GUYANA’S 14-man squad, along with manager David Black and coach Adrian Amsterdam, departed Guyana yesterday morning, confident of doing well at the upcoming Regional Under-19 Cricket Championship.This year’s tournament is scheduled to take place from July 22 to August 2, and will be contested in a 50 overs-a-side format.
In an invited comment before the team left, Amsterdam expressed confidence, adding that the team would be going all out to retain the title one-day.
“Turf practice was the main setback for us, but having said that, we spent six days at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence hostel and indoor facility where we went through some intense training, so I am confident that the boys are ready for the battle,” Amsterdam revealed.
Amsterdam added, “The advantage we have this year is that the team has a few players who played in last year’s tournament, so the experience at this level is there and added to that we have Hetmyer (Shemron) who has played for Guyana at the highest level, so we have a team capable of winning”.
Guyana are also the defending champions of the three-day tournament. However, Guyana will not be able to defend their three-day crown since the West Indies Cricket Board has surprisingly chosen not to play this version.
Guyana’s 14-man squad is led by Travis Persaud and includes Ricardo Alimohamed, Shemron Hetymer, Tevin Emlack, Parmesh Parsatom, Balchand Baldeo, Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Parmanand Ramdhan, Kasim Khan, Nathan Persaud, Akinie Adams, Grisean Grant and Akshaya Persaud.
During this year’s tournament, all new One Day International playing conditions, recently introduced by the ICC, will apply, thus presenting another opportunity for the region’s best Under-19 players to showcase their talent to break into the West Indies Under-19 squad for the ICC Youth World Cup next year in Bangladesh.