Courtney Francis

In the recently concluded 2022/23 season of the West Indies Championship, the Scorpions failed to win a single game, finishing last with 25.6 points after recording four losses and a draw in five matches. This was following a fifth-place finish in the 2021-22 season.

The team was especially poor with the bat, scoring the second-lowest amount of runs in total in the season with 1803.

Individually, only two batsmen, Abhijai Mansingh with 248 and Leroy Lugg with 217, scored over 200 runs for the Scorpions. To put it in perspective, Alick Athanaze of the Windward Islands Hurricanes finished as top run-scorer with 647, 182 more runs than Jamaica’s two highest run-scorers combined.

It begs the question, what on earth has happened to the Scorpions batting in the longer format of the game?

“Aggression without proper selection and lack of a desire to bat long are two things that jumped out at me,” Jamaica Cricket Association CEO Courtney Francis told SportsMax.TV.

“The pride of playing for country, I am not seeing it. Even in dialogue with them, I don’t think they have an appreciation for what the sport has done for us as a people,” Francis added.

The Scorpions did start the year well, however, by winning the Regional Super50, their first since 2012 but, as Francis explains, that may have been detrimental to their hopes in the longer format.

“A significant number of the players who played that tournament were unavailable to play the 4-day tournament. We had persons playing at the highest level or playing all over the world,” he said.

“The significant influx of white-ball cricket,” is another reason for Jamaica’s downward spiral in the red-ball game according to Francis.

“If you notice, our players aren’t batting an extended number of overs. Some games are ending with a day to spare,” Francis added.

He went further, analysing a technical flaw he saw throughout the line-up.

“It seems like whenever the ball is bouncing, our batsmen don’t seem to cope with it properly. I am very confident that they would have had enough training. They’ve had the facilities here at Sabina Park and elsewhere,” he said.

Another contributing factor highlighted by Francis is the weakness of the Island’s premier two-day competition, the Senior Cup.

“Our Senior Cup competition is not competitive enough. In the Senior Cup, when certain teams play against certain teams, you might get a competitive game which is commendable but, there are a significant number of instances where games finish within a day and we’re not going anywhere with that. The transition from Senior Cup to first-class is not it,” said Francis before offering up a potential solution to that problem.

“In my view, we need to have a tier higher than the Senior Cup. I’ve recommended that we have the best 60 players in the country playing a four-team competition. You can hold trials to see who can get up there,” Francis added.

Francis then took issue with the complacency of contracted players, noting that their desire to improve seemingly dwindled after being rewarded.

“Persons who are on contracts now seem to not want to work hard enough because the contract is set for one year. If you notice, we have 15 persons on contract and of those 15 persons, maybe 40% of them did not feature in the Super50 and/or the West Indies Championship. That is something for us to take a different look at,” Francis said

“We can understand that persons are contracted from July so people may lose form and others come in for pay-for-play and stuff but that percentage is too high.

As selectors, coaches and administrators we have to come up with a different mechanism to ensure that we do not waste money. If you look at the numbers of a number of the players, we’re not getting a return on our investment” he added before noting that shorter term, incentive-based contracts may be the way forward to return Jamaica to winning ways in the longest format.

Over the past two years, the JCA has significantly increased its use of a variety of digital and online tools to deliver improved services to its stakeholders.

Of note, was in February of 2019, when for the first time, the JCA streamed the final of its Senior Cup tournament at Sabina Park via its Facebook page – Jamaica Cricket. Over the two days of the final, the online stream attracted more than 40,000 unique viewers who watched for a minimum of two hours.

“We were buoyed by the response of the viewing fans online. The data provided by our marketing team and the Facebook insights signalled that despite low numbers in the stands, interest in the sport was still strong,” said JCA CEO Courtney Francis.

“Traditional media helps us to reach a wide cross-section of cricket lovers, but our social media channels give us an opportunity to get more feedback and interaction. That’s important and the responses we were getting online let us know we had to be more interactive, not only with fans but also with our players, coaches, teams and other stakeholders.”

Against that background, the JCA is making an effort to enhance their digital footprint. This includes training and certification in digital scoring methods for all clubs and parish associations that was facilitated by CWI.

Following the training clubs and parish associations received tablets which were used for scoring in local competitions.

The JCA also secured a three-year commercial contract with CricHQ.com to host player and team statistics online. This facilitates the use of a completely data-driven evaluation of players and teams by the selection panel for national programmes.

They have also employed the increased use of video to share key moments in the JCA’s activities or to provide updates, which may not have been covered in traditional media channels as well as certifying JCA marketing staff in digital marketing and other digital disciplines.

“We took it up a notch in 2020 and the global COVID-19 pandemic really showed us that we were making the right decision. Our meetings migrated online – board, committees, staff and teams. Our players and coaches were using their WhatsApp groups and online meeting platforms to share training methods and holding each other accountable,” Francis said.

“Our staff’s productivity was maintained despite the work-from-home recommendations as part of the government’s response to managing the spread of the coronavirus. It took a bit of adjustment but we are better for it now and so are our coffers.”

Moving forward the JCA plans to relaunch its redesigned and more functional website on August 27 at 12:30 pm. This will be done live on the JCA’s Facebook page – Jamaica Cricket and is open to the public.

It will also host its AGM online via Zoom August 27 at 2:00 pm. This is a first in the organisation’s history and also among local sporting associations as well as deliver online training courses for a wide variety of cricket stakeholders via its new website. Disciplines include financial management, nutrition, fitness and conditioning, rules of the game, media/interview techniques among others.

is truly saddened at the passing of Mr Cleon Smith, who was at the time of his death today, the coach for the National Senior Women’s team.

In addition to Jamaica’s senior women’s team, Smith was also the coach for the Northern Panthers Franchise, the Senior Men, Women and U15 coach for the St. Ann Cricket Association and he also coached at York Castle High School.

According to the JCA, Smith fell ill and was admitted to the Kingston Public Hospital just about two weeks ago but failed to recover from his ailment. They praised him for his contribution to the sport.

“Coach Smith was the epitome of commitment to the sport. Cricket has been a life-long love for him, and his association with the JCA dates back well over a decade. While Cleon was involved with the national programme as a coach for the national women’s team for an extended period, he stood in as U-17 men’s coach at one point. Beyond that, he was involved at the local franchise level, the parish level and even Headley Cup,” said JCA CEO Courtney Francis.

“It is quite a sad day for us at the JCA and across the local cricket landscape. Jamaica’s cricket was better off for his years of dedicated service. Our thoughts and prayers are with the senior women’s team in this moment and we will reach out to provide support for them as they would be the hardest hit within the national programme.

“To his family, we extend our deepest condolences. We are with you in this period of grief and we will be a pillar of strength on which you can lean. The JCA is here for you,” he added.