Jamaica U15 cricket coach wants team to learn from poor performances | Sport

IT’S been just over a week since Jamaica’s under-15 cricket team returned to the island after finishing last in the just-concluded Cricket West Indies Rising Stars U15 Championship in Antigua.

The Jamaicans managed just one win from their five rounds, managing 66 runs, while eventual champions Trinidad and Tobago remained unbeaten en route to 238 and the title.

It was an encouraging start to the tournament for the Phillip Service-coached Jamaicans, who beat last year’s champions Barbados to open the tournament before Duckworth Lewis lost to Guyana, followed by comprehensive defeats to the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and the Windward Islands.

According to Service, the opportunity at hand and the high-quality brand of cricket was just too much for him.

“I don’t think we had the level of players overall that we could have been as competitive as we would have liked. At this level, the youngsters could not withstand the pressure of the competition well enough, Service said.

A few players in the Jamaica squad showed some quality with all-rounder Demarco Scott finishing sixth in the batting with 120 runs in five innings with a top score of 49.

The next best batsman was opener Tyson Gordon Jr who finished the tournament with 73 runs with a highest score of 23.

The bowling department mostly held their own and as a result Scott also became the Jamaican’s number one with eight wickets best of three for 12.

Captain Nicoli McKenzie weighed in with seven wickets and best bowling four wickets for 25 runs.

According to Service, the team needs a lot of work from now on if they plan to have a better performance in the upcoming tournaments.

“We have to learn from this, and I’m not blaming the preparations or throwing anyone under the bus, but we have work to do if we want to be competitive and we have to get the players individually up to this level.”

Meanwhile, Windwards batsman Earsinho Fontaine topped the run chart with 197 Runs from four innings, with T&T’s Yasir Deen clearing the most runs with 14 scalps.

T&T’s Christiano Ramanan had the most dismissals, with nine, while teammate Sycon Charles, with six, had the most catches.