REIGNING West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) T20 champions Guyana began fine-tuning their preparations for the 2010 Airtel Champions League which will be played in South Africa next month, as well as their two ‘grudge’ matches against Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) at the Guyana National Stadium this weekend.
When Chronicle Sport visited one of the fastest drying cricket venues in the Caribbean yesterday, former Guyana and West Indies all-rounder Roger Harper, a new addition to the coaching staff, was seen taking the bowlers through their paces.
Fast-medium bowlers Christopher Barnwell, Paul Wintz and Esaun Crandon and later on spinners Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson and Devendra Bishoo were executing some spot bowling under the watchful eyes of Harper.
While Harper had the bowlers at the stadium, coach Rabindranauth Seeram was supervising the batsmen including inspirational skipper Ramnaresh Sarwan at the LBI-based Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence.
Only veteran all-rounder Lennox Cush who recently guided the United States of America to the ICC Division 3 championships in Italy, is missing from the camp.
No one spoke to the media but the looks on the face of the bowlers indicate the camaraderie that was spoken of earlier by both the coach and captain still remains.
Guyana earned the right to represent the West Indies in South Africa where they take on the powerful Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, South Australia and South Africa’s Lions, after they defeated Barbados by one wicket in the WICB final.
But despite this, T&T who represented the Region in the inaugural tournament last year feel they have every right to be there again, despite losing to Guyana in the semifinals, hence the grudge matches this weekend.
Every time they met, Guyana came out on top over the Twin Island Republic, starting from the 2006 Stanford 20/20 tournament where Narsingh Deonarine pulled the penultimate delivery over wide midwicket for six to the recent win in the Regional semifinals.
In-between, Guyana, thanks to some belligerent hitting from former Under-19 opener Rajendra Chandrika who struck 80 odd, achieved another convincing victory in the Haiti Earthquake fundraising match at the Queen’s Park Oval, earlier this year.
Even though Guyana have been the lone team to stop T&T in T20 cricket, the Twin Island Republic would not admit the fact that they are inferior to the team from the Land of Many Waters and it is left to the home team to force them to say ‘No Mas’.
According to another section of the media, legendary calypsonian Dave Martin from ‘Dave Martin and the Tradewinds’ will be performing his hit song ‘Not a Blade of Grass’ before the match on Saturday.
While it will not be a blade of grass to give away this weekend, Guyana will be looking to maintain her dominance over their opponents who for some reason have the strategy to defeat all their opponents except the Guyanese.
To this end, all cricket-lovers who can find the time to throng the venue for these two matches are being asked to do so in support of their team, as T&T may not like it as they believe it is their God-given right to go to South Africa next month and we need to show them that it is Guyana who will be doing so.
Waka, Waka Guyana! South Africa, we are coming.