1973–74 Shell Shield season

The 1973–74 Shell Shield season was the eighth edition of what is now the Regional Four Day Competition, the domestic first-class cricket competition for the countries of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). The tournament was sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell, with matches played from 5 January to 28 February 1974.

1973–74 Shell Shield season

Dates	5 January – 28 February 1974
Administrator(s)	WICB
Cricket format	First-class (four-day)
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin
Champions	Barbados (4th title)
Participants	5
Matches	10
Most runs	Maurice Foster (400)
Most wickets	Inshan Ali (27)
← 1972–73 1974–75 →

Five teams contested the competition – Barbados, the Combined Islands, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados were undefeated, winning two matches and drawing two to claim a fourth title. Jamaican batsman Maurice Foster led the tournament in runs for a third consecutive season, while Trinidadian slow left-arm wrist-spin bowler Inshan Ali was the leading wicket-taker.

Points table

Team	Pld	W	L	LWF	DWF	DLF	Pts
Barbados	4	2	0	0	1	1	32
Trinidad and Tobago	4	2	1	0	0	1	26
Jamaica	4	1	0	1	1	1	24
Guyana	4	1	1	0	1	1	20
Combined Islands	4	0	1	2	1	0	14
Source: CricketArchive

Key

W – Outright win (12 points) L – Outright loss (0 points) LWF – Lost match, but won first innings (4 points)

DWF – Drawn, but won first innings (6 points) DLF – Drawn, but lost first innings (2 points) Pts – Total points

Statistics

Most runs

The top five run-scorers are included in this table, listed by runs scored and then by batting average.^[1]

Player	Team	Runs	Inns	Avg	Highest	100s	50s
Maurice Foster	Jamaica	400	5	100.00	186	2	1
Clive Lloyd	Guyana	385	4	128.33	134	2	2
Lawrence Rowe	Jamaica	342	6	68.40	204	1	1
Alvin Kallicharran	Guyana	325	6	54.16	197	1	0
Len Baichan	Guyana	276	6	46.00	113	1	1

Most wickets

The top five wicket-takers are listed in this table, listed by wickets taken and then by bowling average.^[2]

Player	Team	Overs	Wkts	Ave	5	10	BBI
Inshan Ali	Trinidad and Tobago	158.4	27	16.07	3	1	7/20
Rex Collymore	Guyana	200.4	20	17.05	3	0	5/57
Arthur Barrett	Jamaica	188.4	17	28.41	2	1	6/87
Andy Roberts	Combined Islands	108.1	16	19.37	1	0	5/62
Uton Dowe	Jamaica	114.0	14	23.50	0	0	4/94