… Guyana wing out today for WICB Regional four-day cricket
GUYANA’S national cricket team left these shores early this morning to start their campaign in this year’s West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Regional four- day tournament and newly appointed national captain Assad Fudadin yesterday told Chronicle Sport his team is ready to compete. “Looking back at the lone practice match we had, I must say that I am happy with the performance of the guys. The batsmen applied themselves and got starts before retiring, and with application being the key in this form of cricket, it was nice to see them doing so, especially the frontline batsmen,” posited Fudadin.
The 25-year-old West Indies ‘A’ team middle-order batsman has been handed the reins of the captaincy in the absence of West Indies middle order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan and discarded opener Travis Dowlin.
Fudadin added, “The bowlers must be commended, since they hit the length required and that is a plus, since they were not putting the ball all over the place, while young Ronsford Beaton (the baby of the team) held a nice line and length while bowling with pace.
“All in all, everybody showed commitment, a sign I would interpret to mean we want to do well going into the four-day format of cricket, especially after playing so much Twenty20 in the past few months and I reiterate, with application and patience being the key, both the batsmen and bowlers displayed same during the two-day match and I would say we are ready to compete.”
Already without the services of Sarwan, his West Indies teammate Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the injured Narsingh Deonarine, Guyana who will be having a new coach in Mark Harper, lost the services of Sewnarine Chattergoon who picked up a shin injury during their preparatory camp.
Prior to the commencement of their preparatory camp for the Caribbean T20 which was won by Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Sarwan called on the players especially the senior ones to understand the role in the team and Fudadin echoed the same call yesterday, while adding they are going to play cricket and not names.
“We are going to play cricket – a game that is played between bat and ball, not names. With that in mind, I would like to see a collective attitude from the players, who need to understand their roles in the team more, with the batsmen giving our bowlers a total to bowl at whenever we take the field.
“Certainly, I will be looking to Esaun Crandon to spearhead our fast bowling department, receiving support from Beaton and West Indies fast bowler Brandon Bess, while spin twins Veerasammy Permaul and Devendra Bishoo will take care of our spin department, with support from Royston Crandon.”
“There will be a game plan, just as we had for the practice game and once we adhered to that at all times, we can be successful in the end.”
Fudadin complimented Harper on what he was able to achieve over the past week, adding that with the experience the former Bermuda national team coach brings to the team, they can do well, but was quick to point out the players are the ones who have to do the job.
“Certainly, Harper has been great so far, when you take into consideration the transition he had to do, which is get us to change from the T20 format which calls for an attacking style of play, to the patient role that is required for the longer version of the game.
“But you may have a great coach and still the result is the same, because the players themselves failed to execute the job effectively, that’s why I say it’s all up to us players to show the results of the work of the coach, even though we had a short preparation period,” added Fudadin.
After taking on Jamaica, Guyana return home to confront the Leeward Islands at either the world renowned Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground or the Albion Community Centre ground in Berbice next Friday.
The full 13-man squad reads: Assad Fudadin (captain), Rajendra Chandrika, Shemroy Barrington, Steven Jacobs, Derwin Christian, Leon Johnson, Esaun Crandon, Vishal Singh, Royston Crandon, Brandon Bess, Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul and Ronsford Beaton.