President of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and Cricket Guyana Inc. (CGI) executive Drubahadur yesterday confirmed that the Guyana Jaguars final 14-man squad for this month’s NAGICO Regional Super50 tournament will more than likely be named during the course of today.
Following the national side’s hearty workout which took place on Saturday and yesterday at the Guyana National Stadium, the GCB boss said that the executives of the local franchise will now sit down and finalize the team to travel to Trinidad & Tobago for the tournament which is set to bowl off January 15th.
They are expected to issue a release of the team along with the captain and vice-captain shortly.
During Saturday’s session players both contracted by the CGI franchise and those who are eligible for “Pay for Play”, underwent their beep tests along with the 10 and 40 metres sprint which was conducted under the guidance of Head Coach Esaun Crandon, Assistant Coach Rayon Griffith, coaches Michael Hyles, Clive Grimmond and GCB Territorial Development Officer (TDO) Colin Stuart.
Day two’s session was a bit more varied as the coaches grouped the players into various teams and ran off a series of fielding and catching drills which, according to Griffith and Crandon, is the key area apart from batting that they are desperate to improve on ahead of the competition.
“The first day we didn’t get to complete the strength work session but the cardio workout was very good,” said Griffith yesterday.
“The work is acceptable, all players showed good improvement and they did fairly well. Today (yesterday) we stressed more on the fielding aspect, we spent a lot of time with various exercises and we still have more room for improvement and focus more on fielding.”
When Stabroek Sports visited that National Stadium yesterday, the players were hyped up and went through their sessions in a competitive manner. Players could be heard encouraging their teammates during the drills while some players were also seen taking time out to guide or correct a player who might have erred in their technique.
For that family-like effort displayed, Griffith praised the camaraderie shown by the players and also gave them credit for the hunger and willingness to improve shown which he said was mainly due to the players doing work and training on their own rather than waiting for the camp to recommence to get in shape.
“They were working hard and we saw from the break after the 4-day tournament that they were doing personal work, so coming out back at this time we expect them to be top,” Griffith pointed out. He also noted that the players would gather at the Everest ground today to engage in net sessions once the outfield permits or more fielding drills will continue at the Stadium if Everest is unavailable.
Apart from the team being officially released by the board, some of the usual suspects such as Chris Barnwell, Trevon Griffith, Veerasammy Permaul, Devendra Bishoo and others can be deemed as shoo-ins to make the final cut. Guyana is in Group A with the Windwards Islands Volcanoes, Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and defending champions Barbados Pride.
