THE Regional Super50 held in Trinidad & Tobago showed the world why West Indies were not part of the International Cricket Council (ICC) 50-over World Cup currently being played in India where the first semi-final is being contested today.”

It showed how much the standard of our Regional 50-over Cricket tournament has deteriorated since it was first played in 1976.
The tournament, shown live on ESPN and YouTube, was a poor advertisement of West Indies cricket.
Guyana won the last of its nine Regional 50-over titles in 2005 and while Leon Jonhson has won six First-Class titles making him the Region’s most successful red ball captain, he was never at the helm of a Guyana 50-over side which won a white ball title since being appointed captain in 2015.
This season, Guyana were destroyed by an experienced Trinidad & Tobago side by six wickets in the semi-finals after being bowled out for 105 in 34.3 overs with only Sherfane Rutherford showing any glimpse of form with a top score of 30.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who faced 43 balls for 22 despite hitting three boundaries, was the other Guyanese to reach double figures in a pathetic batting performance.
Such was the destruction of the Guyana batting that Sinclair, who opened the batting with Chanderpaul, made four, Imlach four, Hetmyer three, Savory 0 and Anderson seven. Richie Looknauth got a first-ball on his debut while Motie, Permaul and Smith made eight each.
Trinidad, who beat the Leewards in the final to lift their 14th title, responded with 107-4 in 27.4 overs with the leading runs scorer of the tournament – Daren Bravo, making a classy unbeaten 53. Motie was Guyana’s most successful bowler with 3-20.
After a string of failures, Hetmyer was dropped for Guyana’s last preliminary game against Jamaica but Shamar Joseph’s sudden injury saved the “big-name” Hetmyer the embarrassment of being benched.

He responded with an unbeaten 62 after Chanderpaul had made 77 as Guyana made 184-3 to beat Jamaica by three wickets. However, both Test batters flattered to deceive in the important semi-final.

Overall, Guyana’s batting was dismal. Chanderpaul, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Kevlon Anderson and Kevin Sinclair shared the opening spots during Guyana’s eight matches with only Chanderpaul reaching a fifty.

Rutherford scored an unbeaten 105 against the Leewards and was Guyana’s leading run scorer but he only finished with 278 runs despite hitting the most (17) sixes in the tournament.
Tevin Imlach, who controversially replaced Permaul as captain during the tournament, scored Guyana’s only other half-century with 80 against CCC in a no-result, after starting with 41 against the Windwards to help Guyana to a 10-run first-round win.
Looknauth replaced Romario Shepherd, failed to take a wicket on debut.
Sinclair, who batted at the top and in the middle order, scored 41 against the Windwards and 46 against the West Indies Academy.
The Berbice off-spinner captured two three-wicket hauls and finished with 12 wickets. Sinclair was one of the bright spots for Guyana but he needs to “carry on” when well set.
Guyana’s biggest disappointment was Hetymer. The talented but temperamental and inconsistent left-hander, despite his one half-century (his first since last year’s semi-final), only managed 148 runs from nine innings at an average of 18.5.

Motie was one of six bowlers, all spinners, to capture five-wicket hauls but he failed to be in the “top five” wickets list which was headed by retired International off-spinner Sunil Narine and Leewards’ leg-spinner Hayden Walsh Jnr with 20 scalps each. T&T’s leggie Yannick Cariah had two five-wicket hauls.
Rutherford was one of seven batters to score a century but only the 34-year-old Darren Bravo and 29-year-old Justin Greaves reached 400 runs.
Bravo, arguably the best all-formats batter in the West Indies, followed his good showing from last year’s tournament with 416 runs from nine matches with a highest of 139 in the semi-final and three fifties at an average of 83.20.

The experienced Trinidadian left-handed demonstrated excellent shot selection, hitting 12 sixes and more importantly, stroked 38 fours to finish with 50 boundaries, the most in the tournament

Greaves scored 403 runs with a ton and three fifties at an average of 80.60. Kjorn Ottley (317) was the only other batter to reach 300 runs.
With West Indies failing to qualify for the 2023 ICC World Cup, all of the international players were available and one of the big disappointments was Shai Hope.
In a low-quality tournament, on pitches that most times assisted spin and exposed West Indian batters’ inadequacies to that form of bowling, no young batter showed Bravo’s consistency. His bat did the talking as he staked a claim for a West Indies recall next month against England.

If Regional Boards continue to neglect three-day first-division matches and CWI does not play more First-Class cricket, which teaches the skills of batsmanship, proper shot selection, technique, the temperament to concentrate for long periods, adapt and adjust to different conditions and develop match awareness, our 50-over cricket will not improve.
An overdose of T20 cricket is killing 50-over cricket in the West Indies with many of the batters being “educated sluggers” trying to hit just fours and sixes without trying to “rotate strike” and many are surprised when many of our Regional teams can’t bat 50 overs.

We need a drastic overhaul of our cricket system and those put in charge to run it.
It starts at the school level where more emphasis should be on proper coaching.
Our administrators should focus on what they can do for the cricket rather than what the cricket can do for them.