ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2011

West Indies in 2010/11 West Indies’ problems continued at Test level. A 2-0 home defeat by South Africa (see ‘Matches in 2010’) was followed by three drawn Tests in a rain-affected series in Sri Lanka. There was some consolation in C.H.Gayle’s brilliant triple hundred in the first Test of the latter series, as well as the fact that West Indies edged ahead of New Zealand to be ranked seventh by the end of the 2010/11 season rather than eighth as in 2009/10. But the bowlers continued to struggle to dismiss opponents for a reasonable total and by the end of the Sri Lanka series, West Indies had played 17 Tests without a win (8 defeats and 9 draws) since beating England at Kingston in February 2009. There were no Tests in West Indies during the 2010/11 season, but in November Pakistan A played two matches against West Indies A. Both were drawn, with the hosts having somewhat the better of exchanges. The format of the Regional Four-Day Competition was again revised. The round-robin approach was retained but in addition to the seven Caribbean sides that competed in 2009/10, England Lions (i.e. the England A team) were invited to take part. The English side would, however, be ineligible for the new knock-out stage, in which the top four teams would play semi-finals and a final to decide the ultimate winners. In addition, the practice of playing the whole of each round of matches in the same territory was discontinued after one season. The Regional Competition was won for the fourth season running by Jamaica, who thus equalled a feat previously achieved only by Barbados (1976/77 to 1979/80). The final itself was a bowlers’ match in which Jamaica comfortably defeated Combined Campuses and Colleges in only two days; but Jamaica’s progress to this point had been anything but convincing. Jamaica’s semi-final, against Trinidad and Tobago, was a high-scoring draw which failed to yield even a first-innings result, Jamaica progressing because of a better head-to-head result at the league stage. It was in vain that Trinidad and Tobago protested that they had finished second in the league to Jamaica’s joint third. Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Combined Campuses easily defeated the Windward Islands, who had finished fifth in the league but had progressed to the semi-final because England Lions, who came third equal, were ineligible. The loss of the final must have been a bitter disappointment to Combined Campuses, who had headed the league largely through the efforts of the two leading wicket-takers in the competition, the spin combination of R.A.Austin (off-breaks) with 44 at 19.15 and K.Kantasingh (slow left-arm) with 42 at an even better average of 17.80. The effectiveness of this pairing, coupled it must be added with the side’s relatively fragile batting, meant that Combined Campuses’ matches tended to be very low-scoring affairs. Jamaica, meanwhile, could claim the most prolific batsman, M.N.Samuels with 853 runs at 65.61; while their leading bowler, the leg-spinner O.V.Brown, tended to be expensive in the league matches but delivered the goods when it mattered most. The England Lions acquitted themselves well, finishing in third place. J.H.K.Adams (Hampshire) and C.Kieswetter (Somerset) had the satisfaction of scoring the only two centuries conceded by Combined Campuses in the entire competition; and C.R.Woakes (Warwickshire) claimed a hat-trick against Guyana. J.W.Dernbach (Surrey) also bowled with great success, and was called up to join England’s squad for the World Cup. 587