SEVERAL of Guyana’s national cricketers, including the country’s latest Indian Premier League (IPL) bound player Christopher Barnwell, will be on show for their respective clubs this weekend when cricket action continues around the country.

However, cricket-loving fans who support the Queenstown-based Demerara Cricket Club (DCC), will not be seeing the smiling face of that club’s (and national) wicketkeeper/batsman Derwin Christian, who asked for and was granted a sabbatical for this weekend’s fixture.
A look at the action, which is set to take place in the Ancient County of Berbice, which has produced Guyana’s latest Test cricketer in national skipper Veerasammy Permaul, would reveal that the semifinals of the Berbice Cricket Board/Tenelec 50 overs tournament will be contested at two venues.
At Cumberland, a rejuvenated Universal DVD Young Warriors, whose lineup will be missing the likes of Gajanand Singh and Seon Hetmyer, but includes siblings Richard and Kevin Ramdeen, Shimron Hetmyer and the veteran trio in Balram Samaroo, Anil Beharry and Hubern Evans, will host Karibee Rice Port Mourant.
The guests’ lineup will have the likes of former national Under-19 skipper Harrinarine Chattergoon, who on his day can tear any bowling attack on the local scene apart, along with Joshua Ramsammy, Devendra Thakurdeen and Vijai Surujnarine.
Two other siblings in Zaheer and Imran Moakan will call play in this encounter which is expected to be an epic one that bowls off at 09:30hrs.
At the Area ‘H’ ground in Rose Hall, arch rivals Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets first division team will face off with their nemesis Albion Cricket Club, in a contest which will have several present and past national players and even a few who represented the West Indies at various level.
Former national skipper Assad Fudadin, who was overlooked by the West Indies for the ongoing two-Test series against Zimbabwe, Royston Crandon, Rajiv Ivan, Delbert Hicks, Shawn Pereira, Clinton Pestano and Renwick Batson will lead the home team.
Their opponents are no pushovers and certainly they are aware of that, hence their work is cut out for them, knowing that two West Indies discards in Sewnarine Chattergoon and Devendra Bishoo will lead that lineup.
There is also the vast-improving Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, Kandasammy Surujnarine, who, like Harrinarine Chattergoon, displays a pugnacious mood at times, Jonathan Foo and Andy Mohan, who will be looking to ensure their team not only dispose of their archrivals, but also advance to the final where they will get a chance to defend their title. Clement Brusche and Omadat Samaroo will be calling play in this fixture.
In the capital City of Georgetown, where cricket is being administered under the guidance of the Roger Harper-led Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA), that entity’s Hadi’s Mall Incorporated Heroes Cup first division two-day competition will continue with three matches.
In Queenstown, the Barnwell-led team with Travis Dowlin, Trevon Griffith, Kemal Savory, Andre Stoll, Brian Sattaur, Andrew Lyght Jr will look to resist any arrest warrant Police Sports Club will be looking to serve on them.
Brothers Trevor and Troy Benn, Jason Heyliger, Royan Fredericks, Pernell London, Vishal Jaigobin, Rawle Browne and Reginald Rodrigues will look to ensure the home team do nothing else but comply with the conditions of the arrest warrant from the lawmen, with Shannon Crawford and Hortence Isaacs being the witnesses.
It is sad to not see Christian in action for DCC, taking into consideration his poor run of form with the bat for Guyana at the Regional 4-Day level this year and while some may criticise him for taking the sabbatical, Savory’s performance in front of and behind the stumps has been impressive.
In the last two rounds, he has aggregated 214 runs with scores of 118, 96 and 00, scoring his maiden ton against Everest at Camp Road, while he is also touted to take over the reins for DCC as their wicketkeeper/batsman, when Christian decides to call it a day.
At Camp Road, Steven Jacobs is expected to return and stem the losses suffered by the Thomas Lands-based Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC), who will be taking on a confident Everest Cricket Club at home.
In the last two rounds of matches, MSC, who were led by Shaquille Williams in Jacobs’ absence, suffered surprise defeats at the hands of Transport Sports Club (TSC) and Gandhi Youth Organisation (GYO).
How well Jacobs can serve as a motivation to his young brigade of troopers including Williams, Seon Daniels, Nichosie Barker, Kwame Crosse and Edwin Burnett, is left to be seen today and tomorrow, especially with the absence of Dion Ferrier, Shemroy Barrington and Kellon Carmichael who are all campaigning in Trinidad and Tobago.
The home team will have a confident Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Rajendra Chandrika and Chandrapaul Hemraj in their lineup, along with Troy Gonsalves, Christopher Surat and Amir Khan, making this fixture an enthralling one as well. Hence Montgomery Chester and Ryan Banwarie’s work is cut out for them.
The final fixture for this GCA tournament this weekend features TSC, who will be led by the veteran left-arm spinner Kevin Ross and includes Sherwin Lovell, Clive Andries and Marvin Cato taking on a Guyana Defence Force lineup that is scheduled to include Trevon Garraway at the MSC ground, with Eddie Nicholls and Cyril Garnath calling play.