GUYANA have not won a Regional One-Day title in nine years. Their last of nine titles was during the 2005-06 season when they defeated Barbados by seven runs under the Duckworth/Lewis system.However, head coach Esaun Crandon said that even though they are the losing finalists last season, it will be important that they play as a team during the upcoming Super50 competition in Trinidad and Tobago and St Kitts and Nevis.
Crandon disclosed that his main aim will be centred more on playing as a cohesive unit which is vital for the team’s success.
“Teamwork will be the key for us. Last year we played some good cricket leading up to the final, but we didn’t manage to pull it off. Sunil Narine was at his best, and we didn’t really handle him in the circumstances,” Crandon told Chronicle Sport yesterday.
He added “We have been playing some good cricket in the four-day version, but it will be that transformation from the four-day to the limited over, but I don’t see that huge difference, the same basic things are required”.
The Jaguars have been working hard over the past three days and Crandon, a former national player himself, knows the worth and value of putting in the hard work, especially as time winds down to the start of the competition.
“We have some stuff that we want to work on that we haven’t done well last year, the fielding; we want to pull up in that area, bowling in the final stages of the game, and rotation of the strike are some of the stuff we are working on, so those are some of the things once we do them well will contribute to the team’s success,” he said.
The Jaguars will play two practice games on January 28 and 30 before the final squad is selected. Both games are set for the Guyana National Stadium, with the final game confirmed to be a day/night encounter, commencing at 14:00hrs.
The squad, along with the management unit, will depart for St Kitts and Nevis on January 4.
The NAGICO Super50 tournament opens on January 7, and will again be contested between eight teams, comprising the six territorial franchises, as well as the Marooners and an ICC Americas composite side.
The Jaguars have been placed in Group ‘B’ alongside Jamaica Scorpions, Windward Islands Volcanoes and Leeward Islands Hurricanes. Group ‘B’ will be played in St Kitts.
The preliminary competition will be played under a non-elimination format with the eight teams equally divided into two groups. Each side is carded to play six matches apiece during the preliminary rounds, with each playing the others in their group twice.
The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-finals at Queen’s Park Oval, where the group winners play the runners-up from the opposite group in a one-off match for a place in the Grand Final on Sunday, January 24, at the same venue.
This equals a total of 27 matches for the biggest, senior regional domestic 50 overs-a-side tournament ever staged by the WICB.
Group ‘A’, which will be played in Trinidad and Tobago, comprises Red Force, Marooners, Barbados Pride and ICC Americas.

By Rajiv Bisnauth