Director of Sport, Christopher Jones believes 2019 is the year Guyana Amazon Warriors will take their maiden title in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) set for August-September.
Jones based this position on the fact that the Warriors have secured a core of the best local talent in the country and enlisted the services of international stars that bring both experience and familiarity with winning.
“Essentially with that layout of players we have the CPL for us should be a successful one,” the Director of Sport said, adding, “I am happy and excited to see so many young Guyanese being a part of the CPL, so you have a Guyana core if you want to call it that.”
Jones said he based his assessment on players such as Keemo Paul, Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford who have taken the international scene by storm, having turned out for various Indian Premier League franchises and other leagues across the world as well as some of the local stars who have not yet had the opportunity to burst on the international scene but dominated the regional levels such as Clinton Pestano, Romario Shepherd, Anthony Bramble, Veerasammy Permaul and Chandrapaul Hemraj.
“CPL this year will be exciting, I know Keemo loves the excitement in terms of playing in Guyana, Hety [Hetmyer], the same thing, in terms of the last match we had here, Guyanese will go out in their numbers to see their favorite players perform because they know the guys have the talent and ability so CPL 2019 will be big,” Jones stated.
Not only is Guyana laced with local talent, but the team will see the return of last year’s skipper, Chris Green, who took over the reins from Shoaib Malik, the captain for the first part of the tournament.
Jones reiterated the commitment of the government towards cricket in Guyana and opined that Guyana has to be one of the premier destinations to host the sport in the region.
“Government’s commitment to cricket has always and will always be there, Guyana always has a full stadium and I think the planners realize regardless of what cricket there is Guyana must be a hosting destination, even if you take into considering at the Women’s World T20 that we just had, Guyana had the largest crowd participation,” he said. This is the seventh edition of the tournament with Guyana finishing runners-up on four occasions.
