Sweet three-peat! Ja skipper happy with 3rd straight title
JAMAICA’S three-peat winning performance of the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB’s) regional four-day competition was the sweetest, according to skipper Tamar Lambert on the team’s return with the impressive-looking trophy yesterday.
“This year is more memorable because this is the first team that has done that,” said Lambert as the victorious team was greeted at the Norman Manley International Airport.
“A third straight title says a lot for Jamaica. I have a great bunch of players and management staff working with me… and how can we forgot David Bernard Snr, physical trainer who has kept everybody fit, and that made the job easier,” he added.
Lambert, who was dropped from the country’s One-Day team, returned to lead Jamaica and record hs 23rd victory from 27 games as captain.
“I was kept out of the One-Day squad, but sometimes things like that do happen in life and is how you pick up yourself and move on from there,” said the skipper.
Lambert scored 203 runs with a best score of 58 at an average of 20.30, but it was his bowling which surprised many this season.
He finished with 16 wickets at 10.12 runs apiece. His previous 51 first-class matches had only reaped 25 wickets.
The rotund 28-year-old recorded stunning figures of 8-42 for a match haul of 10-63 which propelled Jamaica to a close and tense 29-victory over the Combined Campuses & Colleges (CCC).
The CCC were chasing 206 for victory, but were bowled out for 176 just before lunch on the fourth and final day of their fifth-round match.
The Jamaicans finished with 60 points after winning five of their six matches and losing only to Barbados, who finished second with 57 points. The Leewards Islands were a distance back on 34 points in third spot.
Meanwhile Paul Campbell, president of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), praised the players for their outstanding display.
Said Campbell: “It’s indeed a pleasure to be here to welcome our triple champion for the regional first-class competition. We have achieved at the highest order and you have excelled.”
According to Campbell, in 2002 the JCA established a strategic plan to within 10 years win the regional championship at least five times and they have won six.
“It’s all about the teamwork, the commitment, camaraderie and plan vision of the entire team and all our partners,” said Campbell.
Technical director of the JCA, James Adams, expressed happiness for the reception received on the team’s arrrival in Kingston.
“It’s good to be noticed and given recognition when good things happen in the last couple of months, culminating with Jamaica winning the four-day championship three years in a row,” said Adams.
“There are a lot of things that our cricket programmes need going forward. A lot of well-wishers would like to see not only Jamaica winning, but West Indies winning as well, and that is something Jamaica’s cricket is trying their very best to play a part (in) and have a bigger impact internationally,” the former West Indies captain pointed out.
Allie McNab, advisor in the Ministry of Sports, said the victory couldn’t have come at a better time in Jamaica’s history.
“It is really telling of the kind of programme that we have had. On behalf of the government of Jamaica, we offer heartiest congratulations to the team in emerging winners of the competition for the third year in a row.”
“This performance of Jamaica has demonstrated unequivocally out dominance of regional cricket,” McNab noted.