No bat bone

by PHILIP?HACKETTWITH?JUST?DAYS?to shake off the effects of the inept batting display that highlighted Barbados’ opening match of the WICB Regional Four-Day Cricket Competition, team manager Hartley Reid has no magic cure to guarantee an improved performance.
Barbados crashed to defeat by 63 runs with a day and a half to spare against Jamaica on Monday after falling for scores of 165 and 128.
Reid refused to blame the Kensington Oval pitch for the spineless batting.
“I must compliment the ground staff for getting the pitch in good condition after football and sports,” Reid told MIDWEEK SPORT?after the match.
“Some balls did squat after the first day but with the ground staff not having free rein to truly prepare an international pitch I think they did an excellent job,” Reid said.
The batsmen had to take responsibility for the poor batting display, the manager added, and he expressed surprise at the performance, given the level of preparation.
“We just are not batting,” he said. “It is just baffling why our batsmen are not getting runs. They are practising in the nets and looking very serious doing all the drills but when it comes to applying themselves it is not being done. They are too many soft dismissals. We cannot have this in a professional set-up.”  
Reid refused to attribute the poor batting display to a lack of experience, arguing that the line-up was good enough to do the job. He noted that Ashley Nurse, a player who knows what it is like to score a Division One century, had batted at number ten, suggesting a pretty strong batting line-up.
“You have to bring to the players’ attention the fact that they are representing their country,” said Reid.
He said that prior to the next game it will be necessary to get the players in a frame of mind that they can bat long.
“You must be able to bat a day or you cannot compete,” Reid said.
Barbados also lost the opening Regional Super50 match to Jamaica by 75 runs, crashing for 164, replying to their opponents’ total of 239.