… will provide more opportunities, says Crandon

THE first-ever Jaguars Franchise League Three-day competition bowls off today with four games playing simultaneously countrywide. The League which replaced the traditional Inter-county competition is comprised of eight franchises – four from Demerara, three from Berbice and one from Essequibo.
For the first-round fixtures, Nigg/Corentyne will face off with West Berbice at the Young Warriors Cricket Club, Albion/New Amsterdam clash with Essequibo at the Tuschen Community Centre ground,
Upper/Demerara /East Bank Demerara oppose Georgetown at Everest Cricket Club and East Coast Demerara challenge West Demerara at Enterprise Community Centre.
Among the players set to be on show are Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin, Rajendra Chandrika, Veerasammy Permaul, Devendra Bishoo and Christopher Barnwell, all with international experience, while West Indies Under-19 players Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul and Tevin Imlach will be turning out for West Berbice, Essequuibo and East Bank respectively.
Meanwhile, in an invited comment, head coach of the senior team, Esaun Crandon is of the view that while the League will be of tremendous benefit to the game locally, it also provides opportunities where more players will be exposed to a professional set-up.
The 34-year-old added, “Definitely I see that as a positive to Guyana cricket going forward. We will be able to produce more players and those guys who are not in training with the contracted players will know what it takes to be in the professional set-up, so it is something good going forward.”
Crandon, who has taken 90 wickets from 38 First-Class matches from 2000 to 2011, pointed out that the League will also create competitiveness among the players.
Apart from the Three-day competition, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) also has in the pipeline a Jaguars 50-over League and the Jaguars Premier League T20 tournament.
The Leagues will be streamlined to feed into the WICB’s Professional Cricket League Four-day competition and the Regional Super50, as well as the Caribbean Premier League T20.