Trinidad and Tobago’s cricket is at a low ebb.
The pandemic seems to have had a deleterious effect on it. They were in second place in 2020 when the four-day tournament was cancelled for that season because of the serious outbreak of the coronavirus that rocked the world. Barbados were ahead at the time with TT lying in second place. The regional first-class season was stalled for the following year but thankfully reinstated in 2022.
Because of the financial implications the virus had on everyone, Cricket West Indies being no exception, the fixtures and grounds had to be changed in order to stage a tournament at all. The TT cricketers had the advantage of playing all of their five games at home.
The tournament consisted of just five games of one round only, which involved the six major teams including; Barbados Pride, the defending champions; Guyana Harpy Eagles; Jamaica Scorpions; Leeward Islands Hurricanes; Trinidad and Tobago Red Force; and Windward Islands Volcanoes.
Red Force, despite their home advantage in the entire series, placed fourth. What is more surprising is the fact that they were off to a flying start, winning outright their first two games. These were against the Scorpions and the Volcanoes.
There was then a break in the fixtures for the next few months to resume in May. Red Force lost the three remaining games outright. The two teams of which they placed ahead were the first two they defeated, in other words, the weakest.
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One year later, in 2023, the Red Force proceeded to do worse. Although placing fourth in the standings again, they won only one game outright and that was the final fixture when the opposition was Jamaica Scorpions, who placed last. Ahead of the Scorpions were the Windward Islands Hurricanes; this meant that the three teams that brought up the rear in 2022 are the same that repeated their positions in 2023.
This year’s top three were the Harpy Eagles who took over as champions from the Pride; the Volcanoes were runners-up; and Barbados were relegated to third place.
Well, the president of the TT Cricket Board, Azim Bassarath, cannot be too proud of his representatives on the cricket field, as a result of their poor showing over consecutive seasons. One would have expected more from a team that was given home advantage for the first two revival years of the regional tournament. Then again, even though they shared the same standing they occupied in 2022, to be in winners' row just once in five matches, making it an overall three wins from ten outings is a failure rate of 70 per cent.
Hence, Bassarath must feel undeserving to believe that he attained the vice-presidency of CWI with the type of cricket his team is producing on the field – which is the ultimate stage on which performance is judged. And to think that TT have not been the regional champions since 2006 under Daren Ganga. We’re moving backwards.
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