Jaguars prepared for overseas challenge

says Head Coach

Esuan Crandon, the Guyana Jaguars Head Coach says the defending champions are rearing to go and will use their momentum from their three consecutive home wins as they face Trinidad & Tobago this morning in round four of the 2015/16 Professional Cricket League 4-Day tournament against the Red Force.

The defending champions are fresh off convincing wins at Providence, Guyana against; Leewards, Windwards and Barbados. Crandon who spoke with Stabroek News this week said the wins have placed the Jags in a pressure-free zone as they head overseas to play the Red Force and are closely followed by the Jamaica Scorpions in the 5th round before the season breaks for Christmas.

“Definitely there is no pressure because when a team is winning things seem to be going well but we are not going to look past anything,” Crandon said, “we are just looking to improve. After every match we look to tick the boxes we have not ticked so we are confident as a team going into the next round. We have to go and play and not be complacent because they have good players who can win games for them.”

One such player is Guyanese Narsingh Deonarine who now represents the Red Force, has vast knowledge of his old teammates while his record as a batsman and part-time off-spinner is one of the best among all-rounders regionally.

Crandon, however, didn’t label his former player as a threat and was adamant that measures to contain Deonarine were in place, “Narsingh is not really a threat but we know what he is capable of because he knows a lot about us so his new team will benefit but at the set time we are going to come up with our plans to get him, so we’ll be ready to counteract.”

Switching to the team’s momentum and areas of concern heading into their first match this year away from home, the head coach added that with five convincing wins overseas last season, the defending champs have proven doubters wrong and are prepared to do so again. “There [are] a lot of things to motivate us as a team; we’re looking to improve individually and team goals because we anticipate a very competitive game. They (Red Force) know the conditions well, so we need to adjust quickly but last season we won 5 games overseas so I think if you look at our previous performances, our record away speaks for itself”, he said.

Regarding concerns in the respective batting, bowling and fielding departments where Guyana has been good but not completely at their best, Crandon said “We worked a lot in the nets because consistency is the key and for us to do well we need to continue to get better at that our fielding and catching. We did a lot of work regarding slip catching and fielding under the bat on Monday at Bourda.”

Everybody expects us to do well, the team has different guys who will step up and win periods and sessions for us, but something that stood out so far in the previous three rounds was that persons have been stepping up and contributing so we want to continue to bank on that.”