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KINGSTON – It's 45 minutes after they have been soundly beaten in their latest Red Stripe Bowl match.

Their opponents have long left the ground and are heading back to the more comfortable surroundings of their hotel.

A couple of students are jogging around the Frank Worrell Bowl at the Mona campus.

The pavilion is quiet.

But the door of one dressing-room is closed. Behind it are almost two-dozen individuals reflecting on what happened and maybe what should have happened.

It's the pleasantly surprising professional approach the University of the West Indies (UWI) have brought on their first appearance in the region's premier limited-overs competition.

It is, according to captain Dave Cumberbatch, part of the norm for them. The length of the team-talk prompted some to call it a lecture.

"We don't have a post-mortem. That is done the following day but we usually discuss certain aspects of the game immediately afterward," said Cumberbatch, who is affectionately know as "Chief".

"All credit must go to coach Jeffrey Dujon. He has sought to force the professional ethic in the team. We have a planned programme and whether we win or lose, we will stick to that programme and pursue it."

Cumberbatch is far and away the most experienced player in the Mutual-sponsored UWI line-up. He was a successful Barbados youth team captain in 1983 and 1984 and seemed headed for a promising career as a left-arm spinner but bowed out of the first-class game in the mid-'80s mainly because of injury.

It is primarily because of his experience he was asked to lead the students in the Red Stripe Bowl.

They played disappointingly on Tuesday, losing by nine wickets to the Leewards XI after posting an adequate 140.

It was an enormous drop after beating St Vincent and the Grenadines in their opening match and putting up some fight to Barbados before going under by 102 runs. Subjected to batting first on a lively pitch against Jamaica, they lost by ten wickets in their final match.

"To those who don't know us, I think we would have performed well above expectations because nobody expected us to win a match," Cumberbatch said.

But he felt they should have been much more competitive against the Leewards.

"When you look at the two teams on paper, despite our lack of experience at first-class level, I think the teams are evenly matched in talent and ability," he added.

Since it is the first time for UWI at this level, there were bounded to be some teething problems.

Among them were late notice to the players and the fact that the team comprised players from several islands around the Caribbean. The selection was not only limited to students the Mona, St Augustine and Cave Hill campuses, but several other tertiary institutions around the region.

UWI's entry to this competition has been generally accepted even though some say there is no place for such an institution in the mainstream of West Indies' cricket.

"There is this feeling in the Caribbean that as soon as you hear academics, it is pure academics, as soon as you hear sports, it is pure sports," Cumberbatch said.

"We must ask ourselves why have the other countries combined the two and have found some success in that combination. It is time that we see that sport helps academics and the other way around."

If there are further plans to have UWI compete in the first-class Busta Series, there are certain to be other difficulties.

That tournament is usually played between January and March when the students are deep into the books, but the university is also trying its best to accommodate them by allowing anyone who gains selection to its cricket team to gain credits towards study programmes.

"We have to find a method of getting our university students into this thing," he said.

"In other countries, they do exams and play for Cambridge and Oxford Universities in county cricket. The West Indies can do it. It is just a matter of putting our heads together and finding the solutions."

It might have come as a surprise to Barbadian cricket fans when it was announced that UWI would be captained by Cumberbatch, who is pursuing an LLB at the Cave Hill campus after graduating a few years ago with a BSc. from the faculty of social sciences.

At the age of 37, he has proven in this tournament that his left-arm spin is still useful, but his role in the team goes beyond that.

"Most of the guys here have not yet played at the first-class level and my main purpose was to come and lend my experience and knowledge," he said.

The former Maple and Police Division 1 player still keeps active by representing George Rock XI in Barbados Cricket League limited-overs competitions and in the annual St Lucy tournament.

During the past five years, he has represented UWI in Inter-Campus games and has also been part of a few matches involving the Vice-Chancellor's XI against international opposition.

He concedes that he may not be around next year, but is confident that a UWI team can be a force in regional tournaments some time down the road.

"It is just a matter of getting the guys exposed to the higher level," he said. "Experience is the main factor at this time. The talent is there and as long as we play one or two seasons, I'm sure that the university will be extremely competitive."

© The Barbados Nation