ONCE again, our young crop of cricketers were prevented from showcasing their talent due to a bad outfield.
What is disheartening is that it occurred in a national competition, one that is being used as a yardstick to select a team to represent Guyana in a Regional tournament that is scheduled to commence next weekend.
Approximately three weeks ago, play in the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB)-organised NALICO/NAFICO-sponsored Under-15 Inter-association match between former champions Georgetown and East Bank was called off at the Providence ground (not the national stadium), due to a bad outfield and unfit sanitary conditions.
Yesterday, defending champions Demerara were set to face their nemesis Berbice in a fifth round clash of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)-organised Castrol-sponsored Under-15 Inter-county limited overs competition at the Enterprise Busta Sports Club (EBSC) ground.
But a bad outfield left the umpires, Nandkumar Shivsankar and Prittipaul George, no choice but to deem the match an abandoned one without a ball being bowled.
Questions such as: where are we going and where is our cricket heading, along with is there a ground inspection committee in place by the GCB and if so, are they functioning, would be surfacing in the minds of cricket lovers, even as Guyana’s cricket was struck another low blow, way below the belt.
First to begin with, the GCB requested and got an extension from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to submit the list of players who will be representing us in the upcoming regional Under-15 tournament, after they would have missed the original date, which was last Friday.
It left our junior selection panel, led by Michael Franco-Hyles, no choice but to hastily shortlist a squad and place same in camp, but how can they do such, when grounds that have been assigned to host matches are not conducive enough to do so.
Recently, the Region Six administration, in collaboration with GUYSUCO, ordered the prevention of any other activity that is not cricket-related from being held on their grounds. That, in itself, is a boost to cricket in the Ancient County.
Yet, some ardent fans who are ignorant of certain facts that take place with regard to cricket in Berbice, argue that Berbice should not be deemed the best-run County when it comes to cricket here in Guyana.
If one can take a closer look at the DCB and the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB), one would see nothing but loopholes as with the former, there is an internal squabble, while the latter’s cricket is in more disarray than a puzzle.
Instead of a power struggle within the top brass of the GCB in the absence of the president, those who say they have Guyana’s cricket at heart, should sit and study about the sponsors and the huge sums they are pumping into tournaments, with little or no returns.
Ask yourself this: How would you feel to know you are pumping huge sums of money into a tournament and after being given a fixture for the tournament, you turn up to witness a game and there is none?
What can the authorities in charge say to you about this?
Our officials need to get up off their laurels, stop the in-house squabbling and fighting for something some of them cannot handle effectively, and put our cricket first, for one day we will wake up, see grounds and players but no matches.
Why, because those in authority have killed our cricket.
Nevertheless, Demerara face Berbice in their final round match at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground today from 09:30 h under the guidance of Andrew Allen and Mahendra Singh and certainly, that game will be played, with the winner being guaranteed the title, as both counties registered double victories over Essequibo.