NORTH SOUND, Antigua (CMC) – The future of Guyanese cricket has arrived, according to coach Ravindranauth Seeram.

The Guyanese are without world-class batsmen Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, who are out with injuries for the WICB First-class Championship match against Trinidad and Tobago starting today.

Rookies Ravendra Chandrika, a highly-touted 20-year-old, and Vishal Singh, a classy left-hander who turned 21 two days ago, have been included as a result and already, much is being expected of the duo.

Between them, Chanderpaul and Sarwan have played 434 matches making close to 30 000 runs, with 81 centuries. Chandrika, however, is yet to play a first-class match, and Singh has just a single game under his belt when he made 34 and four.

Seeram admitted while the two senior players would be missed the game would be a chance to blood the next generation.

“Chanderpaul and Sarwan are outstanding players and we will miss them from the team. It won’t be easy replacing them,” Seeram pointed out.

“We hope they will be fit and able to play later in the season and on the West Indies One-Day tour of Australia. This is a chance for the younger players to come into the team and learn the game.

“Chanderpaul and Sarwan had to start from somewhere and learn the game. So we hope this will be a good beginning for the new players. It is a really good opportunity for them,” Seeram added.

He was speaking as his players went through a morning net session at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground, in preparation for the first ever first-class match played under lights using a pink ball.

With Chanderpaul and Sarwan out, the main batsmen will be skipper Sewnarine Chattergoon, former captain Travis Dowlin and batting all-rounder Narsingh Deonarine.

The Guyanese will also be looking to two young players to have a positive impact in the bowling department. Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul and leg-spinner Davendra Bishoo have impressive records in their brief careers and are the main attacking options as they seek to find long-term replacements for Mahendra Nagamootoo and Neil McGarrell, who between them took 646 wickets in 186 first-class matches.

“They (Permaul and Bishoo) are two good spinners and they have been doing well for us,” Seeram said.

“The match will be played at night and we expect the ball will do a bit, but will definitely go into the match with these two spinners. They can win a match for us.”