By GARTH WATTLEY
THEY had come all the way from Messiah College, Pennsylvania, first to learn Trini culture and, yesterday at Guaracara Park, cricket. However, as they watched rain repeatedly chase the President's Cup players of Trinidad and Tobago and the Windward Islands off the field, the youngsters quickly learned that the Caribbean's game was not made in America.
Yankee Stadium Guaracara Park is not. And the fare that left the Windward Islands on 212 for 9 was not exactly the stuff of a World Series.
Though Richie Richardson made a low-key return to West Indies cricket, had they stayed, the US guests would have seen Junior Murray (40) and Rawl Lewis (46) admirably avert a first day strikeout. They would also have seen Ian Bishop make a pitch to preserve his international career. The past twelve months have been a trying time for the 30-year-old fast bowler, a year in which previously high standards have slipped under the weight of a technique gone awry. And nowadays, a Test pick is no surety for Bishop.
But as he led the T&T side off the field at the close to muted applause, the watchers in the pavilion had at least to acknowledge the work of the big man.
With injured young turk Mervyn Dillon missing, skipper Brian Lara needed a huge effort from his two fit quicks, Bishop and Nigel Francis. And it helped for him to win the toss and insert the opposition on a wicket with some juice in it.
His arm may not compare with 'Yankee' Dwight Gooden. And he could not claim, like Francis, to have had his best bowl for T&T. But the Pennsylvania crew had to admit that the old ``Bish'' made a brave pitch. While the sun fought the Guaracara rain, the devil fighting his wife, Bishop fought his own demons. For two hours and 43 minutes and 18 straight overs, Bishop (24-2-84-4 overall) fought through his moments of mediocrity. And along with the highly effective away seam of Phil Simmons (18-5-31-2), he gave his side the advantage. But they failed to drive it home.
A dogged 63-run stand between Lewis and the troublesome Roy Marshall (32) helped turn disaster-98 for 7-into respectability-212. But this was not the play the fair first day crowd was reading at lunch. Especially after Bish sent back Richardson.
The pavilion rose when the former Windies captain went to the crease. And they rose again in a moment to watch him walk dejectedly back. One Bishop ball delivered just outside offstump was enough, the batsman sending a flat-footed drive off the edge to Dinanath Ramnarine in the gully. Richie gone for ``duck'', Bish gung-ho. The bowler had already removed debutant opener Joseph Parrilon caught at third slip. And by lunch, Francis, having beaten Joseph with successive balls, got him to glove the third to Lara at second slip.
But hard-hitting captain Murray stuck around to clobber six unorthodox boundaries in 40 before he hooked Bishop to square-leg. He added 55 with John Sylvester. That was the start of the turnaround even though only three wickets were standing at 98 when Balty Watt left. But then the rains came. And when play eventually began after a lengthy delay, the home team had lost more than just 88 minutes. Neither Francis, Simmons and Bishop nor the belatedly introduced Rajindra Dhanraj and Ramnarine could recapture the cutting edge. And sloppy fielding did not help.
Marshall, subdued, and Lewis, sensible, weathered the storm, blossoming in the afternoon sunshine before they fell to Dhanraj and Ramnarine respectively.
However, Nixon McLean (17) and Caspar Davis (10) are still pitching in. But as this new day dawns, four-wicket Bishop is aiming for another, belated strikeout.
Saturday, January 17, 1998
Day 2: Lara's men bite back
By GARTH WATTLEY
FOR four hours yesterday, Guaracara Park was an unrecognisable oval of silence. But then someone let the dogs out, and the Park was not the same again.
Nigel Francis may never have been called a ``big dawg.'' But yesterday afternoon, the Trinidad and Tobago fast bowler-turnedbatsman (36), Anil Balliram (62) and Richard Smith (55) put some much needed bite into the home team's batting.
The fans watched as Francis took T&T to within 38 runs of the Windward Islands first innings score of 234. Then, spellbound, they saw skipper Brian Lara pull a tactical masterstroke to put the home team back in the President's Cup hunt.
The unwell Francis sidelined, the captain asked not Phil Simmons but leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine to share the new ball with Ian Bishop. And before anyone could say ``howzee!'', three batsmen had gone for just three runs.
That their homeboys had again played second best to Junior Murray's men was lost on the madding crowd. Maybe even temporarily on a beaming Lara when Ramnarine spun one back behind Joseph Parrilon and onto the crestfallen opener's legstump to end the day's play.
And as Lara and his men ran through the whooping throng in front the pavilion, they were celebrating a rousing end to an otherwise disappointing day for the T&T boys.
The noisy last 49 minutes at Guaracara did not fit in at all with the measured, hard-fought fare that had gone before.
Having watched the Windwards last pair add 22 runs-22 too many-the fans were kept on tenterhooks as the opposition bowlers sank their teeth into the home team's batting.
A supposedly strong line-up was looking less than solid at 58 for 3 shortly after lunch.
By then the T&T hierarchy-Suruj Ragoonath, Phil Simmons and Brian Lara-were mere spectators, sent back by sharp Nixon Mc Lean, keen Caspar Davis and slick Rawl Lewis.
Lara's new status as West Indies captain would not have been lost on the 25-year-old Vincentian McLean. And he certainly saved his best for the skipper. During the 65 minutes or so he was at the crease, Lara (9) was given an uncomfortable time by the young pacer.
Forced onto his backside by one peppery bouncer and repeatedly required to dig out in-swinging yorkers, Lara managed just one boundary but after an hour. His princely pull to midwicket brought the day's first genuine roar.
But after lunch, it was McLean who was doing the hollering, his yorker beating Lara's attempted drive and smashing into his off stump. The dismayed audience had already seen Davis bowl the loose-driving Suruj Ragoonath for a duck. And nine runs after Lara left, Simmons went after Lewis, did not get hold of his googly and lost his bail. Diligent but not belligerent, the typically solid Balliram was still there. He and Smith restored sanity with their 88-run fourth wicket stand.
Two players with deficits in their run accounts were building the score. And local confidence. But with the total on 146, Smith on 49 cut to point. He started for his 50, then stopped. But ``Bally'' kept coming. A moment later, he was going ... disgustedly away after 250 minutes of admirable occupation.
Smith did get to 50-for only the fourth time at this level. Then, seemingly distracted, he rashly tried to pull Roy Marshall and was bowled.
Marshall then made further rapid inroads before ``Big Dawg'' arrived at 157 for 8.
Making attack his best defence, clean-hitting Francis was, for 22 minutes, as deadly as a pitbull. He woke up the dead Park with his 4 fours and 2 sixes.
``Woof, woof!'' came the cry from the southern stand after the lofted extra-cover drive off Marshall - 6 of 16 in the over.
The mad dog hour had arrived. And when Bishop sent back Dawnley Joseph with his first ball of the Windwards second innings, the Park was howling.
This morning, Murray and his crew will seek to remind themselves-and the crowd-that few dogbites kill.
Sunday, January 18, 1998
High mas at Guaracara
By GARTH WATTLEY
KANKALANGKALANG. A day of iron-ringing, horn-blowing kept the bubbling crowd going at Guaracara Park yesterday.
Noise was happening. And on the field, there were hits and misses aplenty from Windward Islands President's Cup batsmen and, in the final tense session, more of the same from their Trinidad and Tobago counterparts. Chasing 182 runs for victory, T&T stumbled to the close on 60 for 2.
But those in the captive audience who found time for quiet reminiscence, would also have been reflecting on a day when old things were made new. They would have borne in mind a day when two fading stars shook off the gathering gloom, rose, and shone.
They would have been thinking of Ian Bishop and Richie Richardson. Both Junior Murray's men and Brian Lara's crew will still have realistic hopes of victory when they come out for the start of the final day of this close contest this morning. But both skippers will know already the debt they owe to these illustrious two.
The former West Indies captain is not at the helm of any ship in this game. But as he stopped in front the pavilion, signing autographs after his unbeaten, face-saving 62, the expectant youngsters were following a leader.
The onlookers at the Park did not saw few rasping cuts or sizzling drives, although the scything stroke that scurried to the coverpoint boundary off Phil Simmons evoked memories of a more glorious past. But there was no hook, no maroon floppy. There was no ``Richie Rich.'' Just Richie responsible.
While his partners capitulated for 148, the former Windies maestro, in an innings of over three hours, with the help of three difficult chances, kept rampant T&T at bay. But even Bishop. The big pacer turned what was a promising game into a personally memorable one.
Digging deep to fan a long diminished fire, Bishop picked up only his third five wicket haul (5/32) in regional cricket. And already with one wicket from the previous evening, he set the park alight. In just the fourth over of a curtailed first session, ``Bish'' sent John Sylvester packing. Hurtling a ball down the ``corridor of uncertainty'' just outside offstump, he saw Sylvester do nothing more than edge to wicketkeeper Amarnath Basdeo.
An ecstatic Park saw lunch taken at 20 for 4. And after the break, they saw the Bishop ``preach'' come more. The score was 39 for 5 when they saw an apparently hamstrung Murray also fall for the Bishop/Basdeo one-two.
But Trini spirits were soaring out of orbit without any addition to the score. Uzzah Pope was looking cracking four past gully when he struck a tame Bishop ball square. But up leapt ``Super Dinnas,'' Dinanath Ramnarine to pluck a breathtaking two-handed catch out of the air.
``Buy from me nutsman'' was on the field now, doing a celebratory ``slow wine'' to the rhythm section's klank-a-lank-a-lanking. But the party at 39 for 6 had turned to penance at 148 for 9 after Richardson found the necessary resolve from Rawl Lewis (15) and Nixon Mclean (13).
And when Suruj Ragoonath and Phil Simmons (opening for the injured Anil Balliram) had their stumps disturbed by Mc Lean and Caspar Davis, the fete was over.
Unsteady Lara and Richard Smith survived to the close. They will hope first for sun. And then with faith like their Bishop's to play the highest mas for the ``congregation.'' And leave them feeling irie.
Day 3: Smith, Lara ensure victory over Windwards
BY SHAMMI KOWLESSAR
HAVING been behind after the first two days, Trinidad and Tobago's President's Cup cricketers finished their match against the Windward Islands in front.
At Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre yesterday, skipper Brian Lara and Richard Smith ensured their team began the 1998 regional campaign on a high note. The pair posted 114 crucial runs to propel the hosts to a comfortable six-wicket victory midway through the fourth and final day of an absorbing encounter.
The result had been a foregone conclusion long before wicket-keeper Amarnath Basdeo swept leg-spinner Rawl Lewis through the mid-wicket region for two to reach the required 182-run victory target in mid-afternoon.
But when the players left the field close to 6 p.m. at the end of Saturday's action, the game was very interestingly poised.
T&T seemed better placed resuming on 60 for two and double world record holder Lara at the crease. But they had already lost key players Suruj Ragoonath and Philip Simmons. And Anil Balliram, who was injured while notching his valuable 62 in the first innings, was not certain to be seen again.
The game had been a low-scoring one with T&T only getting 196 in response to the Windwards' first innings total 234 before dismissing the opposition for 143 a second time.
But after a few anxious moments early yesterday morning against hostile pacemen Caspar Davis and Nixon McLean, Lara and Smith put the fans at ease. And, with every passing over, they put the game out of the visitors's reach.
Growing in confidence with every shot, the pair carried on until the stroke of lunch when Lara departed.
Trying to cut left-arm orthodox spinner Roy Marshall to the boundary, he was caught in breathtaking fashion at backward point by the lanky Davis, who threw himself full-length to his right to pick up the ball inches from the ground.
It had not been a vintage Lara innings littered with classic boundaries. But the new West Indies captain had contributed significantly to his team's commanding position with a responsible 52 (105 balls, four boundaries) out of his side's 152 for three.
However, while the Windwards were jubilant to claim the prized scalp of Lara, they would not have enjoyed their lunch, knowing that a virtual miracle was needed for them to win. T&T wanted only 30 runs, but they needed seven wickets.
Smith, who had contributed 42 by lunch and more than held his own with Lara, added 11 more and was still there when the inevitable end came at 1.15 p.m.
He has promised so much and delivered so little over the last few years. But it is beginning to look like pay-back time now.
The Queen's Park player, who had scored 650 runs-including two centuries-in trials this year, had notched a fine 56 in the first innings But that effort was not nearly as important as yesterday's polished contribution.
His 53 came from 107 balls and included four boundaries. He passed 1,000 in regional competition when he had reached 22.
Smith was however edged out for Man-of-the-Match honours by teammate, fast bowler Ian Bishop, who had taken nine wickets in the match.
Nine runs before victory, Tobagonian Lincoln Roberts was brilliantly caught by John Sylvester off Rawl Lewis for 12 but by that time the fat lady was already on the podium, clearing her throat.
The victory was similar to T&T's opening win against the Windwards last year when they rebounded after losing on first innings.
Up next for T&T will be the Leeward Islands at the Queen's Park Oval from Thursday. And Lara will be looking for another total team effort.
For having got in front again, the ``Prince'' and his men will be hoping to stay there. And lengthen the lead.