Jamaica's young cricketers who captured the Limited-Overs Trophy at TCL West Indies Regional Under-19 Challenge tournament in Antigua recently have dedicated the victory to the victims of Hurricane Dean.

"I don't know if anyone was killed. we were fortunate to wait it out in Antigua, but our minds and spirits were here with our families. We will pick ourselves up because we are a resilient people," coach Andre Coley told the Observer upon arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday.

Jamaica's Under-19 captain Derval Green (right) cradles the Limited-Overs Trophy as his team arrives at the Norman Manley International Airport from Antigua yesterday. At centre is all-rounder Andre Creary and at left Shacoya Thomas. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Jamaica finished with 30 points - 12 behind champions Guyana - in the three-day version of the tournament before turning the tables with an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Guyana in the one-day final. It was Jamaica's first hold on the Limited-Overs trophy.

Coley, a former Jamaica Under-19 and senior team wicketkeeper, said he thought Jamaica was clearly the best team on display in the tournament and should have won both titles.

"I would think so. Just by listening to some of the other coaches when they played Jamaica they knew they were up against a tough side. They all acknowledged the fact that Jamaica should have won both competitions.
"I think the players deserved both trophies although it didn't work out that way, but they came back well in the one-day and did well," Coley noted.

Overall, he was satisfied with the performance of the team as he said they stuck to the game plan.

"Most of our plans we put in place we executed well, that's why we were in the position that we ended. We could have done better in a couple of areas, but I don't want to take anything away from the boys, they worked hard," he said.
Jamaica's victory in the one-day tournament was propelled by a whirlwind knock of 133 from 17-year-old opener Horace Miller, who shared a record stand of 188 for the first wicket with Christie Jones, who stoked an attractive 62.

Guyana made 225 from their allotted 50 overs and Jamaica in reply raced to 229-2 in the 40th over.

Miller, who scored his shot-filled century off only 115 balls with 14 fours and eight sixes, told the Observer it was a fairly good pitch to bat on.
"Chasing that total wasn't a problem. We had a plan in the changing room and we went out there and dealt with it," he said.

Although he starred in the final, Miller was however not very satisfied with his overall performance after getting good starts and not following through with bigger scores.

He was nevertheless selected to the West Indies Under-19 squad, along with four other Jamaicans - Andre Creary, Nkruma Bonnar, Shacoya Thomas and Jason Dawes.
"Congrats to those guys that were selected to the West Indies 20-man squad, but I think Jamie Merchant was probably unfortunate," Coley told the Observer.

Miller and Dawes captured individual awards in the Limited-Overs tournament. Miller was adjudged Most Outstanding Batsman and Man-of-the-Match of the Final, while Dawes was the Most Outstanding Bowler.

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