NAGICO-LICA Cricket One Day Tournament
USVI Manager Pleased With Team’s Performance Despite Ending Winless.
By Rawle Nelson
In Photo seated left to right: NAGICO's Marketing Manager, Jasmine Payne; NAGICO's Managing Director, Mr. Eric Ellis; President of LICA, Mr. Gregory Shillingford and President of the St. Kitts Cricket Association, Mr. Ingleton Liburd.
Manager of the USVI team, Lennox Galloway, said that he is pleased with the team’s performance despite ending the Leeward Islands NAGICO Sponsored One Day tournament winless. USVI lost all seven of its game despite almost pulling off two victories. Their loss to little rated BVI was a real disappointment to the team Manager Galloway said as theyar4e of the firm view that they are a better team than BVI.
Antigua, defending champions St Kitts, Anguilla and Montserrat have advanced to the semifinals which will be contested in St Maarten this weekend.
“To not say that I am pleased with this team’s performance would be unbecoming of me as while we have been beaten in all of our games the guys have shown commitment, discipline and a strong will to do well. We are a young team and the experience will certainly boost our performance next year as while we were beaten in each match the guys have proven themselves that they are worthy to be taken seriously as we do have some amount of talent in the team,” Galloway said after his team’s final defeat against Anguilla at Warner Park.
He expressed his delight at the approach of his bowlers and fielders noting that a significant amount of work will have be done in the batting department if they are going to be a very competitive team.
“We had a long meeting the management team inclusive of the coach, captain and myself, were pleased at the approach of the players in this year’s tournament. Yes, there are some things that the guys should have done differently and we had at least two matches that we should have won also but with a young team will come its challenges which we will certainly have to address as we prepare for future competitions,” Galloway said.
Quizzed on whether they were any batsmen that may have performed well, Galloway said that they were about three who has signaled their intentions that with experience and a little more training that they would be a force to reckon with. “We had the opportunity to look at a few batsmen like sixteen year old Doyle Jones who made 53 against BVI while we also have Alderman Lesmond who had a 73 against St Maarten, captain Sherville Huggins 55 against Montserrat Clifford Mario Dannis with a 39 against Nevis were the ones that we were very impressed with their display,” Galloway noted.
Toping the bowling was Andre Eusebe with 15 wickets, Calvin Lewis with nine and seventeen year old Curwin Charles with seven wickets. Regarding the pitches in St Kitts, Manager Galloway stressed that the pitches were generally good giving significant advantage to the batsmen. “The pitches were generally good and while it offered assistance to the batsmen our bowlers were able to demonstrate their worth. The bowlers in the team did a good job and while some were not on target as we expected them to be I am confident that come next year it will be a different situation all together with regards to USVI,” he declared.
“What was heartening also was that the captain Sherville Huggins was involved in the fielding drills and he too was upbeat about the team ending at least with a win and leading from the front.”
Reflecting on the team’s performances in their previous games, Galloway, like coach Livingstone Harris before him, stated that he was satisfied that his team didn’t lie and accept defeat but rather they fought to the very end in each match. “We could have thrown our hands down and accept defeat easily but the guys knew that even if we were going to be defeated it was going to come with a fight and they fought in each seven games.”
He added that the whether played a key role in two crucial rounds of three and four and this may ha e changed the course of the competition. “A number of games were affected by whether and everyone knows that cricket is a sport that can change within a minute due to varying reasons”.
The manager who is in his first year at the national level after taking over from Alton Grant also disclosed that there were no worrying signs of injuries in the team as compared to previous years and tournaments. Galloway did state that changes will be made for nest year’s competition as after a complete evaluation and assessment of all the players over the coming months they would be making appropriate changes thus enhancing their chances in next year’s competition.