First-Class Matches West Indies 1989/90 to 1998/99

224 West Indies in 1997/98 came up on the rails to match Guyana’s points tally, and so for the first time since 1975/76 the title was shared. The match between Guyana and the Leewards in January had been a rain-ruined indecisive draw, so there were few clues there to suggest that one side deserved the title more than the other. The season’s fixture-list was arranged to avoid clashes between the Cup competition and the Tests with England, which meant that the Test players were potentially available for all matches in the domestic event. For Guyana the presence of Carl Hooper and Shiv Chanderpaul in their batting line-up throughout the season was a major contributor to their success, as both batsmen were enjoying perhaps the best form of their lives. For the Leeward Islands, having Ambrose and Kenny Benjamin in their squad meant that their greater strength lay in their bowling, though in practice Ambrose only played in two of their five Cup matches. It was Chanderpaul who led the batting figures in the President’s Cup, with 471 runs at 67.78 including three centuries and a score of 89. The competition’s bowling honours went to a less familiar name – Barbados’35-year-old slow left-armerWinston Reid, who took 35 wickets at 20.64. However, it was the established names that dominated over the season as a whole: Chanderpaul’s total of 803 runs at 47.23 was almost 100 runs ahead of anyone else, while Ambrose finished with 38 wickets at 15.65. With an eye to the future, West Indies sent an A team to South Africa at the end of 1997. In terms of results, the venture was not a success, as the side went down 3-0 in the series of unofficial Tests against South Africa A. It is more debatable whether the tour was a valuable proving-ground for younger players. It helped to rekindle the Test career of briefly out-of-favour Jimmy Adams, and future Test cricketers Wavell Hinds, Pedro Collins and Nixon McLean all had their moments on the tour; but no true new stars emerged. There was no sign that the West Indies’ period of eclipse at international level was likely to come to an end any time soon. WEST INDIES BOARD PRESIDENT’S CUP 1997/98: FINAL TABLE P W L LWF DWF DLF Pts 1 Guyana 5 3 0 0 0 2 56 Leeward Islands 5 3 1 0 1 0 56 3 Jamaica 5 1 1 0 3 0 40 4 Barbados 5 2 2 0 0 1 36 Trinidad & Tobago 5 2 2 0 0 1 36 6 Windward Islands 5 0 3 2 0 0 10