Confident Baugh eyes West Indies recall
JAMAICA wicketkeeper batsman Carlton Baugh is looking to follow up on last year’s strong regional four-day showing in order to get the attention of the West Indies selectors.
Baugh is a part of the national team’s 13-man squad which is preparing for the January 8 start of the West Indies Cricket Board’s 2010 first-class season. Jamaica will face the Windward Islands at Chedwin Park in St Catherine in the opening round.
Baugh, who played the last of his five Test matches in 2004 in England, insists that once he continues scoring runs he will have a good chance of catching the eyes of the selectors once more. “Right now I’m concentrating more on my batting because I know all I need to do is to continue scoring centuries. I just have to be consistent and leave the rest to God,” he said.
Baugh, who averages 19.60 with the bat and has been responsible for four catches and one stumping at Test level, expressed disappointment at not having been given more opportunity to gain confidence and cement his place in the West Indies team. “I’m very disappointed but at the moment (now) I have to do what I have to do (and) that is scoring runs. Any time that opportunity comes again and I get to play for West Indies and play consistently, then the public will see a better player because to be consistent at the higher level you have to play consistently,” he argued.
The 27-year-old has attributed last season’s four-day success to higher levels of focus. “If and when I do reach to a half century, I try to capitalise as much as possible. In the longer version of the game, I’ve been working hard. I like to bat long and also to play strokes and it also takes thought process, so once you can get all of them together on a given day, you can score a lot of runs,” he said.
“It is (about) playing each ball on its merit and trying to eliminate certain shots, especially early in the innings. Then later in the innings those shots will be easier to play. That’s something I have to think about whenever I’m in practice so I can perfect it when match time comes,” he added.
Baugh, the son of Carlton Baugh Snr, a Melbourne and Jamaica batsman of the 1970s and early eighties, made his first-class debut in the 2000-2001 season.
He is considered by many to be the top wicketkeeper/batsman in the region behind Trinidadian Denesh Ramdin, who is also the vice- captain of the West Indies team. Even Ramdin has to take a back seat to Baugh’s impressive first-class statistics which include 10 centuries and 16 half centuries at an average of 36.21. Baugh has also completed 131 catches and 16 stumpings, while Ramdin has scored five centuries and 14 half-centuries at 26.51 to go with 205 catches and 19 stumpings.
Baugh fell out of favour with the Jamaica selectors in the first-half of last season and was replaced by Keith Hibbert.
The diminutive player bounced back in style. Recalled for the last five games of the season, he topped the batting averages with 60.50 from an aggregate 484 runs, stroking two centuries and three half centuries along the way.
The attacking right-hander revealed a hunger to achieve more in 2010. “I’m definitely looking forward to dominating even though it’s a shorter season, especially from game one. It’s always good when you start out on a high,” he said.
The former Wolmer’s Boys’ student is confident that his wicketkeeping will improve in tandem with more consistent batting displays.
“The wicketkeeping will keep on improving as it has been doing. Wicketkeeping is something that goes with form. It doesn’t matter how much technique you have, if your form is not right then obviously things won’t work for you. There are major goals that I’ve set and it’s just for me to go out there and do my talent some justice,” he said.