Nurse claims female players were told not to attend Trials

By Colin Benjamin

The outcome of a Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) meeting to deal with different actions by male and female Berbice cricketers as it relates to their participation in recent Trial matches hit an apparent snag yesterday.
According to information reaching this newspaper,  decisions from the meeting held at the board’s head office in New Amsterdam were inconclusive.

The meeting was arranged to look into the matter of the Berbice senior men’s players who turned up for trials to select the Guyana T20 team which participated against Trinidad and Tobago recently and the Berbice Under-19 girls who so far have failed to show up for trials for this weekend matches against Trinidad Under-19 ladies.

Six male Berbicians were in the 13-member men’s squad which contested a two-match series against daren Ganga’s Trinidadians  while five women players, who all play for the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTYSC), have been named in a 27-member female squad that was scheduled to participate in trials at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC), ground on Monday and Tuesday.

It was revealed that the men players were told by BCB officials not to participate in the trial match to select the Twenty20 team to play against Trinidad since officials from that board deemed the GCB to be illegal.

The situation with the women is slightly different as,  according to manager of Guyana women’s team Carol Nurse, the players were told not to attend trials.

“Of the 27 players given to me the five (5) Berbice girls all play for the (RHTYS), when I contacted the players over the weekend to confirm their participation, since I figured with school re-opening they might me unavailable, one of the players, whose name I will not disclose, told me they were instructed in a meeting on Saturday not to turn up for these trials and from then on I left the matter just as it is,’ Nurse explained.

Chief selector Nazimul Drepaul has, however, vowed to ignore politics and do his job.
“Although the girls were told not to come, as an administrator that has nothing to do with me, in our recent trials we picked a mixed women’s team with players from Demerara and Essequibo along with seven (7) senior Guyana players most notably June Ogle-Thomas and Abina Parker to aid us fielding two teams to complete our most recent practice game. I will still pick the Berbice players since the majority of them represent the best young player we have and this squad will be revealed to public before the week is out,” said Drepaul.

With most BCB officials (notably the president Keith Foster) tight-lipped about all matters after yesterday’s meeting at the Ministry of Sport to set up the Interim Management Committee (IMC) which will temporarily run Guyana’s cricket, sources who were at the meeting suggest that issues such a ban of the Berbice men’s players who participated in the Trials has not been agreed upon adding that another meeting  will be planned during next week.