DISCARDED West Indies middle-order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan and temperamental opener Trevon Griffith were called up to replace out-of-form openers Sewnarine Chattergoon and Rajendra Chandrika for Guyana’s fourth round Regional Four-Day clash against Jamaica starting on Friday. The 31-year-old Sarwan, who averages 40.01 from his 87 Test matches and 43.41 from 173 one-day internationals with the West Indies, had earlier declared himself unavailable for the tournament, but later made himself available.
Just last week, he was signed by English County Leicestershire for their entire season, even though he has not been a part of the West Indies setup since the home series against India last June, and has not played any cricket since then due to confusion over his fitness.
He was not selected for Guyana’s Ct20 team for various reasons, after opting out of the 2011 Super50 tournament which was hosted by Guyana, saying he was not fully fit to compete and did not wish to impede the progress of the team or hamper a younger player.
Certainly, his inclusion in the squad, even though it is belatedly done, will add depth and experience to the middle order, while at the same time take some of the burden off the shoulders of Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine and Assad Fudadin.
Griffith’s temperamental attitude would be needed at the top and with both Chattergoon and Chandrika who have scored 59 and 54 runs respectively, asked to return home, then one can see Johnson stepping up to the plate as his opening partner, having performed such duties in the first-round win against Leeward Islands.
The Guyana team who have so far won two out of their three matches, to be second on the points standing with 24 points, 12 behind  leaders Jamaica, will be led by West Indies ‘A’ skipper Veerasammy Permaul when they face the Jamaicans in a day/night fixture at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua from Friday.

The final 11 will be chosen from: Veerasammy Permaul, Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin, Trevon Griffith, Narsingh Deonarine, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Royston Crandon, Christopher Barnwell, Derwin Christian, Brandon Bess, Devendra Bishoo, Ronsford Beaton and Chandrapaul Hemraj.