..Tourney reduced to 2-day format due to Hurricane Beryl
THE 2024 Regional U-19 three-day cricket tournament scheduled to commence last week Tuesday in St Vincent but was forced to be postponed by a week due to Hurricane Beryl.
The category 4 hurricane destroyed several crops and ripped off the roofs of churches and schools as it made its way through several Caribbean Islands including St Vincent on its journey to North America.
Due to the hurricane, deemed the strongest since Hurricane Ivan ravaged Grenada in 2004, the Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago airports were closed, and flights were cancelled from other places including Guyana.
The Leewards and Jamaca U-19 teams who were in-transit in Barbados to St Vincent along with ICC T20 Champions India were stranded in Barbados while the Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago teams could not depart their respective countries as the Caribbean braced for the worst.
However, the extent of damage in St Vincent was less than first anticipated and with all airports around the Region back in operation, the U-19 tournament was rescheduled to commence on this Tuesday, albeit, reduced to a two-day competition.
The Guyana Team will depart Guyana in two batches; the first one which will be accompanied by the Manager, leaves today while the remaining players and the coach depart tomorrow.
Andre Percival is Guyana’s most successful U-19 Captain; winning three consecutive titles from 1992 during a period when Guyana won seven titles in a row with Ronnie Sarwan winning 1997 title at home.
Percival has been the National U-19 Coach for the past three years and yesterday spoke with Chronicle Sport in an exclusive interview.
“I don’t think the postponement of the tournament has affected the preparations because they have been doing cricketing activities during the delay.
It won’t affect them mentally since everyone understands it was a natural disaster.
I am not too surprised that the tournament is still being held in St Vincent because some areas were not affected as much as others” posited the 49-year-old Berbician.
The left-hander who scored seven fifties in 31 First-Class games admitted that he was is disappointed that the matches have been reduced to two days.
“But knowing the time span available, it’s understood why that had to be done and I believe teams, including us, will still look for outright wins” continued Percival who also played 22 list ‘A’ games and four T20s including when Guyana won the inaugural 2006 Stanford tournament.
The Guyana Coach feels the strength of the side is their all-round ability while eight players including West Indies U-19 player Mavindra Dindyal who will captain the side, have played at this level before.
“The team was in camp for the last six days and did physical and net sessions” said Percival, himself a former West Indies U- 19 Captain
He expressed his condolences on behalf of the players for the losses suffered by those affected in the Caribbean by Hurricane Beryl and hoped they recover soon.
Brian Sattaur became the first Guyana Captain to win both three-day and one-day titles in the same year in 2014 which was the last time Guyana won its last two innings U-19 title since winning its first in 1974.
Guyana has 14 two-innings U-19 titles
