JUST over a year ago, I wrote an article headlined ‘Help needed for Essequibo’s cricket,’ following the County’s miserable showing in their Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) four team competition fixture against Berbice. Just last week, Essequibo faced Demerara in their first round matchup of the 2010 version of the said tournament and what the players on both sides had to be contented with prior to the commencement of the match, would make past players (both dead and alive) turn up their noses.
The sight they met was not conducive for cricket under no circumstances, as the ground was heavily strewn with broken bottles in numerous places, nails as long as four inches in some instances and Essequibo’s inability to field a full strength team to face such a sturdy opposition.
The end result, Essequibo succumbing by an innings and 38 runs inside two days, with only Norman Fredericks’ 39 being a score of substance as the ‘prodigal son’ of Essequibo’s cricket Trevon Garraway and leg spinner Amir Khan ripped through the brittle batting line up.
How could a county team turn up to play an official GCB tournament and post totals equivalent and at times below that of what Under-16 school teams are churning out in the  GCB/ Ministry of Education Inter-schools tournament?
Added to that, where is the priority in naming a squad, when a manager and coach are being tasked to do same on the morning of a match which meant that players had to be notified of their selection on the said morning, and in some instances go back home to get their gear?
Such questions and many more which are too numerous to mention is a certain indication of the gentleman’s game dying slowly in the Cinderella County here in Guyana.
According to president of the Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) Asif Ahmad who is also Treasurer of the GCB, his team’s preparations for the present tournament was hampered by the GCB not approving the Cinderella County’s budget for the running off of the three day tournament.
When Ahmad took over the reins of the gentleman’s sport in the county early last year from long serving Alvin Johnson, he charged his fellow executive members, clubs and players alike to work assiduously  towards the resurrection of the gentleman’s game in the Cinderella county.
When asked to comment on the present state of Essequibo’s cricket, Ahmad said that while it was disappointing, he chose to lay blame on the GCB for their non-approval of his County’s budget to commence the three day tournament.
“We have asked them on several occasions to give us some sponsorship so we can start our three day tournament, but they have refused to give us the go ahead, while on the other hand, our man responsible for going out there and get the sponsorship has not being doing so,” said Ahmad.
While shifting the blame on the governing body can be seen as an excuse no teacher would accept from his or her student, what Ahmad needs to realize is that the buck stops at him when it comes to cricket in Essequibo, irrespective of the geographical make up of the county, as he is the president, the man tasked with taking the game to another level.
School teams are turning up for matches as a unit, but a county team can be seen oozing in one by one or two by two as if they are entering Noah’s Ark in preparation for a flood, because of late notice.
Gone are the days when you heard persons lamenting ‘not enough cricket is being played’, ‘the Diaspora of Essequibo’s cricket is far and wide’, and there should be no other unacceptable excuses, since Ahmad like Johnson before him, has been getting the sponsors to stay on board with the Cinderella county executives.
But apart from the Guyana Beverage Company’s annual Busta tournament, no other form of cricket has been played, while the selection committee selected a squad of players for an encampment period prior to the first match, but for various reasons, few turned up.
At times the administrators are being blamed for a lackadaisical approach, then such blame is being shifted to the players, who having plied their trade around Guyana, the Caribbean and at times as far as England and Canada, know what needs to be done, but yet still fail to produce.
In 2008, president of the GCB Chetram Singh and his competitions committee members experimented with a four team competition last year, identifying the teams by using the names of our yesteryear heroes, which meant that there was no Inter-county tournament, hence Essequibo’s participation as a unit was not needed.
Singh and his executives should revisit their 2008 experiment, leaving the Cinderella County to iron out its mediocrities surrounding their cricket before re-admittance to the Inter-county competition at the senior level is done, as over the past year, it appears as though nothing has been done to improve the level of performance by the team.
To this effect, instead of getting the sponsors to pump money into a Twenty20 or limited overs tournament, they should be accruing sponsorship for the longer version of the game, which is in dire need of rectification, based on the team’s performance in the present competition.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Essequibo’s cricket is in dire need of a revival based on the present state it is in at the moment, hence a word of advice to the administrators.
Consult the best run club in Guyana, Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTYSC) for advice on cricket administration as soon as possible, or there will be catastrophe, wherein some of their best players will be left on the sidelines of national duties in the not too distant future.
Added to that, have a few coaches from out of the County (through a subvention with the GCB’s Cricket Development Committee (CDC), visit the area and work either along with or by themselves with the players.
There is no doubt about it that the County have players who have potentials, such as the Fredericks siblings (Norwayne and Royan), Dillon and Jason Heyliger, Anthony and Ricardo Adams and Ronsford Beaton, who is badly in need of guidance.
Maybe the services of Gavin Nedd, who is not attached to any of the teams in the present four team competition, can help, with the aid of a sponsor to offset part of his expenses in collaboration with the GCB through its CDC.
While you cannot expect Nedd to turn water into wine, what is 100% sure is that he can get a much better performance out of the players and while having him coach the team in its entirety would go as a slap in the face of the numerous coaches attached to the ECB, he can work along with the selected coach of the team, after all cricket must be the winner at the end of the day.
So I call on those who have the authority to get up and put systems in place with regards to cricket in Essequibo, as they are a part of Guyana, if not, lets pronounce cricket in the Cinderella County dead and have the last rites performed before it is decayed.