SAINT Lucia Under-15 cricket captain Akeem Auguste led from front with a century, which secured another Windward Islands tournament for the defending champions. However, Saint Lucia emerged second in this year’s competition based on fast bowling points.
Saint Lucia clashed with Grenada at the Cumberland Playing Field on Sunday, and totally outplayed them. Batting first, Saint Lucia got to 239 for the loss of four wickets in 50 overs. Auguste scored 138 from 154 deliveries, which included 16 fours and 2 sixes. Sky Lafeuille made 28.
In response, Grenada were bowled out for 79.
Bowling for Saint Lucia, Amari Venner took 4 for 21 and Daren Sammy Jr. picked up 3 for 10. Saint Lucia won by 160 runs.
What exactly is this new method of determining outcomes for the Windward Islands Under-15 tournaments? What exactly is this fast bowling point system? Well, in an effort to encourage more fast bowling in the sub-region, the Windward Islands Cricket Board decided to award teams points based on how many wickets fast bowlers obtain during the tournament.
In this case, Grenada’s fast bowlers took 22 wickets, while Saint Lucia’s fast bowlers took 19. As a result, despite being outplayed by Saint Lucia, and despite Saint Lucia having more overall success than Grenada throughout the tournament, Grenada were awarded the 2017 Windward Islands Under-15 tournament as a result of having 3 more fast bowling wickets than Saint Lucia.
The question: Is this approach the best to determine winners, tie-breakers and allow development of fast bowling in the sub-region? Were Saint Lucia simply robbed of this title since they had won it for four consecutive years?