Tony Becca

JAMAICA BEGIN the final match in their hunt for the 2008 Carib Beer Cup this morning and, although depending on what happens in the other matches they may not need it, victory and the maximum 12 points will hand them the Cup.

With a little luck, however, had they won their last match against Barbados in Barbados, Jamaica may have wrapped up the contest for the simple reason that they would have now been on 54 points and that Trinidad and Tobago, on 31 points, would then need to win both their two remaining matches to pip Jamaica by one point if Jamaica failed to get any points against the Windward Islands.

Unfortunately for Jamaica, they did not defeat Barbados.

Blown away

After winning first innings points, after going into the last day on 133 for six and needing 68 runs to win with four wickets in hand, with Brendan Nash and Tamar Lambert batting, with David Bernard Jr and Carlton Baugh Jr, plus Nikita Miller, Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell to come, Jamaica were blown away for 183 and lost by 17 runs.

Looking at the television highlights, the Jamaica batsmen, some of them, most of them, appeared to have lost their nerves. They seemed to have slit their throats through a combination of poor strokes and careless shots and that appeared to have been the reason why they lost six wickets for 50 runs before lunch.

Not so, however, says Chris Gayle.

According to the Jamaica and West Indies captain, Jamaica were beaten by Barbados because of some atrocious and obviously, based on what he said, some biased umpiring.

"If you look at some of the decisions that went against us, it was really terrible for sports and the game what happened, and it was blatant," said Gayle.

'It cannot continue'

According to Gayle, who felt that the problem had reached crisis stage and that the Jamaica team had suffered quite a bit over the years, "it cannot continue happening like this year in, year out".

"Jamaica always seem to have it tough and decisions always seem to go against us," said Gayle. "Basically, once we are playing away from home it always seems to be tough for us."

Gayle may well be right. When it comes to the general standard, there can be no question that umpiring around the West Indies is low. In fact, based on some decisions over the years, there is no doubt that West Indian umpires, generally speaking, are poor.

When it comes to umpires being biased, however, when it comes to saying that the bias is against Jamaica and that it is blatant, that must be going too far. And it is going too far especially coming from a leader - from one who has been clothed with the responsibility of representing Jamaica's cricket in the region, one who is the West Indies captain and from whom much is expected when it comes to uniting the region, and from one who, apart from filling out the captain's report at the end of a match, has the privilege, at any time, to talk to the West Indies board about the standard of umpiring, and any perceived bias by any umpire.

Chris Gayle - File

Over the years, however, losing teams around the world, batsmen who have failed to score runs and bowlers who have failed to get a few wickets are the ones who shout the loudest about biased umpiring, and remembering that there is one 'neutral' umpire and one 'home' umpire in every match in the West Indies, looking at the record of Jamaica at home and away in recent years, it is possible that Jamaica's problem is not so much the umpires and the umpiring, but their inability to bat properly, and especially so away from home.

Over the last three years, for example, since 2005, Jamaica have played 10 matches away from home, and their record reads five losses, two first innings losses, two first innings wins and one no-result.

Disappointing batsmen

Most times, it is their batsmen who have failed to fire who let them down and with his batsmen disappointing once again, maybe that is why Gayle, the captain who, according to everyone, is highly respected by the players, is shouting so loud.

For Jamaica to win the Cup, they will, or probably will have to win their last match starting today at Alpart and, after a record of 12 matches since 2005, after a record seven wins, three first innings wins and only two losses, after three victories from three matches at home this season, Gayle certainly would not like to hear the captains of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands and even of the Combined Campuses and Colleges shouting, or even whispering, that because of the umpiring, because, before today's match, one was a Jamaican and because the other, for whatever reason, loved Jamaica and Jamaicans, "it is difficult, very difficult, to beat Jamaica in Jamaica".

That certainly would not be true - not when it seems that Jamaica's problem, and especially so in recent times, has nothing to do with the umpires, with the standard of umpiring, and according to the Jamaica and West Indies captain, with the integrity of the umpires, but more so with the inability, the failure of Jamaica and particularly so their batsmen, to perform away from home in recent times.

Thank God, today's match will be officiated not by one umpire from Jamaica and one from another territory but for the first time, by two from outside Jamaica - from Trinidad and Tobago.