GUYANA’S dismal run in West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)-organised Regional four-day competitions over the past three years, continued with a disgraceful performance, when for the third successive year we finished in the cellar position with 16 points in this year’s tournament. What is more disgraceful about this is that both the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and the Windward Islands have chalked up victories over us, with the former doing so three years in a row while the latter has done so twice.
More appalling is the fact that the coach was changed before the season got under way, with former national middle-order batsman Mark Harper taking over from another former national middle-order batsman in Rabindranauth Seeram, who took over from Albert Smith, following his dismal run.
While a turnaround in fortunes was not expected overnight, the fact that Guyana played six of their seven matches (Leeward Islands encounter washed out by rain) and failed to win any, is not different from what Messrs Smith and Seeram endured from 2009 to 2010.
Despite the losses, the 2010 season ended on a positive note, following the inclusion of video analyst Robin Singh for the last three games.
Improvement was evident with a loss, followed by the team’s first win since 2008 and a draw in the final match where Guyana scored over 450 runs, and with skipper Assad Fudadin calling for the return of the analyst after the defeat at the hands of CCC, serious consideration must be taken by the GCB.
At last month’s Georgetown Cricket Association’s (GCA) annual general meeting and election of office-bearers, it was Harper who stood up and publicly lambasted Demerara Cricket Club’s national wicketkeeper/batsman Derwin Christian for his impetuous shot selections.
Such a comment would have raised eyebrows to many who would have said to themselves, ‘the coach means business,’ but sad to say, Harper’s record in his six matches at the end of the tournament reads 6-0-4-1, with the figure one referring to the washed-out game against the Leeward Islands.
While there is an old adage, ‘One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel’, whose place it is to say that Christian’s shot selection has been the downfall for Guyana throughout this year’s tournament, when other players were gifting their wicket away with ludicrous shots also?
A coach is an individual who is hired by an association to work on a player’s physical and mental aspect of the sport, to build team spirit and morale as he/she goes along and not to criticise one player publicly.
If one is to look at the Guyana batsmen’s aggregate after the tournament, more so the frontline batsmen, only opener Rajendra Chandrika who scored 323 runs has scored more runs than Christian who ended with 267.
For example, Chandrika, even though he topped Guyana’s aggregate, gifted his wicket away with a shot that can best be described as ‘slip catching practice’ when he was 10 runs away from his maiden first class ton against T&T, whose players had a laugh at his demise, but there was no comment made about same.
From time immemorial, former West Indies Under-19 skipper Leon Johnson who scored 245 runs, has been gifting his wicket away, playing the sweep shot, doing so against CCC and Barbados when set for a big score, but Harper did not mention same at the GCA forum at the time of highlighting Christian’s shot selection.
According to reports from an anonymous source within the Guyana team, while Harper’s work ethics with the team must be commended in reference to both Smith and Seeram’s, his often defensive attitude left the players as if they are on a knife’s edge, with shouts of ‘No’ to certain positive shots from his batsmen.
One player was overheard saying to another, following the eight-run loss to CCC, “Buddy, I wanted to put away that ball because it was there for the shot, but at the same time, I did not want coachman to row with me, so I defended it.”
Certainly, there must be cause for concern, when a player has to question his or her shot selection for fear of being punished after, especially with the Guyana team where fines were being passed as judgment more than in the law courts of the land at times.
While both Smith and Seeram may have had a laid-back approach to certain things, Harper brought a defensive one that left his players within two minds at times, while team selection on the morning of the match left much to be desired.
While I was not fortunate to witness two of Guyana’s three away matches, against Jamaica and the Windward Islands, both of which we lost, with Jamaica coming from behind to hand the Guyanese their first loss, I witnessed the encounter against CCC.
Poor shot selection and some dubious umpiring decisions contributed to that loss, but when one looks at the final 11 that took the field for an encounter Guyana needed to win and should have won, questions must be asked of the captain and coach.
First of all, Zaheer Mohammed was selected as the first-choice spinner to replace Devendra Bishoo who was called up for duties with the West Indies team in the ongoing ICC World Cup.
And even though Mohammed made the team for the match against CCC ahead of Steven Jacobs who was finally given a chance in the final round match against Trinidad and Tobago, discarded West Indies middle-order batsman Narsingh Deonarine’s part-time off-spin was preferred ahead of Mohammed’s.
Another questionable decision took place in the last round match against T&T, where Ronsford Beaton took a wicket just before one of the intervals on the second day, but was not used to restart the attack when play resumed, even in the absence of Brandon Bess.
And why was Richard Ramdeen given the axe on a flat Providence wicket for the final match after making his debut against CCC, forcing Johnson to open the batting with Chandrika?
Certainly, the Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB) Cricket Development Committee (CDC) needs to launch an investigation into our team’s performance this year, since it was disgraceful to say the least, with the CDC chairman refusing to give a comment.
Unless we do something about our cricket, and quickly too, then all the other teams will turn up to take us on, with the view of collecting full points easily at the end of either the third or midway the fourth day.