Local cricketers departed the Dr. Cheddi Jagan International Airport yesterday afternoon aboard a Caribbean Airlines aircraft for Antigua where they will face Trinidad and Tobago in their first game of the WICB Regional Four-Day tournament.
Members of the team expressed confidence before the team’s trek from the cricket hostel in Alberttown to the airport ahead of their clash against the twin island republic cricket team under lights at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Friday.
Some were concerned though about playing under lights with a pink ball – an unprecedented move by the WICB aimed at bringing the fans back to first-class cricket.
Guyana will need to be competitive from the first ball as the T&T team will be looking to bounce back from their first round defeat to the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC).
The Trinidadians suffered a crippling 151-run defeat against the CCC – a defeat reminiscent of the one that they dished out to Guyana in the second round of last year’s tournament.
The Guyana team will be walking into a tournament that has already seen some early shakeups that can set the backdrop for a large part of the tournament.
According to senior player Travis Dowlin, the Guyanese must ensure that they “put things together and produce consistent performances for the team,” especially since they do not have the services of its two most experienced batsmen Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Dowlin (3,642), Captain Sewnarine Chattergoon (3,479) and Narsingh Deonarine (4,377), who scored 1,068 runs in last year’s tournament will be required to do the bulk of the batting in the absence of the two test veterans.
Off spinner Deonarine (80), opening pace bowler Esuan Crandon (72) and left arm orthodox bowler Veerasammy Permaul (54) are the Guyana bowlers with over 50 wickets.
Guyana’s leading bowler in last year’s championship, leg spinner Devendra Bishoo follows closely on their heels with 47.
These players form the nucleus of the Guyana team and are expected to share the brunt of the responsibility.
Having said that, the team also has in its repertoire domestic Cricketer of the Year and vice captain with back to back centuries in the GCB practice matches, Assad Fudadin (1,196), West Indies One-Day player Royston Crandon (673 from 13 matches), with a first class century and wicket/batsman Derwin Christian (702 from 28 matches) also with a first class century.
As a support base selectors have drafted into the team Vishal Singh (for Chanderpaul) and Rajendra Chandrika (for Sarwan) who have showed the requisite capacity to occupy the crease and score heavily. These attributes will be severely tested against T&T and other teams on fractionally faster pitches than they are accustomed to in Guyana.
To shore up the bowling department there is the economical debutant medium pacer Trevor Benn and the fiery and sometimes wayward Brandon Bess. The younger Crandon sibling and Chattergoon are also useful stock bowlers to lend support to the main bowlers.
