Day one of National team's practice match washed out

Day one of National team’s practice match washed out

Jan 04, 2009 Sports

Coach Smith hoping for improved weather today

By Sean Devers
Rain here in the late and early parts of the year continues to affect Guyana’s preparations for regional first-class cricket competitions and the entire opening day of their only three-day practice at the Guyana National Stadium was washed out yesterday.
Guyana face the Windward Islands in Grenada from Friday in their first round encounter and the Travis Dowlin-led 13-man touring party along with the seven standbys and a few invited players, who were involved in the practice match, had to resort to physical fitness session of playing touch-rugby after heavy rain pounded the Stadium for most of yesterday.
Guyana Coach Albert Smith is hoping for improved weather today and a 09:30hrs start to allow his bowlers and batsmen the opportunity to get some much needed turf practice.
“Because of the adverse weather here at this time of the year, we usually leave Guyana for our away games short of match practice and this will be the case again this year. If it rains again tomorrow (today) then we will have to look at the possibility of doing some more physical work at the (Cliff Anderson) Sports Hall,” Coach Smith says that even if the ground is not in a condition to play the match, he hopes that the square could be able to facilitate a practice session.
“This drainage at the Stadium is excellent but it rained so much that one side of the bowler’s run was badly affected and if the same thing happens today we hope that at least we can put up a net and have some practice bowling from one end,” Smith informed.
He said that while Test players Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are unavailable due to West Indies duties in New Zealand, the young players have an opportunity of establishing themselves at this level.
“We have a young team and a lot will depend on (Travis) Dowlin, (Narsingh) Deonarine and (Leon) Johnson with the bat but the younger guys also have the chance to lift their game so that when the Test players return from the third match, they (young players) will still be in the team,” Smith said.
In the past few seasons Guyana have done poorly in their opening matches away from home but with their first two games this year being against the Windwards and the Combined Colleges and Campuses (CCC) in Barbados, the South Americans are expected to return home with at least first innings points from their opening games.
Former Guyana under-19 opening batsman Shemroy Barrington is the only player in the squad without any senior team experience while All-Rounder Chris Barnwell, who represented Guyana in limited overs cricket, is the other player in the squad aiming to make their first-class debuts this year.
Guyana last won a regional first class title in 2002 under Carl Hooper’s captaincy and the team, which is being managed by Carl Moore, is scheduled to leave for Grenada on Tuesday.
The Guyana squad read:- Krishna Arjune, Shemroy Barrington, Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Royston Crandon, Derwin Christian, Christopher Barnwell, Veerasammy Permaul, Davindra Bishoo, Esuan Crandon, Brandon Bess, Steven Jacobs.