It all revolves around the pitches

Nov 22, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The President of the Guyana Cricket Board of Control, Chetram Singh, expressed his frustration at the poor performance of the national team in the President’s Cup limited-over regional tournament by saying that, if he had his way, he would have played the Under-19 team with a few seniors, since these juniors have the hunger for success.
I can understand how hurt ‘Chetty’ is about the performance of the Guyana team, more especially since the opposition, apart from Trinidad and Tobago whom we did not play, could be rightly described as second-string teams.
Guyana should have cruised easily into the finals. Instead, we have been knocked out of the competition, having conceded losses to the Windward Islands and Jamaica.
Guyana’s failure to advance to the semi-final rounds must have also been a disappointment for some of the senior players, especially Narsingh Deonarine and Gajanand Singh, both of whom are future West Indies prospects.
In the case of Singh, it was unfortunate that he was not played in all the matches, since he is someone who should be in the starting eleven in any Guyana side.
Selection choices have always been controversial, and this time was no exception.
It is understandable that Chandrika had to be played. Here is someone who is being looked at by the regional selectors as a future prospect even though it is clear that the little prodigy from Trinidad and Tobago, Adrian Bharat, is going to beat him in the race to play for the West Indies. Bharat has been a revelation. The talent he has shown at such a young age is truly amazing.
So long as players are being looked at by the West Indies selectors, they should be played; and therefore there can be little faulting the local selectors for going along with Jacobs and Chandrika, who have both shone at the Under-19 level.
Part of the problem with the Guyana team for this year’s tournament was preparation. And part of the problem with the preparation was the substitution of one of the inter-country tournaments with the selection of three mixed teams to play in a tournament, from which the Guyana team was selected.
Even the Essequibians, I think, will now have to accept that their cricket is not up to first class level, and therefore they should demit the inter-county championships.
The selectors should have used the performances in these matches to pick the national side.
These clashes between Berbice and Demerara bring excitement. There is an atmosphere about these games which brings out the best in the players and leads to serious cricket, not the sort of situation we had during the recent matches between the three mixed teams, during which we had the ignominious end to one game because the club team for the ground on which the match had to be played had to practice.
There is no excuse for why that match was called off. It represented an all-time low for domestic cricket, something that I believe we need to take seriously. Of course, there is a lot of cricket being played in Guyana, and our national team ought to have done better.
The selectors went mainly for the classy players ahead of the form players, since Sherwin Barrington and Vishaul Singh, both of whom made a lot of runs in the trials, did not get a knock in any of the matches in the regional tournament, as far as I can recall.
I am also disappointed with the crowd turnout. If Guyanese Cricket is going to get better, persons have got to come out to the matches, regardless of whether the superstars are playing.
I expected more persons, even though I was disappointed with the promotion of the tournament.
If there is any recommendation I can make to ‘Chetty’, it will be this: a great deal of emphasis is being placed on development of young players. However, our young players will be unable to make the grade, unless we improve the level of competition that is faced locally.
The quickest route to achieve this success and achieve a quantum leap is to improve the pitches.
What Guyana has for pitches are graveyards. They discourage bowlers and do not test our batsmen’s abilities.
What is needed is for an expert to be brought in to work out a plan so that we can have bouncier and faster pitches. Creating these sorts of surfaces requires expert assistance, since the type of soil we have is a problem.
‘Chetty’ has given a lot to cricket in Guyana. I know of no one who is as dedicated to Guyana’s Cricket as Chetram Singh. He deserves to see Guyana dominating regional cricket henceforth.
The solution is not in development plans for players. It is all about the pitches.

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