SPORTS
Newsday reporter
BY BRYAN DAVIS
IN 1970, Trinidad and Tobago won the West Indies Cricket Championship. It was the fourth year that the Shell Oil Company sponsored the event, which was the first-class competition of West Indies territorial teams. In 1966, Shell began their sponsorship of what became known as the Shell Shield, the trophy for which the teams were competing. There was no competition in 1968 because England toured the Caribbean and the logistics of combining the newly established regional league, plus international Test series, posed major practical problems.
Prior to this, first-class cricket in WI was played on an invitational basis between the two territories or in an otherwise knockout quadrangular or triangular series, usually played in Guyana (then known as British Guiana). The reason for choosing this territory for the competition was to hold it at the end of the year, for example October, when the weather was favorable in the South American country. Moreover, it was before the start of the Caribbean cricket season between January and May, when the players could, therefore, get fit for visiting international teams early next year. However, it proved inadequate for preparation and not ideal for the development of young cricketers.
In 1964, an experiment was conducted to have a league competition. This proved successful for its intended purpose, so the idea was sold to Shell who came on board. Thus, the birth of organized first-class cricket in WI.
After 1970, the TT repeated the following year. Joey Carew was captain both years. The next success was in 1976 under Prince Bartholomew, a brilliant cricketer. It was a strange occurrence. Barbados and TT were tied on points at the top of the standings, with the Bajans having one game remaining; TT had finished their schedule.
When Barbados arrived in Guyana for their game, one of their team members, Geoff Greenidge, was refused entry because he had played cricket in apartheid South Africa. The Barbados leaders refused to go in without their full squad and returned home, losing the match.
This meant that Barbados remained tied for the TT and shared the trophy.
It took another nine years for the TT cricketers to emerge champions. Rangy Nanan, the off-spinner bowling all-rounder, led his side to a convincing championship win, which was brilliant in its execution, with some outstanding individual performances as he shone. The captain was superb in his leadership skills, strategies and tactical acumen. The year was 1985, however, it was another twenty-one years, in 2006, before TT cricketers won another championship. By this time it was no longer the Shell Shield but the Carib Beer Cup and Daren Ganga was the captain.
It has now been sixteen years since that time. However, recently there has been an improvement, although the movement was stopped by the march of the pandemic. This affected everyone.
The new coach, David Furlonge, is used to winning as coach of Queen’s Park Cricket Club, so I think his influence can have a positive effect on the team. Although his work was limited by the dangerous virus, however, it must be remembered that every territory went through the same problem, so the strongest would survive. Also, TT had a solid start to the first half of the tournament, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t capitalize on that. TT has won the regional tournament outright just four times and split it once in over 50 years of competition and twice in the past 35 years. This is a laughably poor effort from a territory that won twice in its first five years and a supposed leading light in West Indian cricket.
The success achieved in white-ball cricket does not matter, the real test of a first-class team is in their performances in two-match cricket.
There are many elements at play before, during and after a two-innings cricket match, which makes it the true test of cricketing strength and skill.
For the true development of young cricketers to succeed in any format, they must have a foundation in red-ball cricket.
For a team to be considered superior to another in a cricket match, they must have the ability to bowl that team out twice for fewer runs. A game where bowlers are not limited to overs; and batsmen have to use different methods to conquer each type of pitch.
