As always these are subjective, and unlike a lot of local journalists who only want Barbadians in the team, I don’t care where a player was born. This is FRANCHISE cricket and the player could be born on the moon for all I care, I just want to see them perform for the team!
Jason Holder – Captain and All Rounder 6/10
In terms of performance with both bat and ball Jason was easily the best PLAYER in the team and that I cannot fault as an all-rounder. However for the second year running, for me, he loses points based upon his captaincy. Some strange decisions when he won the toss, some even stranger choices in the use of bowlers, it came across as that he had no idea who to bowl and when and not for the first time I am highly critical of him giving a youngster the ball for the final over in a game, with more senior bowlers available. Literally on occasions I would ask why he was not more attacking when a new batsman came in minutes before the TV team said the very same thing. I said it last year, I say it again this year great test captain but not a T20 captain.
Mitchell Santner – All Rounder 6/10
Started batting nine or ten was soon moved up the order and finished with the highest average of 48.33. Also took 6 wickets and also had the best economy rate of the bowlers. That said he was in a poor team and had there been more support he could have got much higher figures. He can leave CPL with his head held up and I wouldn’t mind seeing him back in a stronger lineup.
Kyle Mayers – Batsman/P.T. Bowler 5/10
Had some great knocks in the first half of the season but tailed off a bit towards the end. Scored the most runs (222) and was a steady performer with the bat averaging over 24. Took 2 wickets from the seven overs he bowled, but was fairly expensive.
Johnson Charles – Batsman/Reserve Wicket Keeper 5/10
Mr Reliable, comes in and opens the batting, averaged just over 21 but doesn’t go on to get the big scores. Ended up with the second highest number of runs but often ending up at the wrong end watching wickets fall at the other, which must be a toll at times.
Rashid Khan – Bowler (Not just any bowler the best spin bowler in the world) 5/10
The best spin bowler in T20 cricket, didn’t live up to the billing. He only took 11 wickets throughout the competition and didn’t look anywhere near his best. That said, when the worlds best doesn’t get to bowl his full quota of overs, the captain has to play some part in that, especially with the pitches favouring spin. The player he replaced from last year Sandeep Lamichane did slightly better than Khan, playing for Jamaica this season.
Hayden Walsh Jr – Bowler 4/10
It was such a disappointment after being last seasons Player of the Tournament having a tough second season. 7 wickets from 23 overs shows the captain lost faith at times in his bowling, which was slightly unfair as we know from last year he often pulls out an important wicket right when you need one. I see no reason not to retain him next year as when all around him were failing he was in similar company. That said Hayden has proved himself to be one of the best fielders around and that was not the case this CPL, but I guess we can put this blip down to lack of match practise.
Raymon Reifer – Bowler who can Bat 4/10
I have always been a fan of Raymon, I have seen him score some big runs and when Shai was not working at the top of the order I would have given Raymon a chance to come in at three to see how he went. Coming in towards the bottom of the order when just trying to get any extra runs on the board for respectability is hard for any player. Bowling wise he was steady and his 8 wickets took him to the third most successful bowler on this years team. Sometimes it makes me wonder how much management know of what players have done in the past.
Nyeem Young Emerging Bowler 4/10
Star of the Under 19’s World Cup Nyeem was given the five games the rules insists he plays, sadly the rules do not insist these players bowl or bat so many times. So five games saw him bowl just 7.3 overs, and the .3 is the over I was most upset about this season. With Patriots needing 13 runs to win off the final over he was sent into bowl. I was horrified, yes a good over and victory could have made him a hero but what happened could have destroyed his confidence for life. As a Football coach I liken it to giving a player who was given a penalty on his debut in the last minute of a cup final, I would have never considered it, I hate that decision so much!
Ashley Nurse All Rounder 4/10
Sadly Ashley is coming to the end of his Tridents long career and perhaps going out with last years bang of winning the title would have been the better choice. A batting average of 15.28 and two wickets it must make more sense to give some of the upcoming youngsters or some of the players who went to other teams like Roston Chase a shot with the side.
Shai Hope Wicket Keeper/Batsman 3/10
Shai missed much of last season with injury and sadly looked well off his game. His average of 14.7s for an opening batsman is just nowhere near good enough and he slipped down the order until finally slipping right off the team sheet. It was compounded by his awfully slow run rate 88.72 totally unacceptable in an opener unless you have taken your side to the end and played an anchor role. Letting Nicholas Pooran go is beginning to look like a major mistake.
Jonathan Carter Batsman/Bowler 3/10
A poor start to last season was saved by his performances in the Play offs and Final, in which he won Man of the Match. He started this year poorly and got worse. Sadly along with Ashley he should have gone out on that high from last year. After failing in his first three he was left out for four games before returning to score 5, missing another game before returning to the final game when we were out of the play offs and scoring 42 not out which salvaged his 5 match average finishing on 15. Those 42 runs were too little to late for the stalwart.
And I finish with our overseas star batsman who came and emulated the feats of previous overseas batsmen who came and made an epic fail! I am talking of Corey Anderson who joins Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan and Hashim Amla on the list of thanks very much but we expected more of you!
Corey Anderson Batsman 2/10
The Left Handed bat came on a cloud of glory, sadly the cloud dispersed and he came crashing to earth in Trinidad. Firstly he gets one point for getting on the aeroplane and coming, you cant’t take that away from him, so onto his performances on the field, some may ask what performances. Coming in at the all important number three position, Corey strode to the crease on 7 occasions, and scored 0, 2, 2, 31, 1, 6 and 11. His second point comes for the 31 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. it is best left there.
The remaining players, Justin Greaves, Shamarh Brooks, Joshua Bishop, Keon Harding and Shayan Jahangir played token roles and it would be unfair to score them as the damage was long done before they got a chance.
So there it is, how to go from Champions to Chumpions in twelve months. Let’s hope things are back to normal next season and whoever gets selected perform as well as many of our former Tridents did elsewhere this time out!
barbadostridents 