Johnson calls for use of white sight-screens in pink ball affairs

CWI/PCL Regional 4-Day Tournament…

By Brandon Corlette

Guyana Jaguars have suffered one of their biggest defeats in the modern era of the West Indies Regional 4-Day Championships. After that 236-run defeat against the Barbados Pride, Jaguars captain Leon Johnson is once more calling for the use of white sight-screens in day/night pink ball matches.

“I think sighting at night, especially in the field, it was a bit difficult; we put down a couple in the first evening. The batting in the day was much easier. Obviously, we did not bat much in the night, but I think (that), generally, in the last four-five seasons, generally, it’s been difficult to pick up the ball in the night,” Johnson explained.
“I’ve always asked the board to use the white sight-screens in the game, but they keep using the black. (I make these requests) since the white is being used in Test cricket to give you a better sighting of the ball,” Johnson posited.

The Jaguars have dropped down the points table to third position with 91.8 points, while the Pride are flying high with 134.8 points. Jaguars displayed ordinary batting in conditions made testing by Test seamers.
In the recent match in which the Jaguars were bowled out for 55 and 94, Johnson reflected on their performance with the bat, and described same as woeful.

“(It was) not the best of performance with the bat. We were not able to put up 100 in either of the innings, so it was a woeful showing with the bat. You must give credit to Jason (Holder) and Kemar (Roach) for the way they bowled, especially in the first innings. Having said that, I think our bowlers did a good job bowling out Barbados for 174 and 206. We just let ourselves down with the ball, and in the field, where we put down about four catches in the game,” Johnson explained.
As five-time defending champions, the Jaguars have not converted those 15 half-centuries into centuries. Only two centuries were scored by the Jaguars this season, and those came in one match. Johnson himself scored one while Christopher Barnwell scored the other. Johnson noted that this is a worrying factor.
“We had set our goal to score a century a game. We got couple well of half-centuries this season, and the conversion has not been great,” Johnson added.
Captain Johnson has been leading from the front. In the batting department, he has scored the most runs for the team with 472, which includes one big century of 189 not out and two half-centuries. Barnwell is the next highest runs-scorer with 435 runs, and Vishaul Singh follows in that order with 381 runs.
With the Regional 4-Day season being suspended, Jaguars will have time to ponder on the remaining two rounds. The title for the five-time defending champions seems far from their reach, unless Pride suffer in their final two rounds and Jaguars pull off convincing wins.