By Rajiv Bisnauth

WITHOUT a regional 50-over cricket title since 2005, Guyana’s senior team, the Guyana Jaguars, will depart these shores this morning for Antigua. The squad, along with its management team, will leave the Eugene F. Correia International Airport at 11:00hrs for Barbados before arriving at their final destination. To achieve another milestone, the senior selection panel announced the squad with no a number of surprises, with the left-handed Leon Johnson once again at the helm. The squad is fully cognizant of the hard work that is needed to lift the trophy that has been eluding them over a decade now. Prior to 2005, Guyana reigned supreme in 1980, 1983, 1985, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2003. However, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament is set to be played in a bio-secure environment. All six teams will be in strict, bio-secure ‘bubbles’ upon landing in Antigua. A bio-secure environment or bio-bubble is planned to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and at the same time planned to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus from one person to another during an ongoing tournament or bilateral series.

The squad, upon arriving in Antigua, will be tested again, before being placed in a bio-secure bubble. Following four-day quarantine, players will be allowed to train while remaining in their team bubble. With strict quarantine restrictions currently in place, Cricket West Indies (CWI) was forced to reduce the number of teams for this year’s tournament. The 47th edition of the tournament will revert to only the six regional franchises taking part, which would mean that defending champions West Indies Emerging Players, along with Canada, USA and the Combined Campuses and Colleges would miss out. This will mean the six leading franchises – Jamaica Scorpions, Trinidad and Tobago Red Force, Guyana Jaguars, Barbados Pride, Leeward Island Hurricanes, and the Windward Island Volcanoes – are the only teams competing this year for the Clive Lloyd Trophy.

The six franchises will play 19 matches in a round-robin format at Coolidge and the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. Last year, CWI was unable to host the tournament after being forced to abort the last two rounds of the first-class championship, and then scrap all of its scheduled international home series due to COVID-19.
The squad reads: Chandrapaul Hemraj, Kemol Savory, Christopher Barnwell, Leon Johnson (captain), Shimron Hetmyer (Vice-captain), Assad Fudadin, Keon Joseph, Romario Shepherd, Kevin Sinclair, Ramaal Lewis, Nial Smith, Gudakesh Motie, Anthony Bramble, Akshaya Persaud and Tevin Imlach. Esaun Crandon is the head coach, Shivnarine Chanderpaul the Manager/Assistant coach and Ernesto Campo Gonzalez the physiotherapist.