By Tony Becca - From The Boundary 
Becca
THE Jamaica Double Wicket Championship which ended at Kaiser Sports Club in Discovery Bay on Sunday was a tremendous success and hats off to the Jamaica Cricket Association, the chairman of its marketing committee, Paul Campbell, and all the sponsors.
In comparison to the number of spectators who attend international matches at Kaiser, the crowd was disappointingly small. In every other aspect, however, it was wonderful.
It was well organised, the players, all of them - including past masters Courtney Walsh and Jeffrey Dujon, the visitors from Antigua and Barbados - fully enjoyed themselves, and hopefully, and as planned, the association will find it possible to really make it an annual event.
It is good for cricket - for the spreading of the gospel, the fans who were present enjoyed it, over time it is certain to get bigger and better, and with Kaiser designated as its home, it is a safe bet that in time cricket fans will converge on Discovery Bay on Heroes weekend to hear the sweet sound of bat hitting ball and to see the ball sailing over the boundary as it did so often on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Although coaches do not encourage batsmen to hit sixes, there is nothing as exciting as when the ball takes off, soars high in the air and lands beyond the boundary.
A double wicket contest encourages that kind of stuff.
Led by Brenton Parchment who smashed 10 of them, and Barbados' Floyd Reifer who hit one that took off like a rocket and was still climbing when it crossed the boundary, there were sixes galore. In fact, with 22 on the first day, six on the second and 24 on the third, there were 52 in all with some sailing over long-on and long-off, clearing the club house and landing in the car park, some going over mid-wicket, clearing the road on the eastern section of the ground and landing in another car park, and some, again going over mid-wicket, dropping on the hillside on the western section and sending the fans running for cover.
As enjoyable as it was, there was one flaw, and hopefully it will be addressed in time for next year's renewal.
After the preliminary round, the organisers, probably in an attempt to offer the fans more thrills, changed the rules.
The rule during the preliminary round was that an innings ended either when both batsmen were out or when the overs were completed. The rule for the semi-finals and final was that an innings must last all six overs regardless of how many times the batsmen were out and there was a penalty of five runs each time a batsman was dismissed.
With all the good attentions that was a bad decision.
By allowing the batsmen the luxury of batting again and again, it encouraged careless strokes by batsmen who threw caution to the wind in their hunt for sixes, because of that, there was not the level of skill in the semi-final and the final as there was in the preliminary round, and because of that, as far as a contest was concerned, the championship ended in a bit of an anti-climax.
It was more like a lottery.
The error was underlined by the fact that in the semi-final between the Antiguan pair and Jamaica Black, Brian Murphy, who attempted a number of big hits, was out six times, in the semi-final between Jamaica Gold and the Barbadian pair, Philo Wallace was bowled first ball and went on to hit two sixes while scoring 27, and in the final between champions Sylvester Joseph and Wilden Cornwall of Antigua and Wallace and Reifer of Barbados, Joseph was out twice, Cornwall once, and at one stage the score was nine for three.
In a double wicket contest the innings should close either when both batsman are out - one time each, or when the overs allotted are completed.
