Berbice begin their campaign in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) senior four-day Inter-County cricket competition today when they take on the hapless Essequibo team at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) ground under the captaincy of fast bowler Esaun Crandon.
The Berbice side, although missing former Guyana and West Indies right-arm leg-spinner and regional record-holder for wickets, Mahendra Nagamootoo, can still pose a threat to the perennial whipping boys of local cricket.
For some unknown reason, the Ancient County selectors opted not to include Nagamootoo in their provisional squad of 22 from which the final 14 were chosen. How much of an effect his absence will be on the team, considering he is also no rabbit with the bat and in the field, can only be known at the end of this match or the competition on the whole, but they still have seven players who represented Guyana at the senior level.
These include the in-form Rose Hall Windies Sports Bar in-form pair in Assad Fudadin and Royston Crandon with the latter being appointed vice captain for the first game, Homchand Pooran, debutant Ranga Lachigadu who has been among the runs for his club Albion in the Isaac Bissoon three-day competition in Berbice, Veerasammy Permaul, the fiery Jeremy Gordon, the underrated Scotsburg United off spinner Imran Jafferally and captain Esaun Crandon.
Add former Guyana and West Indies under-19 players Gajanand Singh, who is widely regarded as the best young batsman in the country, Richard Ramdeen and wicket keeper/batsman Delbert Hicks, and the Berbice batting can be expected to score heavily against the feeble Essequibo bowling attack led by captain Trevon Garraway and including Rayon Thomas, Andrew Williams, who bowled a tight line against the Demerara team and the left-arm orthodox spinner Robert Moore. Rakesh Goberdhan will also be expected to contain the Berbicians.
Garraway bemoaned his batsmen’s attitude in their last game against Demerara and will certainly be hoping for a better performance against a strong Berbice side. “In our last game, our batsmen failed to apply themselves. This time around, I am looking forward for a better performance as we seek to correct the mistakes made and apply some pressure on Berbice from ball one,” Garraway stated.
His counterpart Crandon has other ideas on his mind. Speaking with Stabroek Sport, Crandon said that they are wary of Essequibo, but would not be complacent.
“We are wary of Essequibo, but come tomorrow (today) we would not be taking them lightly seeing the way they had Demerara on the first day.
We will be looking to play some hard cricket and I do expect my batsmen to get in some worthy scores so that our bowlers can have a good run at them. Should we bowl first, our aim is to dispatch them early and bat once, giving our bowlers adequate time to bowl at them a second time around,” Crandon said.
This time around, Yogeshwar Lall and Dinesh Joseph will have to post a solid opening stand for the brittle middle order to build on. In their last game, Essequibo crumbled from 56-1 at tea to be all out for 119 with Zaheer Mohamed and Leon Johnson mopping up the middle and lower orders after Chris Barnwell had rocked the top order. The Cinderella County lads will need to put in a better all-round game and try to press for an outright victory to keep their hopes alive in this competition if they don’t want to end up in the all too familiar cellar position. The Berbice bowling will be led by the fiery Gordon who was once billed as the quickest young fast bowler in Guyana, former under-19 fast bowler Brandon Bess, Fudadin, who has changed from bowling medium pace to off spin, Permaul, Bishu and the underrated Jafferally.
With the recent inclement weather, cricket lovers and players alike would be hoping for some good weather to get the chance of seeing four full days of cricket. The question to ask is: “Can Essequibo improve their performance against a strong Berbice side?” The answer will be known over the next four days.
Team from Berbice: Esaun Crandon, Royston Crandon, Ranga Lachigadu, Homchand Pooran, Gajanand Singh, Assad Fudadin, Delroy Hicks, Imran Jafferally, Devendra Bishu, Veerasammy Permaul, Brendon Bess, Jeremy Gordon and Richard Ramdeen. Hubern Evans (Coach) and David Black (Manager)
Team from Essequibo: Trevon Garraway, Dinesh Joseph, Rakesh Goberdhan, Robert Moore, Andrew Williams, Wayne Osborne, Yogeshwar Lall, Zakie Salim, Rayon Thomas, Dianauth Baksh, Ryan Fredericks, Dellon Heyliger, Trevon Whyte and Ramesh Narine.
Umpires are Edward Nicholls and Davteerth Anandjeet with Nigel Duguid as the standby. Play starts at 09:30hrs.
