… Shawn Pereira tipped to be appointed Berbice skipper
THE junior selection panel of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), led by chairman Michael Franco-Hyles, has released the national Under-15 team which will represent the country in the upcoming West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Under-15 tournament in Trinidad and Tobago from March 27 to April 5. According to reliable reports reaching Chronicle Sport, Berbice successful Under-15 skipper Shawn Pereira has been tipped to lead the team, with Essequibo skipper and 2009 national vice-captain Ricardo Adams performing the role of his deputy.
Also included in the squad is left-handed back-of-the-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, who earlier this year was offered a chance to ply his trade in Barbados at the Alexandra Secondary School, by the principal and manager of the Barbados national team Jeff Broomes.
Pugnacious opener and skipper of Demerara Brian Sattaur who got starts and failed to build on them, is also included along with his Demerara teammates in wicketkeeper/batsman Prince Roberts, off-spinning all-rounder Kamesh Yadram, fast bowler Dexter George and spin twins Devon Lord and Vishal Narayan.
Essequibo fast bowler Hassan Mohammed, who was responsible for sending back Sattaur in both games, along with Berbice’s Quacy McPherson, Romario De Jonge, Shalendra Shameer and Parmanand Narine, complete the Adrian Amsterdam-coached, Brian Stephney-managed 14-man squad.
What was of great concern to Franco-Hyles and his compatriots was the batting of the players on show, with the chairman pointing this out to members of the Demerara and Essequibo team, after the former completed an 114-run victory in their second round encounter.
The GCB-organised Castrol-sponsored Under-15 tournament was sponsored to the tune of $1.6M, with the sponsors saying they see it as a way of giving back to the community, yet the mediocre performance of our local cricketers continued as from the five matches that were played, only two half-centuries were scored.
Adam’s pugnacious 95 against Berbice in the third round and Yadram’s unbeaten 64 scored against Essequibo in the opening match of the tournament were the two, with Adams narrowly missing out recording back-to-back half-centuries against Berbice, when he ended with an unbeaten 48.
While the batting temperament of Tagenarine Chanderpaul, the son of West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, augurs well for the future, his inability to increase the tempo late in his team’s innings must have been a factor used against him which relegated him to the standby crew.
He displayed to Franco-Hyles and company, his ability to bat through an innings, when he took 49.3 overs to accumulate 49 runs before he was run-out and that speaks volumes for him in the longer version of the game in the future.
Demerara’s Terrence Alstrom and Andrew Gibson along with Berbice’s Shimron Hetmyer, Sharaz Ramsarran and Essequibo’s Herry Greene can consider themselves unlucky not to have gained the selectors’ nod.
But with the talent they possessed and the runs garnered for their respective teams should have been more than they got, as no team passed the 200 mar and what was disheartening was that Berbice made 123 in the final round match and defended it well.
While such a performance speaks volumes of the bowling department, with the spinners doing a fantastic job after the fast bowlers removed the openers, the batting needs to be given special attention from Amsterdam and his support staff.
The Guyanese will depart these shores next Friday for T&T and the 14-man squad reads:
Shawn Pereira, Ricardo Adams, Quacy McPherson, Romario de Jonge, Parmanand Narine, Prince Roberts, Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, Devon Lord, Vishal Narayan, Shalendra Shameer, Dexter George, Hassan Mohammed, Brian Sattaur, Kamesh Yadram, Adrian Amsterdam (coach) and Elroy Stephney (manager).
The six standbys are: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Shimron Hetmyer, Herry Greene, Nazarudeen Bux, Raj Parbattie and Ryan Chichester.