.jpg)
FOLLOWING Guyana’s inept batting display in their first three matches, the Rayon Griffith-chaired Senior Selection panel of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) has made five changes to the 13-man squad which will take on Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) in the fourth round at the Queen’s Park Oval from today. Skipper Veerasammy Permaul, dependable West Indies middle-order batsman and 2012 Sportsman-of-the-Year Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Christopher Barnwell have all returned to the squad which is currently competing in the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Regional 4-Day tournament.
This means Rajendra Chandrika, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Zaheer Mohammed-Shadir, Amir Khan and Rajiv Ivan were all sent home after the team’s humiliating defeat inside three days at the hands of points leader Windward Islands.
Unfortunately for Mohammed-Shadir and Khan, their replacement comes at a time when other players in the lineup are failing – especially in the middle order that is brittle – and have exposed the lower order early on more that one occasion.
Mohammed-Shadir replaced Permaul during the Barbados encounter (which the Guyanese lost) and having made an unbeaten 58 in the second innings, went onto to top score in the second innings in the last round against the Windward Islands.
Khan was first called to senior team duty in 2011, when discarded West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo was called up to the ICC World Cup squad in India, but found it difficult to maintain the stranglehold he’s had on Under-19 batsmen in the region.
Nevertheless, he was selected in the squad and now has faced the axe, even though he did not bowl a ball during the contest except for net sessions.
It leaves one to wonder, what Griffith and his colleagues are looking for in the batsmen, when they have gotten rid of the ones who have been contributing, and keeping faith with those who are supposedly irremovable from the team.
Ivan travelled for two years with Guyana’s Caribbean T20 team and was never given the opportunity to play one of the games and while one can argue that the team was winning so why change the lineup, what would be the basis for axing him at a time like this.
Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin and to an extent Steven Jacobs and Derwin Christian have all struggled with the bat so far this season, while young Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s baptism into the senior team is a questionable one as well.
In the encounter against Barbados, he was walking across from middle and leg stump guard over to his off stump, doing so to a short delivery from Christopher Jordan, only managing to avoid being hit by performing a Muhammad Ali’s ‘bob and weave’ move.
That aside, he has shown the temperament to bat for long periods, adopting the attitude of his father, whose goal in the longer version is to occupy the crease and score runs easily.
No one is irreplaceable in any team and certainly this is a message some members of the Guyana team need to be reminded of, since many of them express a high level of confidence at not being changed, even though the team lost two of their three matches and failed to win the other, when given the perfect opportunity to do so.
It is now left to be seen, what the final XI to take on T&T will be like today, since the extraction of Chattergoon and Chandrika means that either Fudadin (who seems concerned about a West Indies pick for the Test against Zimbabwe) or Johnson would have to partner Tagenarine Chanderpaul at the top.
The fact that a struggling Fudadin was given another chance over Mohammed-Shadir is another mystery in the selection this year – one of the times the GCB senior selectors have called it wrong.
The elder Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Deonarine and the Indian Premier League (IPL)-bound Barnwell will take care of the middle order with support from Jacobs and Christian, while the lower order will be kept alive by Permaul, Bishoo, Paul Wintz and Ronsford Beaton.
Guyana have six points from their three matches to date and if there is any hope of making the semifinals of this year’s tournament as they did last year, victory in all three remaining matches, including the one against defending champions Jamaica, is crucial.
The 13-man squad reads: Veerasammy Permaul (captain), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Assad Fudadin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine, Christopher Barnwell, Steven Jacobs, Derwin Christian, Devendra Bishoo, Paul Wintz and Ronsford Beaton.
In other matches starting today, CCC take on Leeward Islands at the Three Ws Oval, Barbados and Windwards tackle Jamaica at the Grenada National Stadium.
This means Rajendra Chandrika, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Zaheer Mohammed-Shadir, Amir Khan and Rajiv Ivan were all sent home after the team’s humiliating defeat inside three days at the hands of points leader Windward Islands.
Unfortunately for Mohammed-Shadir and Khan, their replacement comes at a time when other players in the lineup are failing – especially in the middle order that is brittle – and have exposed the lower order early on more that one occasion.
Mohammed-Shadir replaced Permaul during the Barbados encounter (which the Guyanese lost) and having made an unbeaten 58 in the second innings, went onto to top score in the second innings in the last round against the Windward Islands.
Khan was first called to senior team duty in 2011, when discarded West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo was called up to the ICC World Cup squad in India, but found it difficult to maintain the stranglehold he’s had on Under-19 batsmen in the region.
Nevertheless, he was selected in the squad and now has faced the axe, even though he did not bowl a ball during the contest except for net sessions.
It leaves one to wonder, what Griffith and his colleagues are looking for in the batsmen, when they have gotten rid of the ones who have been contributing, and keeping faith with those who are supposedly irremovable from the team.
Ivan travelled for two years with Guyana’s Caribbean T20 team and was never given the opportunity to play one of the games and while one can argue that the team was winning so why change the lineup, what would be the basis for axing him at a time like this.
Leon Johnson, Assad Fudadin and to an extent Steven Jacobs and Derwin Christian have all struggled with the bat so far this season, while young Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s baptism into the senior team is a questionable one as well.
In the encounter against Barbados, he was walking across from middle and leg stump guard over to his off stump, doing so to a short delivery from Christopher Jordan, only managing to avoid being hit by performing a Muhammad Ali’s ‘bob and weave’ move.
That aside, he has shown the temperament to bat for long periods, adopting the attitude of his father, whose goal in the longer version is to occupy the crease and score runs easily.
No one is irreplaceable in any team and certainly this is a message some members of the Guyana team need to be reminded of, since many of them express a high level of confidence at not being changed, even though the team lost two of their three matches and failed to win the other, when given the perfect opportunity to do so.
It is now left to be seen, what the final XI to take on T&T will be like today, since the extraction of Chattergoon and Chandrika means that either Fudadin (who seems concerned about a West Indies pick for the Test against Zimbabwe) or Johnson would have to partner Tagenarine Chanderpaul at the top.
The fact that a struggling Fudadin was given another chance over Mohammed-Shadir is another mystery in the selection this year – one of the times the GCB senior selectors have called it wrong.
The elder Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Deonarine and the Indian Premier League (IPL)-bound Barnwell will take care of the middle order with support from Jacobs and Christian, while the lower order will be kept alive by Permaul, Bishoo, Paul Wintz and Ronsford Beaton.
Guyana have six points from their three matches to date and if there is any hope of making the semifinals of this year’s tournament as they did last year, victory in all three remaining matches, including the one against defending champions Jamaica, is crucial.
The 13-man squad reads: Veerasammy Permaul (captain), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Assad Fudadin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine, Christopher Barnwell, Steven Jacobs, Derwin Christian, Devendra Bishoo, Paul Wintz and Ronsford Beaton.
In other matches starting today, CCC take on Leeward Islands at the Three Ws Oval, Barbados and Windwards tackle Jamaica at the Grenada National Stadium.
