Barbados may have been easy winners in their Red StripeBowl opener, but the high number of extras, especially wides, is acause for concern

04-Oct-2001Barbados may have been easy winners in their Red StripeBowl opener, but the high number of extras, especially wides, is acause for concern. In defeating newcomers Antigua and Barbuda by sixwickets at the Uitvlugt Community Centre on Tuesday, Barbados conceded34 extras, including 23 wides.It is a staggering statistic against the background that in the threeprevious years they gave away an average of 6.91 wides a match and14.33 extras a match in 12 games between 1998 and 2000."It was a good win, like any win in one-day cricket, but in breakingit down, we let them get too many runs and there were too manyextras," said team coach Hendy Springer."When you are playing against good teams, you can’t afford thoseextras."It was suggested by some that the white ball was perhaps a bit moredifficult to control than a red "cherry", while the strong wind thatprevailed at a ground on the west coast of Demerara, which is just aball-throw away from the Atlantic, might have been anothercontributing factor to the ball being sprayed around."The white ball takes a bit of getting accustomed to, but I don’t wantto put it down to the breeze," Springer said. "I would like theplayers to handle the responsibility. "I didn’t use the word blame. Iuse the word responsibility right through. There was that little bitof indiscipline."The chief culprit with the extras was Corey Collymore, who gave away12 wides, including four in the first over of the match in which hewas also flicked for a six over backward square-leg by left-handerAmwaa Prince and removed the same batsman through a keeper’s catch.Collymore’s fellow fast bowlers Hendy Bryan, who conceded six wides,and left-armer Ian Bradshaw, with three, also contributed.Collymore was also clouted for six sixes in the dying stages by Man-Of-The-Match Ridley Jacobs, whose unbeaten 76 and eighth-wicketcentury stand with Kerry Jeremy allowed the first-time competitors torecover from 68 for seven to reach 187 for nine.In an effort to have the faults corrected, Barbados were planning tohave a practice session yesterday evening, but persistent rain in andaround the capital throughout the day left the conditions unsuitablefor a net session.There will, however, still be ample time to get the problem rectifiedahead of this weekend’s back-to-back matches."We’ve got to do some target practice and radar practice, bowling downthe channel and down the channel and down the channel," Springer said."But cricket is still a situation game. In trying to do this and that,you may still be off-mark."We’ve got to get rid of those extra runs and extra overs we aregiving people. We are giving people an extra five and six overs. Wecan’t afford to do that."Barbados gave Antigua and Barbuda at least an additional 26deliveries, and Collymore and company found themselves struggling todeliver the full quota of 50 overs in the 31/2 hours allocated.By 1 p.m., Barbados were into the 47th over and it took them a further22 minutes to complete the allotment.There was a feeling that Barbados would not have had the opportunityto bat for the full complement of 50 overs, but the match referee sawno reason for imposing any penalty."Unless otherwise determined by the match referee, the innings of theteam batting second shall be limited to the same number of oversbowled by it, at the scheduled time for cessation of the firstsession," the playing conditions say."The referee may increase the number of overs to be bowled by the teambowling second if, after consultation with the umpires, he is of theopinion that events beyond the control of the bowling team preventedthat team from bowling the required number of overs by the scheduledtime for the cessation of the innings of the team batting first."It is interesting to note that following Barbados’ opening match, theyhave three successive days off ahead of back-to-back matches againstGuyana and Southern Windwards at the weekend."After Tuesday, I think we should have been playing by at leastThursday or Friday," Springer said. However, the Barbados coach addedthat the long break could have some positives."It will give us time to rest, it can give us time to practise andreview tactics. But for the competition’s sake, I don’t believe itshould be stretched out over that period of time because you’re justplaying a couple of games."After yesterday’s match between Guyana and Southern Windwards inBerbice, there will be no matches today.Zone "B" resumes tomorrow with a clash between Southern Windwards andAntigua at the Diamond ground.