SEPTEMBER is usually the month when the local cricket fraternity welcomes home a number of members returning from spending a summer competing in the leagues in the United Kingdom.
This year has been no different and in the most recent series of matches, particularly in the Elite and First Divisions, some teams have been bolstered by the inclusion of some of these “professionals”.
CounterPoint Wanderers included two such players for their eighth series clash with long-standing archrivals ESAF Pickwick at the Foursquare Oval in St Philip.
While youthful batting all-rounder Rashon Primus, who represented Wanderers briefly last year, is back for a second season, former UWI fast bowler Kevin McClean has joined up for his first stint with the oldest club in the country.
CGI Maple also welcomed their hard-hitting left handed batsman and left arm spinner Jamar “Butter Beans” Griffith.
Griffith, who teamed up with Atherton Cricket Club for the third consecutive stint in the Bolton League enjoyed a productive season scoring over 950 runs and taking 60 wickets to help the club to the capture of the Pro40’s and second places in the League and Twenty20 competitions.
He registered one century, which was a match-winning innings, along with nine other knocks of fifty or more, seven of which were unbeaten.
While Griffith believes that being the “pro” in the team helps him to be more responsible and to mature as a player he was particularly pleased in his work with fellow Coleridge & Parry alumunus Primus, who enlisted with the club for the first time.
“I think that he [Primus] did a fantastic job and helping to bring him through gave me great satisfaction and was one of my main highlights of the season,” Griffith said.
Griffith has been named among the list of players invited by the senior selectors to prepare for the upcoming regional first-class and 50 over competitions and though his adopted club is expressing an interest in having the sturdily-built all-rounder return for a fourth year, Griffith is hoping to break into the national team.
“The club would like me to come back but at the end of the day I still want to play cricket for Barbados so I would have to see how that works out.”
However, his immediate priority is to help Maple to win both the Elite Division and Sagicor General Super Cup championships.
Primus, on the other hand, enjoyed his first sojourn to the northern climes, an experience which he describes as “very different to playing at home.”
Being the pro among amateur teammates brings plenty responsibility and Primus believes that he has benefited positively.
“The other players are not on the same level and I had to really think about what I was doing because I am expected to win the matches with my performance. It has really helped me to mature and has improved my game. I am hoping to be able to transfer the experience into my performances for Wanderers.”
The 19-year-old former Barbados Under-17 player, who also has ambitions of playing at the highest regional and international levels, amassed 477 runs and took 39 wickets in the League, inclusive of seven 50s and two five-wicket hauls.
