Powell is def. going, that is why Xavier and Dawes got kicked off the Jam. team for the upcoming game in B'Dos. The WI selectors insisted that since he and Nash not in the 20/20 side, they need to keep playing, so Jam complied.
The thinking is that Powell is fitter than most and that if he learns to become more patient, the English early Summer conditions will suit him.
I dont understand one thing. How comes Jam is the runaway regional leaders and Tonge from the Leewards ripped them apart and no one mentions him for serious considerations?
I attach 2 articles below:
===========================
Marshall out; Powell, Nash in Ja squad
HG Helps, Editor-at-Large
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Troubled Jamaica and West Indies cricketer, Xavier Marshall, has been dropped at last minute from Jamaica's touring squad to meet Barbados in the ninth round of the West Indies Cricket Board's four-day championship in Barbados, starting Friday in Bridgetown.
The squad left Jamaica yesterday.
Marshall, whose highest score for Jamaica this season was a second-innings 61 against the Leeward Islands in a losing cause at Sabina Park last week, has been having an unproductive season. He received the chop from the West Indies team after the first Test success at Sabina Park at the start of February, and had a run of mediocre scores, including his last match against Trinidad & Tobago when he scored eight in the first and four in the second innings of the match that the home team won.
Marshall... has been having an unproductive season
"Marshall seems not be to focused on the job of playing for Jamaica," a highly placed official close to the team told the Observer yesterday.
"I believe that the drop from the West Indies team has dented his confidence. His head is not in the game," the official said.
Marshall, who brings up his 23rd birthday on March 27, has a batting average of 20.25 in seven Test outings.
Jamaica lead the championship with 72 points, followed by the Windward Islands on 60, Barbados, 54; Trinidad & Tobago 45; Leeward Islands, 43; Guyana, 20; and Combined Campuses and Colleges, 18.
Also axed from the 13-member squad is young pacer Jason Dawes, who played his first match of the season against Trinidad & Tobago at Alpart.
West Indies batsman Brendan Nash and fast bowler Daren Powell, who were not included in the West Indies 20/20 squad for a match against England on Sunday, will join their teammates in Barbados.
"Nash and Powell will travel from Trinidad & Tobago when the Test match ends and join the other members of the team in Barbados," Jamaica's selection committee chairman Nehemiah Perry told the Observer yesterday.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) told the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) on Monday that it wanted Powell and Nash, who would not be playing 20/20 cricket, to continue playing the game and keep in shape, thereby forcing the hands of the local selectors into making the changes, as Marshall and Dawes were originally booked to travel, despite Marshall's poor form.
Dawes was actually ironing his clothes Monday night for the mid-day departure the next day when he was told that there was no need for him to pack his bags.
========================
Tonge rips Jamaica apart
HG Helps, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
It had to take something special from one of the frontline Jamaica batsmen to pull off an amazing home win. In the end, pacer Gavin Tonge had the last say, as he ripped through the defending champions to secure a 28-run triumph for the Leeward Islands at Sabina Park yesterday.
Tonge, aged 26, bowled with steam, but more importantly with conviction, as the Leewards pulled off victory 11 minutes after lunch on the fourth and final day of the seventh-round WICB IRegional Four-day cricket match.
Members of the Leeward Islands cricket team are jubilant after their 28-run win over defending champions Jamaica at Sabina Park yesterday in their seventh-round match of the WICB Regional Four-day tournament. (Photo: Michael Gordon)
The Antiguan, who up to a year ago had regional selectors adjusting their spectacles in anticipation of a possible West Indies call-up, blew out the Jamaica resistance with a personal best seven for 58 from 20 overs of control and commitment.
Jamaica, who started the day on 98 for four, needing 206 for a come from behind win, were bowled out for 175, allowing the visitors to avenge their first round loss in St Kitts in January.
Overall scores: Leeward Islands 221 and 202, Jamaica 220 and 175.
It was the first time in four years of leading Jamaica on and off that captain Tamar Lambert was losing a regional first class match.
"I know that it had to end one day, so this is one less pressure off me," Lambert told the Observer afterwards.
"We didn't put up a lot of fight, so it is important for us to bounce back. We are still leading the competition so that is a positive sign. This (loss) will dent our spirits, but we will bounce back," a confident Lambert said.
By contrast, Leewards' manager Hugh Gore was appreciative.
"It was a very uplifting win. The team played well, considering we had to leave behind two of our better players. It was a wonderful effort," said Gore, a former Leeward Islands, Combined Islands and Somerset left-arm medium pacer.
The man who could have made a big difference between a Jamaica victory and defeat was West Indies player Xavier Marshall. But his departure in the morning's second over from man of the match Wilden Cornwall was the first mark of the proverbial writing on the wall for the home team.
Marshall, 60 overnight, was trapped leg before wicket on the move having added one, and the first of six trademark Leewards celebrations was underway.
Only six runs had been added at that stage and there was a further blow one run later when wicketkeeper/batsman Keith Hibbert, who had a rare bad match this season, fell second ball for his second zero of the contest, edging to wicketkeeper Devon Thomas driving at a wide ball from Tonge.
Bernard (44) had a good game for Jamaica, but the team had hoped that he would have saved something extra for the moment, only for Tonge to force him into a drive to cover where Justin Athanaze accepted the catch at 134 for seven.
Odean Brown and Nikita Miller had made useful scores in the past, but it was not Brown's day. He is the competition's leading wicket-taker with 38 victims, but that could not inspire him to crawl off the mark with the bat as he fell to a catch at slip by first-time captain Steve Liburd off Tonge at 134 for eight.
There was high drama at Jamaica's foremost cricket ground when the Leewards team appealed vociferously, like they had never done before, for a catch at the wicket by Thomas off Tonge, only for Trinidad & Tobago umpire Peter Nero to tell them a flat not out. The Leewards could have hired a bus and drive to Port Royal and back in the time that they took to bowl the next ball, obviously dissatisfied with the decision.
But Tonge was like a fire-spitting dragon, as he had Miller caught by Athanaze for nine and everything looked signed, sealed and delivered at 137 for nine.
A courageous last wicket partnership between Gavin Wallace and Andrew Richardson that yielded 38 runs again gave Jamaica some hope, but Athanaze capped a good day in the field, aided by a catch by Tonge that dispatched Richardson for 11, leaving Wallace on 25 and a Jamaica dressing room in disarray.
At Providence, Guyana, Captain Rawl Lewis and Nelon Pascal linked up to wreck Guyana's batting as visiting Windward Islands marched to a massive 151-run victory in their eighth-round match.
At Pointe-A-Pierre, Trinidad, the hosts drew with Barbados on the final day of their game.
Scoreboard
Leeward Islands (221 & 202)
Jamaica (first innings) 220
Jamaica (second innings)
Overnight 98 for four
X Marshall lbw Cornwall 61
D Bernard c Athanaze b Tonge 44
K Hibbert c Thomas b Tongo 0
O Brown c Liburd b Tonge 0
N Miller c Athanaze b Tonge 9
G Wallace not out 25
A Richardson c Tonge b Athanaze 11
Extras (b1, nb6) 7
TOTAL: (all out) 175
Overs: 61.4
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-21, 3-41, 4-53, 5-104, 6-105, 7-134, 8-137, 9-137
Bowling: Tonge 20-5-58-7, Cornwall 8-2-32-1, T Willett 15-5-29-0, Banks 11-2-27-1, Athanaze 6.4-1-23-1, Liburd 1-0-5-0
Toss: Jamaica
Result: Leeward Islands won by 28 runs
Man of the Match: Wilden Cornwall (Leeward Islands)
Umpires: Leebert Thompson (Jamaica), Peter Nero (Trinidad & Tobago)
