McGARRELL, Neil Christopher
D.O.B: July 12, 1972 (Georgetown)
Teams: Demerara, Guyana, West Indies
Neil McGarrell is a tall, sturdy left-arm orthodox spinner and a competent lower-order left-handed batsman who has played four Test matches and 17 One Day Internationals for the West Indies between 1998 and 2001. A regular member of the Georgetown Cricket Club and one of the few senior national players who never played youth cricket at the regional level, he made his first-class debut in 1996 when he represented Guyana against Jamaica at Sabina Park in the four-day Red Stripe Cup tournament.
In the drawn encounter in which Shiv Chanderpaul fashioned his record-breaking undefeated 303, McGarrell found himself with very little to do as he did not get to bat in either innings and was requested to send down only eight overs in the second.
However, he claimed four wickets in his next encounter against the Windward Islands and by the end of his first first-class season he had established himself as a pivotal member of the national team with his steady bowling, steely batting and spectacular fielding.
Consistent performances in both the regional first-class and limited-overs competitions earned him a place in the West Indies One Day International team to face the Englishmen at the Queen’s Park Oval in 1998 in the fifth and final game of the series.
In a match the West Indies won comfortably by 57 runs, McGarrell did not bat as the regional team compiled 302 for five off 50 overs. The visitors responded with 245 all out off 45.5 overs and the debutant was the only bowler who sent down his full quota of ten overs and picked up one for 46.
Yet his major contribution in the contest was as an exceptional fielder in which he took a catch off Carl Hooper to get rid of Mark Ramprakash and also effected three startling run-outs.
He was then selected for the West Indies A team tour to India and Bangladesh in late 1998 and was subsequently picked for the limited-overs contest in South Africa in 1998-99 where he played in four of the seven games which the hosts won by a huge 6-1 margin.
(Digicel: Guyana’s Bigger, Better Network)