Lack of lights leaves Bennett in the dark

JAMAICA'S cricketers resume their campaign in the Regional Four-Day tournament against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) at Providence, Guyana starting Friday, February 12, but there is one major concern being expressed by the team's coach.

Led by skipper Tamar Lambert, Jamaica, who are the defending champions, head the table with 36 points and are firm favourites to notch their fourth straight win of the tournament when they take on the third-placed college men.

The forthcoming encounter is however expected to spring unaccustomed challenges for the Jamaicans as they'll be playing their first-ever day/night first-class four-day game.

It will provide new challenges, admits coach Junior Bennett coupled with the fact he was unable to have his charges train under lights during their two-week break as Jamaica remain the only major West Indies territory without floodlights at any of its cricket grounds.

Bennett and the team leave for Guyana tomorrow with a view of getting in some practise ahead of Friday's game set to start at 1:00 pm (Noon Jamaica time).

But that won't suffice, said Bennett.

"Any team would have loved to practice under conditions that they are going to play under. Unfortunately we have no lights out here and we haven't got the pink balls as yet. I don't think we'll get any nets sessions under lights when we go down to Guyana. So what we will do is some fielding," Bennett told the Observer yesterday following the team's final training session on home soil at Chedwin Park in St Catherine.

"Most of these players have played under lights before and once we can go out there and field under lights they should adapt well, bearing in mind that it will be about two to two-and-a-half hours of night cricket each day," he added.

The day/night fixture forms part of the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) new initiative aimed at cutting cost while reviving spectator interest.

Each regional team will play one day/night game and the fact that Jamaica has been unable to assimilate conditions to what they are about to

face in Providence, Bennett said that there is cause for concern.

"What we prepare ourselves for is four days of first-class cricket and we are going out there to play four days of cricket," stressed the national coach.

"However, under lights it's slightly different. The cooler the conditions the ball might behave a little different through the air so that is a factor that we have to look at and again with the condition of the ball we don't know how it's going to behave as it will be something new to us.

"Batting the pink ball under lights I think is going to be a new challenge... but once we play the game in its simplest form and be consistent then we will be competitive."

In addition, the mettle of the squad is likely to be further tested with the departure of Nikita Miller, Wavell Hinds, Brendan Nash - all summoned to the West Indies team now in Australia and Daren Powell, due to personal issues.

Their absence has left a huge void in a cohesive unit that has claimed maximum points from their three encounters, but an optimistic Bennett believes that their replacements can deliver on what is required of them.

There are some tried and proven players over the years, like Devon Brown, who have done well for us," he said, but "yes, it will be difficult to replace players like Wavell Hinds and Brendan Nash".

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