GCB/GTM cricket …
PERSISTENT overnight and early morning showers, coupled with inadequate covers, prevented any play on the first day of the opening fixture of the 2010 Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/GTM Under-19 Inter-county three-day tournament between Demerara and Essequibo at the Uitvlugt Community Centre ground yesterday. Both teams and their management team arrived at the venue, with a view of getting in some action during the course of the day, but even though the rain ceased approximately 45 minutes before the luncheon break, the umpires were forced to call off play at 15:00 h.
Manager of the Demerara team, Orin Hutson, in an invited comment, told Chronicle Sport he is now tasked with the responsibility of gearing his charges mind towards playing two days of hard cricket, with first innings points being their first objective.
“The loss of the first day is certainly a setback for us, as with the game being reduced to two days, it is only fitting that we motivate the guys and let them understand what is required of them over the next two days, with a view of gaining first innings points, after which we look at time and take it from there,” stated Hutson.
His opposite number Alvin Johnson, who has been the manager of the national Under-19 team for the past seven years, expressed his concern at the loss of the day’s play, more so with the underperformance of the Essequibo team in mind.
“Obviously, we are concerned with the underperformance of the team over the past few years, wherein we have been dubbed the whipping boys of local cricket and are intent to turning things around hence we worked on the mental side of the game, seeing that we are not playing as much cricket as Demerara and Berbice.
Realistically, even if we cannot win this tournament, we are looking at playing competitive cricket throughout the tournament in both formats of the game and with Berbice being the better team as their cricket would have been on the up, we were looking to have a good first match with Demerara, who are not as strong as Berbice,” said Johnson.
Weather permitting, play will commence at 09:30 h today and tomorrow, to compensate for time lost yesterday. (Calvin Roberts)