Poor performances, administrative power struggles

Jan 03, 2010 Sports

---

…make 2009 a dismal year for Guyana’s cricket

By Sean Devers
Standards continued to fall both on and off the field in 2009 and although Narsingh Deonarine became the first batsman to score 1,000 runs in a regional First-Cass season, Guyana finished at the bottom of the points table. Their 33 points from 12 matches was 27 less than CCC, their nearest rival.
The left-handed Deonarine, who gained a Test recall towards the end of the year, was again Guyana’s leading run scorer in the rain hit regional One-Day tournament in Guyana as the host lost to a far better prepared Trinidad and Tobago in the final as Guyana failed to win any level of regional cricket for the year.
The standard of all levels of competitions locally was very low in 2009 and the insistence of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) to re-introduce Essequibo to the senior 4-day level and omit the Rest team from the limited overs competition demonstrated a lack of vision.
While the commitment and dedication of several national cricketers at all levels left much to be desired, the in-fighting, insularity and power struggles by officials, (in particular the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) members) continues to contribute to the steady decline of the game and is fast driving away potential sponsors.
Guyana failed to win the 3-day or limited overs regional under-19 competitions in Jamaica and the general lackluster attitude of many of the players who don’t seem to love cricket as much as their predecessors who once dominated regional youth cricket, is a major cause for concern. While the national under-15 side was competitive in Trinidad during the Easter period they also failed to win.
While the importance of representing ones country seems lost on our youth players, the GCB has to shoulder the responsible of ensuring that our young cricketers are properly nurtured and understand the mental aspects of playing for Guyana.

While Guyana performed poorly at the regional level, a few Guyanese players stood out and the fact that the year ended with 4 Guyanese playing in the Test series in Australia should be inspiration for the young players. Royston Crandon also made his ODI debut in South Africa when the makeshift West Indies side lost all of their matches in the Champions Trophy.
Deonarine’s magnificent batting in the 4-day competition when he scored 1,068 runs from 11 matches at an average of 59.33 and his 186 from 4 matches in the regional One-Day series including a high-class century against Barbados on his home ground in Albion, led to his West Indies re-call.
The selection on the West Indies team for the home series against Bangladesh and the Champions Trophy’s tour to South Africa of Travis Dowlin, who scored 580 runs at an average of 30.52 from 11 regional first-class matches in 2009, was due to the unavailability of the senior players but the 32-year old showed plenty of mental fortitude and his Test half-century in a full strength team against Australia towards the end of the year, emphasized his determination and was well deserved.
Deonarine’s classy 82 in the final Test in Australia has kept his International career alive and both he and Dowlin, who proves that hard work usually pays off, should be on the plane returning for the Limited overs series.
Ramnaresh Sarwan again showed why he is considered by many as the best batsman in the West Indies with a Man-of-the-Series performance against England in the Caribbean with 626 runs from 5 Tests including 3 tons and an average of 104.33. However, injury and inconsistency continue to plague his career and many of his fans are getting fed-up with his roller-coaster performances.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul probably loves batting more than anything else and although he scored a century and 2 fifties in 299 runs in the home series against England at an average 59.80, his performance in the regional One-Day competition and the Test series in Australia was ordinary.
At 35, Chanderpaul is still the region’s most prolific batsman and his fans will hope that he can sort out some personal issues which seem to be affecting his batting. It is also hoped that he will make himself available to play for Guyana in Antigua in this year’s historic Day/Night First-Class game against Trinidad and Tobago.
The GCB should remind both Sarwan and Chanderpaul about the roles they play in Guyana’s cricket while it is hoped that the GCB will deal with the indiscipline and disrespect for the Manager showed by a senior player during Guyana’s opening Regional One-Day game at Enmore since this type of behavior send a wrong message to the younger players.
The selection of opener Trevon Griffith and pacer Keon Joseph to the TCL Group West Indies under-19 team for the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand has also made Guyanese proud and good performances for the regional youth side could see both Griffith and Joseph playing First-Class cricket this year. Griffith scored the most runs in the TCL West Indies U-19 while Joseph was the quickest bowler on show.
Although Guyana failed to win either the regional youth or senior Women’s competition, the Berbice pair of 17-year-old Shamaine Campbell and Tremaine Smartt gained selection on the West Indies team for the Female 20/20 World Cup in England and Campbell was one of the top performers for the regional side in the UK.
Campbell scored the only century in the regional female U-19 tournament as Guyana performed very well to lose to Jamaica in the final.
While Essequibo pacer Trevor Benn became the first Police player since 1994 to be picked in a Guyana First-Class squad, Essequibo continued to perform poorly at the Inter-county level while Demerara’s cricket seems to have hit rock bottom.
The cricket politics and smear campaign, which includes letters to the press, court injunctions and plenty of accusations at Board meetings, is destroying the cricket.
The Berbice Cricket Board is the best run of the 3 county boards in Guyana and it is hoped that they can continue to focus more on the cricket matters since they are doing a wonderful job on the ‘off-the field aspects’ of the game in Berbice.
One hopes that insularity does not spoil the excellent work being done by the Berbice Board.  A letter to the Media criticizing the national selectors for the omission of a player who kept extremely poorly in his lone 1st Class match and in the Regional One-Day tournament and averaged 4.50 with the bat in his last tournament for Guyana sends the wrong message to the player.
The introduction of a National 3-day 1st division competition is a commendable move by the GCB after the lack of such a competition by any county Board in 2008. The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) was the only area in Guyana that had 3-day first division cricket in 2008.
The indoor practice facility at the Essequibo Cricket Hostel in Anna Regina is yet to be completed while it is understood that modifications to an area at the GCB Hostel and indoor practice facility at LBI has delayed the November 2009 completion date of that project.
The elevation to first division status of the UG cricket team by the DCB and the selection of Demerara teams which apparently had very little to do with cricket has left serious question marks concerning the cricket knowledge of some executives of the DCB while the continued ‘rum shop’ behavior of a senior DCB official is further tarnishing the already bad image of the DCB
Former West Indies Captain Carl Hooper opined recently that maybe a new guard is needed to move Guyana’s cricket forward. The sad thing is that there are not too many options when the other candidates are carefully analyzed.
The hosting of Regional tournaments remains a strong point for the GCB and after successfully hosting the 2 ODIs between West Indies and England in March, Guyana hosted the Regional Women’s and the Regional One-Day competition and even though the pitches were not better prepared, the GCB must be commended for again making Guyana the best host venue for regional cricket.
National players Deon Ferrier, Vishal Singh and Derwin Christian could be among the many hoping for changes at the DCB level since their continued omission from Demerara teams only to be rightfully picked for Guyana suggest that the DCB selectors and their directors have little regard for the cricket.
The appointment of former West Indies pacer Reon King as GCB Cricket Operations Officer and Robin Singh as his assistant are moves in the right direction.
For local cricket to rise, new blood has to be injected at all levels and those who have out-lived their usefulness, removed from positions of authority.
But like on the political front in Guyana, what we have is not working but finding suitable replacements is an even bigger problem.

---

---