By Rajiv Bisnauth

AFTER being the leading wicket-taker at the conclusion of the first half of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Four-Day Professional Cricket League (PCL) tournament, left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie has now turn his attention to the upcoming NAGICO Super 50 tournament.

The 20-year-old told Chronicle Sport recently that the new format will definitely bring new challenges, but having said that, he is ready to make the necessary modifications in order to continue his dominant performance this season.
In his debut First-Class season, the Albion spinner has taken 34 scalps, inclusive of four five-wicket hauls and a ten-wicket haul, and was unquestionably the reason the Guyana Jaguars are leading the points standing after winning all their games to date.“Yes, I am definitely looking forward to the shorter version. I had a dream start to my First-Class career, and I want to continue from where I left off a few weeks back. It was a good experience for me playing with the senior guys. I felt very comfortable and happy,” Motie said.
He added, “Playing one-day cricket is much more different, so I will need to adjust to that format. Currently I am working on the ‘arm ball’ in order to have more variations.”
The NAGICO Super50 tournament will be played between January 7 and 24, 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 will play six matches during the preliminary rounds, with each playing the others in their group twice.
The top two teams from each group will 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.
The final squad is expected to be selected at the conclusion of the two practice games.
The squad, along with the management unit, will depart for St Kitts and Nevis on January 4.
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 method.