THE YEAR 2014 can best be described as a roller coaster ride for the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and even Cricket Guyana Inc., if one is to look closely at the performances of our players during the past year.Things started with a semifinal appearance in the inaugural West Indies Cricket Board/NAGICO Super-50 tournament where the Guyana Malta Supreme team led by Demerara Cricket Club all-rounder Christopher Barnwell, lost to eventual champions Barbados.
This was after the team defeated Ireland and defending champions Windward Islands in their preliminary round matches, before going down to Jamaica in their final group match, a loss that did not hamper their semifinal spot.
That team comprised players in the calibre of dependable West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Leon Johnson, Royston Crandon, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Trevon Griffith, Devendra Bishoo, Veerasammy Permaul and Anthony Bramble.
Ronsford Beaton shared the new ball with Paul Wintz and they were both impressive while doing so, leaving their names on the minds of several cricketing pundits, with Beaton being tagged the fastest bowler of the tournament.
As usual, the spin twins in Permaul and Bishoo led the Guyanese bowling attack well with support from Deonarine, Barnwell and at times Fudadin, but against Barbados in the semifinal, the team was hampered by influenza, with only Bishoo, Permaul and Bramble not being affected by the flu bug.
The Malta Supreme Guyana lineup started their campaign with a 114 run victory over Ireland, scoring 301 for 3 with Sarwan topscoring with 89, followed by 79 from Chanderpaul and 62 from Griffith, before Wintz took 3 for 30, Deonarine 2 for 6 and Beaton 2 for 41 to bowl out Ireland for 187.
The second game against Windward Islands the defending champions resulted in the Guyanese completing a 22 runs victory, posting 235 for 7 from their 50 overs, indebted to 62 from Sarwan, 51 each from Barnwell and Fudadin and 41 from Johnson.
The Windwards in reply were bowled out for 213, as Permaul and Beaton took 3 wickets each for 24 and 43 runs respectively, handing their team a semifinal spot irrespective of the outcome of their final round game against Jamaica.
In that fixture which was played fours day later, Jamaica won the toss and chose to bat first, posting 243 for 7 off their 50 overs, as Permaul and Beaton were once again Guyana’s leading wicket takers with two wickets each.
But after Chanderpaul and Griffith posted 88 for the first wicket from 21.5 overs, with Griffith contributing 37 and Chanderpaul 65, only Fudadin who scored 21 passed 20 as the Jamaicans completed the win by 10 runs to top the group.
The semifinal encounter against Barbados, who went onto lift the title, was another miserable showing by the Guyanese who were bowled out for 181, with Deonarine 58, Barnwell 37 and Bramble 34 being the leading run scorers as Fidel Edwards ripped through with 4 for 16.
Dwayne Smith belted the ball around the picturesque Queen’s Park Oval, hitting a 47 balls 61 (9×4, 3×6) backed by an unbeaten 55 from Kraigg Brathwaite, as the Barbadians reached 182 for 3 off 46 overs to book their semifinal spot, with Permaul taking 2 for 44.
Sarwan topped Guyana’s batting aggregate with his 151 runs that was scored at an average of 75.50, followed by Chanderpaul who scored 144 (72.00) and Barnwell with 130 (32.50), while in the bowling department, Permaul with his 8 wickets (18.00) sat in the pole position with Beaton in second place with his 7 victims and Bishoo third with 5.
The four day team performed miserably in the Regional four day tournament, failing to make the final four, starting with a seven wickets defeat at the hands of Jamaica, 136 runs loss to Barbados, a drawn encounter with Windward Islands, seven wickets loss to the Steven Jacobs led Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), resounding five wickets loss to Leeward Islands and a drawn game with Trinidad and Tobago.
Johnson topped the batting aggregates with his 295 runs that was scored at an average of 59.00, inclusive of his maiden ton, 110 against the Leeward Islands, followed by Bramble with his 283 (31.44) and Fudadin’s 273 (27.30), as they were the lone players from Guyana to surpass the 200 runs mark.
In the bowling department, Permaul claimed 29 victims (17.79) and Bishoo 28 (18.39) but Chandrapaul Hemraj topped the bowling averages with his solitary wicket, even as Bishoo took career best figures of 9 for 78 in the final round match against T&T, after he was given the axe.
Guyana’s Under-15 and Under-19 teams gave the country and the administrators of the game locally many reasons to smile, with the Under-15’s claiming the regional title in Trinidad while the Under-19’s who were led by Brian Sattaur, completed the historic double.
At the same time, the females were performing creditably well in the WICB Regional tournament before they too suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Jamaica in the finals, a team they had beaten in the preliminary round, preventing the Guyanese from dominating all regional tournaments that were being contested during the June to August playing period.
With the implementation of the WICB’s Professional Cricket League and the drafting of players, the Guyana Jaguars gave local cricket fans much to smile about in their four matches to date, winning three and losing one, by a mere two runs to the Barbados Pride.
The action started with an innings and 10 runs victory over Leeward Islands, wherein Guyana Jaguars scored 343 with Deonarine hitting an unbeaten 110, Bramble 46 and Chanderpaul 45, before Permaul, Beaton and Bishoo took 3 wickets each to bowl out the Leeward Islands for 94.
Batting a second time, the visitors fared better, but were still bowled out for 239 inside three days, with Bishoo picking up 4 for 67 and Permaul and Raymond Reifer, Guyana Jaguars’ lone foreign player, supporting with two wickets each.
The second game against the Windward Islands Volcanoes saw the first day being washed out due to rain, but when play got underway, Guyana posted 291 all out with Deonarine hitting his second successive ton, 139 and Chanderpaul 62.
Deonarine returned with the ball to claim 5 for 24 and along with Permaul’s 3 for 40 and Bishoo’s 2 for 66 bowled out the opposition for 184, following which the Jaguars batting a second time posted 175 for 6 declared.
They were led by 44 from Chanderpaul, 34 from Deonarine and an unbeaten 29 from Reifer, setting the Volcanoes a victory target of 283, but they were bowled out for 190, despite 55 from Devon Smith, 39 from Sunil Ambris and 38 from Andre Fletcher, thanks to Permaul’s 8 for 36, for match figures of 11- 76.
It was Permaul’s back to back 10 wickets match haul that propelled Guyana Jaguars into a winning position against the Barbados Pride, with Bramble topscoring with 73 and Shimron Hetmyer 47 as the home team posted 261 all out.
Permaul then took 8 for 26, as the Pride were destroyed for 101 and asked to follow on scored 228 all out, with Permaul claiming 4 for 75 (12 for 101), Bishoo 4 for 65 and Barnwell 2 for 21, setting Guyana Jaguars 69 to score a comfortable win.
But Dwayne Smith had other ideas in mind and having snared 5 for 17 with his medium pace bowling, backed by Jonathan Carter and Ryan Hinds’ two wickets each, caged the Jaguars for 67 to hand Barbados Pride a two runs victory and at the same time keep their 30 year old record of never losing a four day match to Guyana in Guyana, intact.
Even though they suffered the loss, the Jaguars journeyed to T&T a confident bunch to take on the home team in their final round match before the break and indebted to skipper Vishaul Singh’s 141, an unbeaten 65 from Barnwell, 60 from Rajendra Chandrika, 58 from Reifer and an unbeaten 50 from Permaul, posted 492 all out in reply to T&T’s 198.
In the home team’s innings, Lendl Simmons and Yannick Cariah topscored with 59 and 51 respectively, while Bishoo took 4 for 49 and Deonarine 3 for 25, before Permaul took 4 for 51, Bishoo 3 for 82 and Beaton 2 for 24 to send T&T Red force crashing to 234 and an innings and 60 runs defeat.
At the break, Deonarine who belatedly received a West Indies call up was the Jaguars’ leading run scorer with 306 runs at an average of 61.20 inclusive of two centuries, followed by Chandrika with 169 (28.16) and Singh with his 161 (54.33).
Permaul is the leading wicket taker with his 32 victims snared at an average of 10.09 and includes his best of 8 for 26 against Barbados Pride, followed by Bishoo with 21 (19.95) and Deonarine next in line with 9 victims at an average of 20.33.
Such performances along with the hosting of their annual awards ceremony which saw Permaul being named the Male Cricketer of the Year and Tremayne Smartt the Female Cricketer of the Year, the Guyana Cricket Board and even Cricket Guyana Inc. can smile at a year that started rocky and ended smoothly to date.

(By Calvin Roberts)