Even as they bask in the glory of becoming the first team to win all three titles in the Barbados Cricket Association’s top tier, Sagicor UWI are already looking ahead to more success.
A comprehensive seven-wicket victory over ICBL Empire in the final of the Sagicor General Twenty20 competition at Kensington Oval on Sunday night gave them their first hold on the elusive Twenty20 championship and a clean sweep of the three titles.
It was the fifth staging of the Twenty20 competition and UWI’s best performance previously was second place to Empire two years ago.
On this occasion they triumphed, led by an unbeaten half-century from left-handed stroke-maker Jonathan Carter and a well paced unbeaten 43 from right-handed Guyanese middle order batsman Steve Jacobs.
Empire made 147-6 in their 20 overs and UWI impressively reached the victory target, scoring 148-3 in 18.5 overs.
“I want to say congratulations to Jonathan and Steven for bringing home the game. That was a very clinical finish,” said UWI captain Kyle Corbin.
“Thanks to the fellas for having the opportunity to play with them and to win three consecutive competitions. It was a real honour to captain these guys,”
He also expressed his gratitude to the supporters and all who made it possible for the team to achieve such a remarkable feat.
“We have a good support staff and a good management staff. They did a really good job for us for this season and I just want to say thanks to them,” Corbin said.
“For the team it is a really good feeling because we set out to win all three competitions. We did that.”
But the triumph has only made UWI keener for success and they will be striving to become even better as they move forward.
“It’s just to build from what we have already started. We have a very good programme going and it is just to maintain the standards we have kept as a unit because there are a lot of things behind the scenes that go on that people don’t see.
“Once we maintain our standards and keep wanting to play cricket professionally the programme itself will go from strength to strength,” Corbin said.
He is also optimistic about the overall development of cricketers in Barbados and expressed confidence that there is no shortage of talent.
“I think when you look around in every team you can see a lot of talent. I think it is just structure that is needed and a bit more discipline. You can see three or four very decent players in every club,” he said.
Empire captain Jamal Smith felt his side failed to maximise the batting conditions and did not put enough runs on the board. He said that despite taking early wickets runs were still being scored quickly as had happened in earlier matches.
“I reckoned we stuttered a bit between overs 13 and 17. We didn’t take off as we would have liked. I felt we were about 30 runs too short on a very good pitch,” he said. “Again we didn’t create enough pressure in the field or with the ball.”
