JAMAICA’S captain Tamar Lambert believes that beating many-time winners Barbados to snatch a fifth straight West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) four-day title would be the perfect icing on the championship cake. According to Lambert, going up against the traditional powerhouse adds greater significance to the task at hand, but he said his team will have to focus on playing the “better cricket” over the course of the match
It’s a big occasion with us wanting to win five straight and I’m sure Barbados will keep that in mind. That makes this final a bit special, but at the end of the day it will be four days of cricket and the team which plays the better cricket will come out on top,” Lambert said.
The sides will meet, starting next Friday at Sabina Park in Kingston, after recording big wins in respective semi-final encounters last weekend.
Jamaica beat Guyana by 133 runs at Sabina, and Barbados defeated arch rivals Trinidad & Tobago by a 227-run margin at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain.
In the championship match, the teams will vie for the Headley/Weekes Trophy, which is named after cricketing icons George Headley and Sir Everton Weekes. Ironically, Headley was a Jamaican-born in Panama, while Weekes is Barbadian.
The formidable Barbados team of yesteryear shared the regional title with Trinidad & Tobago in 1976, and solely charged to four wins between 1977 and 1980.
Jamaica, sailing on the crest of four straight championships, are in a dominant patch of their own and have crushed all challengers so far this year.
The win in the semis marked Jamaica’s seventh straight after easing to six victories during the preliminary stage.
Aside from being beaten by Jamaica, the Barbadians lost only one match — an innings defeat to Guyana — and finished second in the preliminary standings.
The 30-year-old Lambert, arguably Jamaica’s finest ever four-day captain, cautioned against any complacency which may set in, given the team’s perfect record this season.
“It’s outstanding that we have won seven straight matches, but we have more work to do against Barbados. It should be a good game against them and it will be tough.
“We beat them before, but that is behind us. This is a do-or-die clash just like it was in the semi-finals against Guyana,” said the stocky-built middle-order batsman.
He expressed one concern that he has heading into the grand finale.
“In the semi-final we didn’t bat well, though it was a difficult pitch to play on at times. We would like to get more runs on the board when we bat. The batsmen got starts but didn’t carry on and we want to turn that around in the final,” Lambert said. (Jamaica Observer)