A look at the first half of WICB Professional Cricket League 2015/2016

By Edwin Seeraj
With the second edition of the West Indies Cricket Board Professional Cricket League (WICB/PCL) four-day regional tournament at the half-way stage, it’s an opportune time to evaluate what has transpired over the past six weeks, as we seek to ascertain whether or not any progress has been made in its organisation and quality of play.The WICB should be commended for at least staging the four-day competition at a great cost and loss, at a time when interest in this version of the game around the world and more so in the Caribbean is at an all-time low.
Implementing the franchise system, so that teams can use the services of players from other territories to give more balance to their original outfits, is another positive move by the regional body, coupled with the fact that about 100 players are enjoying the benefits of contracts.
However, by not having the presence of several proven and charismatic players gracing the occasion – the Gayles, Bravos, Pollards, et al – the competition has been robbed further of its quality, interest and impact. The fans of the region have not been enthused and of course some teams have suffered more than others.
Perhaps the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force felt the full brunt of this scenario with Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Kevin Cooper, Samuel Badree, Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine and Riyad Emrit among others of their top players either not featuring at all, or for only a few games.
Undoubtedly, the most prepared team was the Guyana Jaguars who under the guidance of head coach Esaun Crandon, assistant coach and manager Reon Griffith, and other backroom staff yet again implemented a high octane training regime which was complemented with numerous practice matches over a prolonged period.
The Guyana Cricket Board should also be complimented for creating the environment which allows for such a state of affairs to prevail resulting in the Jaguars – the defending champions – winning five games out of five to date.
Yet a familiar pattern has been evidenced over the first half of the season with the majority of the 15 games played resulting in low team scores domination by the spinners and early finishes.
In fact of the 15 matches contested only two (Barbados Pride vs Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at the Kensington Oval and the T&T/Windward Volcanoes match-up at beausejour) or 13 per cent ended in draws; three were won by an innings; two by 10 wickets; one each by eight and nine wickets, and three by over 100 runs each.
In addition, there were 19 ‘all out’ totals of less than 200 runs including a paltry 95 made by Guyana in the second innings of their opening match against the Windward Islands Volcanoes at Providence.
What is also revealing is the fact that four of the games ended inside three days while the Leeward Islands Hurricanes/Windward Islands Volcanoes encounter in Dominica finished on the scheduled second day with the Leewards declaring their first innings closed at 24 for seven on day one.
On the flip side, a few batsmen have stood up to the challenges including the Guyanese Vishal Singh with centuries against the Leewards and Barbados at Providence. A compact little left-hander in his late twenties and in his seventh season, a good performance in the second phase of the competition can very well compel the selectors to include him in the next West Indies test squad.
Singh is only one of three batsmen with over 400 runs in the first part of the season and lies second in the batting averages with 60.14 runs per innings for those that have reached the 200 run mark.
At age 23, the Barbadian Roston Chase (436 runs at 62.28) and his team mate 27-year-old Shamar Brooks (411 runs at 51.37) have also distinguished themselves. These two, together with five others registered a triple-figure score at least once.
In the bowling department, the spinners have again dominated with the top-six wicket-takers being slow bowlers.
The Guyanese rookie, Gudakesh Motie who ruled the roost at varying age levels, has grabbed the opportunity presented in the absence of Devendra Bishoo (on the tour of Australia) and Veerasammy Permaul (injury in the early stages of the competition) to cement his place in the team by bamboozling the region’s batsmen with his tricky left-arm orthodox spin.
He has captured 34 wickets in five games at the miserly average of 11.73 runs per scalp including four five-wicket hauls and a 10-wicket bag.
Jamaica’s left-armer Niketa Miller (33 at 16.78); Shane Shillingford (26 at 20.69); Imran Khan (26 at 24.96); Liam Sebastian (20 at 24.10) and Steven Jacobs (19 at 20.00) complete the list of the top six wicket-takers.
The rich harvest of the slow bowlers have dwarfed the returns of the pacers but the returns of the Barbadian Kevin Stoute – a right-arm, fast-medium practitioner with 18 wickets at 14.22 runs a-piece and the Antiguan Alzarri Joseph of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes (17 victims at 15.88 runs each) must be noted.
Indeed Joseph, a powerfully-built youngster, bowled with good pace and accuracy rocking Guyana with three early wickets, and then rattling the Windwards in Roseau, Dominica with 7/46, although his team went down by eight wickets.
The two halves of the WICB PCL 2015/2016 will be sandwiched by the Nagico Super 50 tournament which bowls off in Trinidad and St. Kitts on January 7. It is hoped that the WICB, through its relevant member states, will ensure that an evaluation is being done and that missing elements and/or the strengthening of weak links will be addressed, so as to improve on the overall, organisation and quality of the tournament.
For a start, a lot more thought should be given to the proper preparation of the pitches. As alluded to in a recent letter to the press, the veteran Berbice administrator Mortimer George related that most of the region’s international venues are sand-based with the aim of improving the drainage system.
While this in itself is a pleasant point, the sand eventually gets onto the pitch, and if not properly cleared during preparation, a raging turner will inevitably unfold.
If it is that George’s theory is not totally accurate it undoubtedly has a great degree of truth. In recent years, not least during the just-concluded first phase of the 2015/2016 competition, it was not unusual to observe the spinners obtaining prodigious turn during the first session of the opening day’s play.
In fact an inquiry was launched into matters surrounding the state of the pitch in the Windwards/Leewards game in Dominica where the Leewards declared at 24 for seven in their first innings. The findings are yet to be made public – if it ever would be.
Unless the pitches give reasonable balance to both batsmen and all bowlers, we would continue to have low scores, exceptional figures by the spinners and a paucity of the faster men.
Of course the low scores are not only as a result of the poor pitches and special spinners but are also due to the ineptness of the batsmen triggered by poor technique and low powers of concentration.
The WICB and its members should also play keen attention to the aggressive marketing of the tournament. Extremely low spectator turn out at every venue has been a negative trademark orchestrated by poor public awareness, non-existent marketing and a general lethargic approach to influencing fans to file past the gates.
And at least in the near future, the top players in the tournament should be given the incentive to be a part of a West Indies ‘A’ team involved in matches both at home and abroad on a regular basis.
The gap in quality between our regional competitions and the international cricket is extremely wide and continues to widen. We need a link and the ‘A’ team engagements should go a long way in lifting our standards.
The second leg of the tournament promises to be better, and with all onboard, why not?