ONCE again and for the second successive time, rain prevented any play on the opening day of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)-organised Guyana Trinidad and Mutual Life Insurance Company (GTM)-sponsored Under-19 three-day tournament, yesterday. As was evident last April, when the organisers made an attempt to commence this tournament which is being used a yardstick to select the National Under-19 team to compete in the West Indies Cricket Board Regional Under-19 tournament, the players turned up to a heavy outfield that had water in some areas at both the Everest Cricket Club and the Police Sports Club grounds.
In fact, the latter ground was heavily waterlogged in some areas while the former was soggy, especially within the 30-yard circle where sections of water were visible, a perfect illustration of the showers that drenched both venues during the wee hours of yesterday morning.
While Shannon Crawford and Cyril Garnath called off play just before lunch at Police, Imran Moakan, Prittipaul George and Zaheer Mohammed the standby umpire, conducted two inspections at 12:00hrs and 13:50hrs at Everest in the presence of Colin Stuart (match referee), before calling off play at 13:55hrs.
At Everest, defending champions GT&T Berbice were set to oppose the President’s XI while at Police, Demerara and Essequibo were set to do battle and, weather permitting today, the action should get under way at 09:30hrs at both venues. (Calvin Roberts)