Jamaica U15 cricket coach wants team to learn from poor showing

IT HAS been just a week since the Jamaica under-15 cricket team returned to the island after finishing last in the just-concluded Cricket West Indies Rising Stars U15 Championship in Antigua.

The Jamaicans had just one win in their five outings, managing 66 points while eventual champions Trinidad and Tobago went unbeaten on their way to 238 and the title.

It was an encouraging start to the tournament for the Phillip Service-coached Jamaicans, who beat last year’s champions Barbados to open the tournament, before a narrow Duckworth Lewis loss to Guyana, followed by comprehensive losses to the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Windward Islands.

According to Service, the occasion and high-quality brand of cricket that was on display were just too much for his side.

“I don’t think we had the quality of players overall to be able to be as competitive as we would have wanted. At this level, the youngsters did not handle the pressure of the competition well enough,” said Service.

A couple of players within the Jamaica team did show some quality, with all-rounder Demarco Scott finishing sixth in the batting with 120 runs in five innings with a top score of 49.

The next best batter was opener Tyson Gordon Jr, who ended the tournament with 73 runs with a highest score of 23.

The bowling department held its own for the most part and for that, Scott also came out on top for the Jamaicans with eight wickets with a best of three for 12.

Captain Nicoli McKenzie weighed in with seven wickets with best bowling figures of four wickets for 25 runs.

According to Service, the team will need a lot of work starting from now if they are to put up a better showing in future tournaments.

“We have to learn from this and I won’t blame the preparations or throw anyone under the bus, but we have work to do if we are going to be competitive and we have to get players individually up to par with this level.”

In the meantime, Windwards batsman Earsinho Fontaine topped the runs charts with 197 runs from four innings with T&T’s Yasir Deen copping the most wickets with 14 scalps.

T&T’s Christiano Ramanan had the most dismissals of nine, while teammate Sycon Charles, with six, snared the most catches.