SOMETHING SPECIAL IS HAPPENING IN OUR CRICKET!!

[mikesiva]

After the false dawn of some high scores early in the tournament, it seems that we're back to the same old dung heap performances. Here are the team totals for this round so far:

244, 225, 240, 180, 157, 174, 179, 115, 212, 98, 101 = 11 team totals, and not one over 250!

When picking batsmen for the Test team, and even the A team, we would ideally like batsmen who can average over 40 in domestic FC cricket, because if they can't average over 40 in dung heap, then they can't be seriously expected to average over 40 against international opposition. So, let's look at the batsmen who've scored more than 100 runs so far, and have an average in excess of 40 this season:

1) Shacoya Thomas - five matches, 500 runs @ 50

2) Chadwick Walton - five matches, 385 runs @ 42.77

3) Jason Mohammed - five matches, 375 runs @ 46.87

4) Kieran Powell - four matches, 367 runs @ 45.87

5) Kraigg Brathwaite - five matches, 332 runs @ 41.50

6) Rommel Currency - five matches, 285 runs @ 40.71

7) Kirk Edwards - three matches, 276 runs @ 92

8) Ashley Nurse - five matches, 225 runs @ 45

9) Leon Johnson - two matches, 187 runs @ 46.75

10) Akeal Hosein - two matches, 109 runs @ 54.50

I'm not taking the stats of Leon and Hosein seriously until they've played more than two matches. You know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel when one of your best batsmen is Nurse!

[AFRO]

LOL at the old boy thinking EVERY ROUND is gonna produce scores of over 300!! does this idiot not understand that the majority of these batsman are YOUNG and still learning their craft? with youth you're gonna have ups and downs..but i suggest you go look at your own COUNTRY CRICKET scores and you'll see there are plenty of under par scores there aswell...Shiv was involved in one the other day infact!!.

Calling scores of 240 "bad" is also stupid because we don't know how the pitches played...these pitches have been through a good amount of games so they aren't gonna be at their best at this stage of the competition.

Furthermore Darren Bravo isn't averaging 40 in this comp so you gonna "drop" him now? GET REAL MIKE!!..i pay more attention to how many 50s and 100s are scored and how many runs IN TOTAL they score aswell!!..two ducks can spoil a mans figures even if he's done well the majority of the time.

[mikesiva]

As I pointed out to you statistically in previous years, county cricket provides a wide range of totals, including low team totals, medium team totals, and high team totals. Here in dung heap, I've reeled off 11 consecutive team totals, and they all were less than 240. That cannot be good, and we saw why, in the absolute hammering our batting got in the last Test series against NZ. Our bowling is looking good, but our batting once again looks bad. And because our batsmen are poor, they make the bowlers look better than they really are.

FC cricket is not the place for young batsmen to learn their craft. They should learn it in club cricket, and when they've accomplished that, then they graduate to FC cricket. A lot of these youngsters are force-ripe batsmen...them no ready!

As for Darren Bravo, two ducks can only spoil a man's figures if he's inconsistent, and registers a string of low scores. That's where Lil Bravo is now - nine innings, only three half-centuries, no tons, and a paltry average of 31. That's just not good enough...it's time to worry about him.

[mikesiva]

Let's look at completed team totals up until the end of round six, and see how they're skewed....I'm discounting winning run chases, and declarations with less than eight wickets down:

Under 100 - 3
100-200 - 24
200-300 - 22
300-400 - 6
Over 400 - 4

So, we have 49 completed innings of less than 300, and only 10 above....

[AFRO]

Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados all made over 250 this round!!..but no doubt the old boy will still MOAN!!

He also seems to forget time and time again how many decent players are MISSING from our regional competition..that has an effect in both batting and bowling.

[mikesiva]

Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados all made over 250 this round!!..but no doubt the old boy will still MOAN!!

He also seems to forget time and time again how many decent players are MISSING from our regional competition..that has an effect in both batting and bowling.

I disagree...missing batsmen have affected the team, but missing bowlers have not. Without Roach, Barbados were still bowling out teams for next to nothing, but without Kirk, Bim looked like a team that just can't bat. That shows how few good batsmen there are in dung heap.

After the completion of the semi-finals, and looking at the batsmen who've scored more than 111 runs so far, only seven have an average in excess of 40 this season, and one of them's Ashley Nurse!

1) Shacoya Thomas (CCC) 548 runs @ 45.66
2) Kraigg Brathwaite (Barbados) 471 runs @ 42.81
3) Kieron Powell (Leewards) 414 runs @ 41.40
4) Kirk Edwards (Barbados) 299 runs @ 74.75
5) Rommel Currency (Windwards) 363 runs @ 40.33
6) Leon Johnson (Guyana) 295 runs @ 59
7) Ashley Nurse (Barbados) 298 runs @ 42.57

If you can't average more than Nurse with the bat, then IMHO you have NOT made a case for your possible selection to the Test side as a batsman....

[mikesiva]

'Another unsatisfactory West Indies first-class season ends this weekend. It has once more proceeded without most of the leading players, on simultaneous T20 duties in Bangladesh for West Indies, then in the UAE for their IPL franchises, or otherwise injured. Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo didn't have a single match; Marlon Samuels, Andre Russell and Denesh Ramdin one each, Kieron Pollard two. Kemar Roach's shoulder injury persists after five months. There was the usual conspicuous lack of promotion so that the public and media interest was again negligible. Eight of the 23 matches leading into the challenge final for the Headley-Weekes Trophy between Windward Islands and Jamaica in St Lucia (Barbados had earlier won the round-robin phase) were completed in less than three days. Sixteen totals were under 150, and ten over 300. Performances, individual and team, were erratic. It is a recurring theme that makes it difficult for West Indies to drag themselves up from the lower rungs of the ICC Test rankings - or for selectors to make considered choices. How, for instance, do they rate the season's top run-scorer, Shacaya Thomas, a 25-year-old, strongly built, belligerent opener from Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), who was the only one with more than 500 runs (548 at 45.66, with two hundreds)? Ready for Test cricket?'

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/co ... 39875.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gils]

The suggested 15 retainer contracts for A squad and HPC students appears to block entry into the next level for unfashionable players like Thomas.

IMO His production and the lack of alternatives mean he must be picked for A team duty, at the earliest opportunity.

Other than him it's been an ordinary season, as the figures bear out.

[mikesiva]

WE CAN'T LOSE from this new dawn in our cricket...we can only benefit from here and that's what's so exciting.

[AFRO]

WE CAN'T LOSE from this new dawn in our cricket...we can only benefit from here and that's what's so exciting.

LOL mike desperate after di two JAMAICAN FAILURES i see

It's quite clear this thread was talking about THE DOMESTIC STRUCTURE and YOUNGSTERS that are coming through... . This series alone doesn't change what i said duncy.