In recent years, Jamaica's cricket, with 10 or 11 Test players usually in the national squad, has appeared exceptionally blessed - to the extent that, to local fans, Jamaica have always started as favourites to win regional competitions.

As happened this year when, after winning the regional four-day tournament, they went into regional limited-over tournament with 11 West Indies Test and one-day internationals in their squad, lost to Trinidad and Tobago, and were subsequently eliminated from the limited-over tournament, Jamaica have oftentimes disappointed their fans.

This time, they will undoubtedly blame the rain that destroyed their other two first-round matches, but the fact is that had Jamaica won the match against Trinidad and Tobago, they would have made it to the second round - rain or no rain.

As far as the Jamaica fans were concerned, therefore, the real disappointment, even with the absence of Christopher Gayle, was that Jamaica, who left batsman Tamar Lambert at home, were reeling at 111 for nine off the reduced 44 overs and lost by as many as 57 runs.

too much weight

Tamar Lamber - File

According to the chief selector, Lambert was not selected, not because he was not good enough, not because of any disciplinary reasons, and not because he had put on too much weight.

According to the selector, Lambert was not selected because he was as fat as he has ever been - at least as fat as he has been from the days when I saw him stroking the ball for Jonathan Grant as a schoolboy, and up to the start of the season when I saw him leading Jamaica to victory.

The question, however, is this: why is it that Jamaica, loaded with West Indies batsmen and with West Indies bowlers, have failed to perform, not only this time against Trinidad and Tobago but also so often, and this time disappointingly so?

It simply might be just one of those things that happen in cricket. To me, however, it has happened so often that it must be more than that, and with Gayle in the team when it has happened in the past, this time it had nothing to do with the absence of Gayle as a batsman.

Once again, the reasons are many, and until they are addressed, and addressed fully at that, nothing will change - at least not enough to make a difference.

As it is around the region, many of the people administering the game are incompetent and most if not all of them are weak; as it is around the region, the clubs are dying; and certainly here in Jamaica, the club competitions are getting worse and worse each year.

No one knows when the competitions will be played.

This year, for example, there was no club cricket for most of June, all of July and August, and with a league of seven matches per team, with a limited-over competition played on a straight knockout format, the number of matches in the club competitions are getting less and less with the league a mere 50 per cent of what it was up to 20 or so years ago.

On top of that, and with so many months in which nothing happened, this year's shortened limited-over competition started just before and finished after the regional limited-over tournament.

And the above are only part of the problem.

The problem also includes the attitude of the players - many of whom, after representing Jamaica and more so the West Indies, train and practise less and are easily satisfied.

The problem also includes the attitude of the administrators, the coaches, and the selectors, most of whom, despite what they say from time to time, allow the players to do what ever they want to do and to get away with it.

There are also administrators who protect or try to protect their own club players and who try to "push" their players.

poor selections

Then there are also poor selections - the type of selections which put more emphasis on age, on tomorrow, on who looks good, on who "has it" to go on to play for the West Indies, and not on who are the best players in Jamaica - those who have produced, those who have both the skill and the grit to perform, and especially so under pressure.

So often the selectors, some of them, pay little or no attention not only to something like consistency, to performance over an extended period of time, in all conditions, and under all circumstance but also to things like dedication and commitment to the game - to the things which will make a young cricketer do what needs to be done, to sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed in order to improve his skills.

The problem also includes those who appoint as selectors people who, based on their inability to judge, to properly assess performance, to spot talent, and to simply select the best players, have no right being selectors.

The problem also includes a board which ignored normal and common practice and refused to subtract points from a team for breaking the rules by using an ineligible player for all but the last match of season - the same board which, but for the suspension of two players for a few days, did nothing, neither to the clubs nor to the players, when four clubs, in two matches, brought the game into disrepute following the board's decision.

One match, the one between St Catherine CC and Melbourne at Chedwin Park, finished a few minutes after tea on the first day; the other match, between Hanover and Manchester at Jarrett Park, finished early on the second morning just before the rain again came tumbling down.

penalised players

Apart from the suspension of Nikita Miller by Melbourne for refusing to follow instructions and not batting during the fiasco, apart from the fact that only St Catherine CC and Melbourne were called before the board, the only players who were penalised for their behaviour were Lambert and Bevan Brown, both of St Catherine CC.

It is strange that in a sport of gentlemen only two players from one team paid a price for their indiscretion in the matches which, apart from the decision of the board, determined the winners of the cup.

It is also strange, not only that the two players, much to the anger of the board, were selected by the selectors to play in the trial matches while they were on suspension, but also that the board appointed Gayle as captain and David Bernard Jr as vice-captain of the national team for the regional limited-over tournament, and that with Gayle ill for the first match, with Bernard in the team, the team management bypassed Bernard and used Carlton Baugh Jr as the captain.

When one remembers that some of Jamaica's West Indies players simply do not play for their clubs when they are at home, and that St Catherine CC turned up at the start of the semi-final match against Melbourne in the limited-over tournament two weeks ago with only seven players, that three of the four players absent were fast bowlers Jermaine Lawson and Andre Russell and captain Lambert, and that they had to bat when they had planned to send Melbourne to bat, something is seriously wrong with cricket and cricketers in Jamaica.