ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2017

The truth of the matter is that, without these stars, the West Indian Test team really is not strong by international standards – a conclusion borne out by the eighth position that they have occupied in the ICC Test rankings throughout the period under review, with ninth-placed Bangladesh nipping at their heels. They have the nucleus of a good batting side in Brathwaite, Chase and Shai Hope, who all look the part as Test cricketers, but the fragility of the rest of the batting line-up is apparent all too often. As for the bowlers, despite the much-criticized spin-friendly pitches on which they play at home, none of the West Indies’ spinners has proved anywhere near the match of their opponents’, while the quicker bowlers are generally too erratic and inconsistent to trouble the batsmen of the higher-ranking sides. Without the return of the stars, or the discovery of completely new talent, at present a move further down the rankings looks more likely than a rise up them. The domestic first-class competition, the WICB Professional Cricket League Four-Day Tournament, was won by Guyana for the third season in a row. Jamaica led the table at the halfway point in December, but Guyana beat them in the first match after the resumption in March (a game in which father and son Shiv and Tagenarine Chanderpaul batted together for the first time in a first-class match), and they were not headed thereafter – despite losing twice over the season to the team that finished at the foot of the table, Leeward Islands. In the end, both Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago overhauled Jamaica to take second and third places respectively in the final table. The leading runscorer of the home season was the impressive Roston Chase, with 776 runs for Barbados and the national team, at an average of 59.69. In the Four-Day Tournament alone, the leader was Yannic Cariah of Trinidad & Tobago, who scored 691 runs at 43.18. As in 2015/16, the season’s leading bowler was the former Test slow-left-armer Nikita Miller (Jamaica), who took 58 wickets at 14.29, including an innings analysis of 9-41 – the first nine wickets to fall – against Trinidad & Tobago in December. No other bowler took more than 44 wickets. (KSW) Regional Four-Day Tournament 2016/17: Final table P W L D BatBP BowBP Pts 12 0 3 1 Guyana 10 5 2 3 22 43.8 134.8 2 Barbados 10 4 1 5 20 41.0 124.0 3 Trinidad and Tobago 10 4 5 1 12 39.8 102.8 4 Jamaica 10 4 5 1 14 37.6 102.6 5 Windward Islands 10 3 5 2 11 44.6 97.6 6 Leeward Islands 10 3 5 2 9 38.2 89.2 566 West Indies in 2016/17