91.8 points, following the eighth round of matches last weekend.

They endured a rough start to their campaign with two losses and a defeat before blossoming to win three of their next five matches.

“It’s been a season of ups and downs. We started out not doing so well with two draws and a loss and was in the last place but we fought back in the second half of the tournament and played some good cricket,” Campbell said.

“We got more confident as we went on. First innings was a major problem for us but we turned that around on several occasions and started to put runs on the board and I must give credit to the young bowlers like Patrick (Harty) and Marquino (Mindley) who started off slow but in the end, Mindley and Harty finished with the first and second most wickets for us in the tournament.”

Fast bowler Mindley has led the Scorpions attack with 24 wickets at 22 runs apiece while Harty, a left-arm spinner, has picked up 22 wickets at an average of 32.

Scorpions have had two batsmen with over 500 runs with Test star Jermaine Blackwood gathering 768 – including a monumental career-best 248 last weekend – and Nkrumah Bonner compiling 523 runs.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has suspended the tournament for 30 days because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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