The final standing in the 2018 Caribbean Super50 competition has left Barbados Pride fans, officials and other cricket aficionados wondering what went wrong with this traditional regional powerhouse.
While the Combined Colleges and Campuses Marooners thrilled their supporters by convincingly beating the Guyana Jaguars in the final Sunday at Kensington Oval, Bajan fans had to lament the fact that the battle for one-day cricket supremacy was being played in their venue, minus them.
In fact, on their way to winning the final the CCC Marooners comprehensively clipped the wings of Barbados Pride along with the other big names, Jamaica Scorpions, and Trinidad and Tobago Red Force.
“It was rather disappointing that CCC which have players that failed to make their national teams defeated Barbados Pride. We have cricketers on this island who are good enough to beat CCC any day,” fumed former West Indies fast bowler and Barbados player, Tino Best.
“I think the chairman and his panel have to mix youth with experience,” Best told Barbados Today newspaper, as he contended that in picking the team selectors should be firm in their minds on whether their focus is on victory or developing young talent.
“If the reason for participating in the Super50 is to expose young cricketers that is okay. But if it is the intention of Barbados Pride to win the tournament, they got to play guys with experience in this form of cricket… It was lacking an experienced player at the top of the order and in the middle order.”
Barbados Pride won the Super50 competition in 2016 and finished second last year.
But for the 2018 season the team did not qualify for the playoffs and placed third in Group B, ranking above Leeward Islands and USA teams only.
Five of Barbados’ top players, Jason Holder, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase, Kemar Roach and Shane Dowrich, are doing duty with the West Indies team in India but Pride’s coach Emmerson Trotman told the Nation newspaper, “it is no point harping about the senior players being away in India. I am not buying that. Guys have been chosen that were good enough.”
“We could have done a lot better. We trained hard, but we just didn’t click as a unit and put it together and that is one of the reasons why we didn’t perform up to the required well.
“We needed some good starts which we really didn’t get. We have got some useful players in the side, but they just need to put their heads down and bat properly.
“That is the area where we really fell short, where the batting and shot selection were concerned.
“We missed some vital chances as well.”
In spite of the overall dismal performance Barbados Pride did not come away empty-handed as veteran batsman, Johnathan Carter, out-scored all batsmen this season with 351 runs and earned the Sir Vivian Richard Best Batsman Award.
