Ahead of the 2014 Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) three-day Inter-county Under-19 tournament, Berbice coach Hubern Evans is hopeful about his team giving a good account of itself and taking the title back to the ancient county at the conclusion of the tournament.
Evans recently told Stabroek Sport that his team will need to undergo some further fine-tuning and says rescheduling the start of the competition from April 23 to 30 will give him an opportunity to spend more time working with his players. “We have a bunch of good guys who are keen and enthusiastic on participating in this tournament”, said Evans adding that the youngsters were a bit disappointed after being told that the tournament was pushed backed.
The strong 22-man team named a few days ago will be is led by batsman Sharaz Ramcharran who will have West Indies Under-19 opener Shimron Hetmyer as his deputy. Other players include Ashkay Homraj, David Latchaya, Arif Chan and others who were all involved in a preparatory two day clinic which was hosted over the weekend, facilitated by Evans, Michael Hyles, Albert Smith and Winston Smith.
Despite having a good crop of players whom he stated that he was privileged to work with from the U15 level, Evans openly admitted his disappointment about the 17 year-old Hetmyer who made his senior debut for Guyana against Trinidad and Tobago a few days ago in the 2014 WICB Regional 4-day tournament, after failing on both occasions with scores of 0 and 4.
“I’m disappointed with him he needs to be more patient and he should have grasped the opportunity he received in the four-day match,” said Evans who is hopeful the temperamental left-hander will need to play more responsibly in the future.
He also stated that expects a lot from the young skipper Ramcharran who he said “has been around a while now and is a cool, calm, character.”
Speaking about the areas of concern in his team, the former first-class player said that he stressed heavily on the bowlers to not try anything out of context while explaining the importance of being disciplined in their bowling during spells.
Concluding the interview with this newspaper, Evans confirmed that the basis of the clinic was not to change cricketers and their techniques, rather it was merely a mean of honing the respective trades and skills of the players.
Hubert believes that this combination of players will work well as a team towards one goal, which he highlighted as being able to replicate a tournament title win which he said will go along nicely with the senior four-day title they reclaimed in last year’s senior inter-county.
The full squad reads: Sharaz Ramcharran (c), Shimron Hetmyer (VC), Balchand Baldeo, Leon Andrew, Ashkay Homraj, Viendra Gooniah, Arif Chan, David Latchaya, Hakeem Hinds, Parmanand Ramdhan, Martin Singh, Grisean Grant Dimitri Cameron Nial Smith Nicholas Seenarine, Deon Esau, Kassim Khan, Daniel Lewis, Nicholas Cameron, Nick Ramsaroop, Shivnarine Srikissoon and Avishkar Sewkarran
