KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – It’s hard to pick a winner between Windward Islands and Guyana in their third round match of the WICB Regional first-class championship, starting today at the Arnos Vale Multi-Purpose Complex, because there are too many similarities.
Both Windwards and Guyana have accumulated seven points in the competition, but the home team are officially fifth on the ladder, under the tie-breaker rules.
Both sides lost their opening matches, after gaining first points from their opponents, and both had their second matches badly affected by rain. In the case of the Windwards, they lost their opening match against the Combined Campuses & Colleges by 33 runs at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados, and conceded first innings points on home soil at the Queen’s Park Stadium in Grenada in their second match, which ended in a draw, when rain wiped out the last two sessions, following a complete wash-out of the second day.
In the case of Guyana, they lost their opening match against Jamaica by 165 runs at the Alpart Sports Club in western Jamaica, and had no choice, but to settle for a no-result on home soil in their second match against Leeward Islands, when not a ball was bowled due to unplayable conditions at Bourda Oval following four straight days of rain.
The similarities between the two sides continue in their line-ups, which have suffered from the exit of key players on the West Indies World Cup squad.
Regular Windwards captain Darren Sammy and their top batsman Devon Smith are missing, and are preparing for high intensity tussles on the Asian sub-continent, where regular Guyana captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and top Guyana batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul are also.
This means that both teams are a mix of seasoned players with young, untested talents, and this helps to make it one of the most absorbing contests of the competition.
Both sides have retained the bulk of the players that have represented them in the first two rounds, but Guyana’s fickle weather was kind to its national team, giving batsman Leon Johnson time to recover from injury.
Since the turn of the century, Windwards have been the more dominant side in this fixture. Guyana started the decade with three consecutive wins, but the home team have won three times, and gained first innings points in five of the other six matches between 2004 and last year, which have all ended in draws.
This is also the first match between the two sides in St. Vincent, since Guyana won by five wickets nine years ago.
Guyana: Assad Fudadin (captain), Shemroy Barrington, Ronsford Beaton, Brendon Bess, Devendra Bishoo, Rajendra Chandrika, Derwin Christian, Esaun Crandon, Royston Crandon, Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson, Veerasammy Permaul and Vishaul Singh.
Windward Islands: Liam Sebastien (captain), Johnson Charles, Keron Cottoy, Andre Fletcher, Donwell Hector, Lyndon James, Delorn Johnson, Keddy Lesporis, Gary Mathurin, Mervin Matthew, Nelon Pascal, Kenroy Peters and Tyrone Theophile.
Umpires: Goaland Greaves, Joel Wilson.
