…and our own Ravi Rampaul rounded off an excellent night for Trinidad and Tobagowhen he was adjudged Man-of-the-Match after their exciting victory over favourites Middlesex. Remember Ravi played six times forIrelandearlier in the season, and he certainly looked the part with some hostile bowling and included in his four-wicket haul was former Ireland superstar Ed Joyce. With US$280,000 going to the winning team, and US$20,000 going to the Man-of-the-Match, it was a good payday for Ravi.
Completing the “Irish” trio was Eoin Morgan, billed as a future England test player by top commentators David Lloyd and Tony Cozier.
The Stanford Super Series has lived up to its expectations for exciting big money Twenty20 cricket, although there have been a few complaints from the Middlesex and England squads about the low and slow wickets, and the lights. They may have a case, given the low scores to date, and the high number of catches that have been spilled, but at the end of the day the conditions are the same for both teams.
The presence of Joyce and Morgan in the Middlesex team prompted plenty of comment about Irish cricket from both Cozier and Lloyd, so although neither batsman is in the Cricket Ireland scene these days, their high profile continues to keep Irish cricket in the limelight. Rampaul’s Irish roots may be stretching a point, but it was good to see him back in such good form, and he was certainly the bowling star in this big money extravaganza.
While Joyce failed with the bat on this occasion, Morgan batted well for 30 off 31 balls as Middlesex crawled to 117 for 8, a score that many people still felt was enough to win. It certainly looked like that for most of the Trinidad and Tobagoinnings, but the match was turned on its head by a series of dropped catches, and they included one each by Joyce and Morgan. Boundaries were few and far between for most of the game, but when the pressure mounted it was Ganga, Bravo and Ramdin who handled it better than the strutting English county players. Even controversial hired gun Neil Carter cracked with a batting failure followed by a dropped catch, and one particularly expensive over at the crunch time late in the match.
Fortunes can turn very quickly in Twenty20 cricket, but there was no doubt Darren Ganga’s captaincy and the team spirit he engenders was a major factor in this win. The Trinidad and Tobagoteam may not have the big names within their ranks these days, but they are masters of Caribbean cricket at virtually every form of the game. And they know how to celebrate when they win, with their strong vocal support.
Roll on Saturday’s extravaganza for the richest prize ever in cricket in front of a television audience reputed to be close to one billion. Sir Allan Stanford may have injected US$20 million as a winner-take-all prize plus another US$5 million in his promotion, but with television sales in this league he won’t be short of a handsome profit from his enterprise.
Unfortunately there won’t be any Irish players sharing it!
Clarence Hiles
Editor
