Guyana open TCL Regional U-19 campaign against Leewards

May 21, 2009 Sports

– players begin 1st weekend camp on Saturday

Hubern Evans

Alvin Johnson

Steven Jacobs

By Sean Devers
Guyana will begin their 2009 TCL West Indies Under-19 three-day cricket campaign against the Leeward Islands from July 9-11 in Jamaica and the 20-man training squad will have their first weekend camp in Georgetown from Saturday.

The players’ fitness levels will be checked during the first weekend encampment, using the Beep Test and Coach, Hubern Evans says that fitness will play a crucial role in deciding the final 14-man touring party.
The team and six stand-bys should be involved in practice matches next month once the weather is good and the touring squad, which will be managed by former Guyana Cricket Board Vice President Alvin Johnson, should complete their preparation with a 13-day encampment in the City before departing for Jamaica on July 6.
Essequibian Johnson and Berbicain Evans have formed the Manager/Coach team since 2004 when the tournament was last played in Jamaica.

Unlike last year when the players had two days of rest between the three-day games, this year’s format reverts to one rest day between games.
All of the coaches complained of the tough workload for the teenagers and short recovery period during the 2007 series in St Kitts resulting in the West Indies Cricket Board providing a two-day rest period between games last year. Regional youth cricket was first played in 1968 but the 50-overs format of the competition was only introduced in 1998 as a replacement for the rain ruined three-day competition in Trinidad.

The One-Day competition was then added to the three-day series for the first time in Barbados the next year, and last year Barbados and Trinidad clashed in the final in Barbados after Guyana were beaten by Jamaica at Warner Park in the 2007 final.
This year, no One-Day final will be contested and the team with the most points from the five-match round-robin competition will be declared the One-Day champions.
Like in 2004, the teams are scheduled to be accommodated at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus.

There were some concerns about the standard of the accommodation at UWI five years ago and Jamaica is the only host nation which still does not put the teams at hotels for regional Under-19 cricket.
The final round of the One-day series is fixed for August 5 and the Guyanese are scheduled to depart for home the following day.
Guyana, who holds the record for the most consecutive championship wins (1992-1997), last won the three-day tournament in St Kitts in 2007 when, under the captaincy of Steven Jacobs, they retained the title they had won the previous year under the same captain in Guyana.
The South Americans have never won the One-Day title and the players will have the added incentive of playing for selection on the West Indies Under-19 team which will travel to Kenya for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup.

While the fixtures have not yet been officially released, a WICB source confirmed that Guyana will face hosts Jamaica in their second round three-day game from July 13-15 before taking on the Windward Islands (July 17-19), Barbados (July 21-23) and Trinidad and Tobago (July 25-27). The venues for the matches will be named shortly by the Jamaica Cricket Association.

It is understood that the One-day tournament will be played on July 30, 31, August 2, 3 & 5.
The 20 players are:- Anthony Bramble, Trevon Griffith, Harrell Greene, Jeetendra Sookdeo, Alex Amsterdam, Seon Hetmyer, Royston Alkins, Jonathan Foo, Andre Stoll, , Keon Joseph, Amir Khan, Seon Daniels, Ronsford Beaton, Totaram Bishun, Ryan Rajmangal, Keyron Fraser, Rajendra Naikbarran, Sahadeo Somai, Dexter Solomon, Anthony Adams.