Tony Becca

After 17 matches and a whole lot of music, dancing, and shaking, the Stanford 20/20 is down to its semi-final and final stage - it's Barbados versus Trinidad and Tobago on Friday evening, Jamaica versus defending champions Guyana on Saturday evening.

Then on Sunday evening it will be the two winners in the showdown for the title and, most importantly, the one million US dollar first prize.

As far as the cricket is concerned, the general standard has been poor. The ground fielding and the throwing have been good, sometimes even brilliant. The batting, however, but for a few gems like those from John Eugene - formerly of St Lucia and the Windward Islands but now from St Maarten, Jonathan Carter of Barbados, Marlon Samuels of Jamaica and Sylvester Joseph of Antigua and Barbuda, have been disappointing. So, too, is the catching and the bowling - and that in spite of the dominance of the spin bowlers on pitches which, up to now, have generally favoured slow bowlers.

The batting, but for the four listed above, was nothing more than the guys going to bat, swinging their bats and hoping that they hit the ball and that it either sailed through the night sky and dropped beyond the boundary or that it dropped safely inside the boundary.

Almost embarrassing

The catching, despite a few brilliant efforts and probably because of the darkness and the floodlights, was almost embarrassing. And despite the high praise showered on them by one like Pat Symcox - the former South African off-spinner who obviously believes that West Indians cannot play the game, who probably believe that West Indians could never play the game, who is, therefore, surprised at what he has seen and who probably believes he should encourage them, the bowling, but for a few spells from a couple of the spin bowlers and especially so against the weak teams, was nothing to write home about.

That is taking place on pitches that took so much spin that even those who are known for not spinning the ball spun it a mile, the left-handers from way outside the leg-stump to way outside the off-stump.

Although there was much swinging and missing and even though there were so many dropped catches and so many wide deliveries, as a 20/20 contest, as an occasion where the entertainment - the music and the dancing and shaking - is more important than the cricket, with the ball sailing through the night and disappearing over the boundary so many times, with so many run-outs, some of them suicidal to say the least, it has, up to now, been excitement galore.

Like Christmas

To the children, who have been as happy as if they were at a garden party, it has been like Christmas, and to the women who have turned out in numbers, in their colours, and who have really turned the lovely venue into one huge dancehall, it has been an experience.

In fact, in the nights gone by, some of them, dressed in the colours of their country's national flag, continued to enjoy themselves, to shout, to dance and to shake their bodies, even when one of their bowlers had been hit for six, even when their team was in trouble.

The Stanford 20/20 is really an event and hopefully it will continue to be one.

To many, it is not cricket, to others it is not the real thing, to me it will not improve the standard of the West Indies Test team and also to me the real test of a cricketer's skill is still Test cricket.

It is a still a contest between a bat and a ball. However, the sight of a fast bowler running in is still as exciting as it is on the village green or in Test cricket and the sound of the bat hitting the ball is still as sweet, the sight of the ball flashing to the boundary or sailing over it still as exciting as they are in a curried goat match or in Test cricket.

The big four

With the big four in action during the last three days, with batsmen like Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds and Brenton Parchment of Ja-maica, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Sewnarine Chattergoon and Travis Dowlin of Guyana, Ryan Hinds, Dwayne Smith and, of course, Carter of Barbados, and then Daren Ganga, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard of Trinidad and Tobago in action, the batting, especially, should be better than it has been so far.

Hopefully, however, there will be as many attempts at hitting sixes, there will less misses and there will be more balls sailing through the night and into the crowd or over the stands.

Apart from the standard of batting, catching, bowling and also running between the wickets, there is one other thing that has been disappointing to date.

In a few matches the top batsman, the big bat on the team, is sent to bat at number five and in any language, that simply does not make sense.

In the Barbados/Grenada match, for example, the hard-hitting Dwayne Smith batted at number five and was sitting in the pavilion while Barbados limped to 119 for three off 17.4 overs and in the match between Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, the latter chasing 147 for victory, sent Sylvester Joseph, their best batsman by far, to bat at number five. He got there at 25 for three off 5.5 overs, he scored 63 not out and his team, finishing on 136 for nine, ended 10 runs short of victory.

Apart from Jamaica's folly in playing only three specialist bowlers and seven specialist batsmen plus a wicketkeeper/ batsman in a 20/20 match in which a team needs at least five bowlers, it was even worse in the match between Jamaica and Nevis when Nevis, batting first, sent in Runako Morton, their star batsman, their best batsman, at number five with 9.1 overs gone and only 10.5 to come.

It was no wonder that he ran down the wicket like a mad man, was stumped for one at 65 for four six deliveries later and that his team scored only 121 for eight.