The 1998 Red Stripe Bowl limited-overs cricket tournament will be remembered for many things - including Guyana's triumphant march to the title.
After three successive disappointments in the final, Guyana knocked away defending champions, the Leeward Islands, in the final on Monday and apart from the fact that the fans, from the semi-finals, were cheering for them, the gods, it appeared, were also on their side.
On Friday and Saturday, the semi-finals were marred by rain and on Sunday, the rest day, it also rained.
On championship day, however, the rain, but for 10 minutes in the afternoon, stayed away until the match was over. It was as if the gods were waiting for Guyana to win. The minute they did, the rain came pouring down.
Guyana truly deserved the support of the fans and the gods. Fans, especially when their team is not involved and it matters not who win, love attacking cricket, fortune favours the brave and Guyana attacked - even when their backs were against the wall.
In the semi-finals, Guyana were sinking at seven for three in the fifth over when Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in a glorious innings of 112 off 105 deliveries, and Carl Hooper, in an elegant display during which he stroked 76 off 125 deliveries, blasted 142 runs off 29.4 overs; and in the final, they started with a bang and rattled up 108 for the first wicket with Clayton Lambert - 65 off 76 deliveries, and Andrew Gonsalves - 41 off 70 - sailing into fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Kenneth Benjamin.
In contrast to Guyana's batting treat, the Leeward Islands, but for Stuart Williams' 60-ball 54 against Trinidad and Tobago, batted disappointingly - especially in the final.
Leeward Islands' batsmen, but for the great Viv Richards and the less accomplished Keith Arthurton, have always been suspect to good spin bowling and confronted with the spin of Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, they were at sea - especially against Guyana when they were up against four spinners, had nowhere to run and surrendered their wickets while attempting big hits.
Guyana played well and they deserve to be champions. That, however, should not excuse the way they got into the final and unless the idea is simply to get through the tournament, something should be done about it.
Guyana made it to the final after a no-result against Barbados because of a better net run-rate than Barbados in the zonal matches and it cannot be fair, especially in such an important competition, that a team can move into the final based on a record achieved in a zone in which the other team did not participate.
In future, the West Indies Board should look at a reserve day for each semi-final - and it can be done at no extra cost.
This year, for example, Barbados and Guyana were in Jamaica on Wednesday - which means that one semi-final could have been played on Thursday with Friday as the reserve day, the other on Saturday with Sunday as the reserve day, and as was the case, the final on Monday with Tuesday as the reserve day.
What is also important is that if a match has started and rain prevents it from finishing, it should not be replayed the following day - as would have been the case had Monday's final been affected by rain. It should be continued.
Apart from the fact that there is no guarantee that it will not also rain on the second day, and apart from the possibility that even if it rains there should be enough time to finish the match, if the match is scheduled to continue into a second day there will be no need to reduce the number of overs at the start of or during the first day.
Barring unusual weather, a 50-over contest should be a 50-over contest.