1) The points system is adequate for the group stages, but woefully inadequate for the knockout stage. The WICB needs to look seriously at having either bonus batting points or a reserve fifth day for next year's tournament. You cannot have a situation where four days of cricket is played, and the match is ruled a no result.
2) Dead batting tracks need to be severely dealt with. In county cricket, counties are punished for provided unacceptable pitches. This pitch at UWI St Augustine was clearly not acceptable for a semi-final, and action should be taken against the appropriate authorities, for providing a pitch like this.
3) Trinidad apparently went into this match playing for a no result from ball one. That is the worst example of negative cricket you can think of, and a very bad reflection of Ganga's negative mindset as a captain. They switched the venue from Queens Park Oval, which is always likely to produce a result, or at least a decision on first innings points. The WICB should take more of a hand in deciding which grounds can be used for a semi-final and a final.
4) This weekend it was Trinidad, next year it could be Jamaica, and the year after it could be Guyana. Unless this situation is dealt with immediately, we could see a repeat in the near future. SOmething needs to be done to take the negative approach of playing for a no result out of the game. Doing nothing is unacceptable, but sadly, the most likely approach from our moribund WICB....
5) Only 19 wickets fell in the entire match. That's little over one wicket a session, which is unacceptable. How can pitches like this prepare our batsmen for playing Test matches against better bowling attacks from teams like Pakistan and India on pitches that offer more to bowlers? And how does inflating the batting averages of Nash, Ganga, Hinds and Emrit really help the selectors, when they try to make a reading of the stats at the end of the season when selecting a team for the West Indies? Pitches like this one hurt, rather than help, West Indies cricket....
6) Lambert's captaincy was very negative as well. The modren approach of captains batting first dictate that you bat until the end of Day Two, and then declare with about 45-30 mins left in the day, and have your pacers go flat out against tired Trinidadian batsmen, who've been on their feet for five and a half sessions. Lambert should've declared at 550, and then gone on the attack. But he too seemed satisfied to play for a no-result.
All in all, it was a disappointing end to a potentially exciting semi-final, made all the more disappointing by Trinidad's threat to go to court, because they failed to read a rule book where you can find the rules on the internet.
When you consider that Jamaica made 664, and Trinidad could only manage 448-9 in reply, it's pretty obvious which team played the better cricket. But that team should be decided on this match only, and it's only as a result of a fortunate coincidence that Jamaica had the better head-to-head result in the group stage. If the reverse had been the case, it would've been a travesty for Trinidad to advance after playing such negative cricket from the toss of the coin, when Ganga put Jamaica in and started playing for a no-result. The WICB needs to put in place some rules for the knockout stages that take this negative approach out of future tournaments.
, i just wonder how the pitches will be for the Pak and India series? i'd make the pitch "pace friendly" for first Pak and India Tests as i believe we have better pacers than them (especially with Pak being without Gul, Asif and Ammir) and if we manage to win them then we MUST roll out an utter dung heaps for the second Tests!! 