..Assistant Coach Clive Grimmond says batting is the strength

BADLY hampered by the adverse weather and with time running out for the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) to submit their U-19 Female squad to Cricket West Indies (CWI) this week, the national selectors had to resort to picking the players from two ‘Practice matches’ on the tarmac of the National Park.

Only a single game of the U-19 female inter-county tournament was played before the May/June rain began, resulting in the completion of the tournament with two ‘practice matches’ at the ‘Park’ on Friday and yesterday.

The Guyana team should be released by the GCB today.

After yesterday’s encounter between the  vastly improved group of lasses from Essequibo and players from Demerara, the four- member selection panel headed by former national batter

Andre Percival selected the squad which will  defend their title in the 30-over regional tournament from July 6-25 in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Guyana squad should include seven players from last year’s team which won its first ever title at this level and be will strengthened by the experience gained by Trisha Hardat and the Williams siblings, Laurene and Latya, from playing in this year’s championship-winning senior women’s team.

Crystal Durant (stand by player for the senior team), Shonette Belgrave, Tiea Issacs and leg-spinner Denellie Manns are the other members from the 2024 team.

This  year’s Essequibo senior inter-county player Brianna Samaroo was also a member of last year’s U-19 side and turned up for Essequibo’s match that was washed out last month. She

however, missed the two practice games at the ‘Park’ due to illness but could still be named in the squad to travel to the Twin-Island Republic next month.

While Percival, Balram Samaroo (Berbice), Denish Joseph (Essequibo) and Latchman Yadram (Demerara) sat to pick the team, Chronicle Sport took the time to talk to Assistant National Women’s team and Demerara U-19 Coach Clive Grimmond.

Grimmond has been a coach for the past 18 years and feels that this year’s team should be  more balanced than last year’s.

“Last year was a great feeling to win the tournament for the

first time ever and with seven players back this year, I am

confident that once the girls play to their full potential we will

win back-to-back titles.

“Last year we mostly depended on the bowlers, but now I feel

there is more balance and would go as far as saying the strength is the batting,”  said the former first-division “keeper” who once played for East Coast and GNIC.

Grimmond noted that the bad weather has been the biggest challenge so far, but from what has seen this year, he is very impressed with Demerara’s opener Mahadevi Dass who is also an off-spinner.

Another batter who caught the eye was Berbice opener Jada Fraser, while the 56-year-old Grimmond predicts that Manns could be Guyana’s trump card with her leg-spin.

Grimmond disclosed that four days of inter-county cricket for the year is the only time female teams play  against each other and emphasised that there has to be more women’s cricket

played in Guyana.

“We have the [sic] start female at the nursery school and get proper coaches to go into schools. The younger you are the more likely you will be able to take in what you are taught…that’s why

good coaches are needed at the school level…especially for girls. It’s easier to work on their bowling actions and other aspects when they are young, since it will be harder to do when

they get to the U-16 and U-19 levels” explained Grimmond.

Grimmond also disclosed that CWI plans to host a Regional U-16 girls tournament next year and wants the regional boards to set up training hubs for those players.

He said that the hubs in Guyana could be held in Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo and could commence during the August holiday.