Although Trinidad and Tobago lost their opening match, they are still the hot favorite for the title because of the manner in which they defeated the Leeward Islands in their second match. First, they scored over 200 hundreds and then dismissed their opponents for under 50 runs. In essence they stamped their class on the competition.
I am sure most people will remember Keiron Pollard’s total authoritative performance in the match. He scored 56 runs from 15 balls and in accomplishing this feat he scored five sixes in a singular over. Thus, because Mr. Pollard is in the Trinidad and Tobago team is one of the main reasons for them being favourite for the title.
When it comes to 20/20 cricket Pollard is without a doubt one of the best players in the world. However I cannot say the same for him in the longer forms of the game. So I am having a problem in declaring him to be a good cricketer, because 20/20 cricket is relatively new. And the real test of a good batsman is to score big hundreds over a long period of time and not quick fire-filled half centuries.
Unless of course the laws governing cricket are going to be changed to reflect the new form of the game. But then again, what will happen to the traditional players? And by traditional players, I mean the ones that can only bat at slow pace, thus making them by default unfit for twenty/twenty cricket.
I guess this is one of the reasons that Sarwan was left out of the Guyanese squad because he is thought to be a traditional player. And the other hand, Chanderpaul is also thought to be a traditional player but in the couple of innings I have seen of him thus far in the competition he is disproving those assumptions.
To get back to my main point, Trinidad and Tobago are the favorite for the title, with their real challenge coming from Guyana, Barbados and to a lesser extent Jamaica who is a bit handicapped with the absence of their prolific opening batsman Chris Gayle. But let us wait and see who will win.
